Once "The Special One" - The deep fall of the star coach: Racism allegations against Mourinho

The “Special One” - that was once upon a time. With the dazzling and successful career of star coach José Mourinho, things are also going downhill in Turkey.

After the Istanbul derby between champions Galatasaray and Mourinho's new club Fenerbahce (0:0), the opponent announced on Monday evening that they would report the 62-year-old Portuguese to the world association FIFA and the European football union UEFA for racism. Mourinho had accused the opponent's coaches and substitutes of jumping around on the sidelines "like monkeys" after a controversial scene.

What almost went unnoticed alongside this serious accusation, which was immediately rejected by Fenerbahce's club management, was that Galatasaray's head coach Okan Buruk mocked Mourinho at the post-match press conference as "The Crying One": "He cries on the pitch. He cries outside. And as if that wasn't enough, he goes into the referee's dressing room and cries there too. Let him keep crying..."

The serious allegations against Mourinho and the way the two biggest Turkish clubs treat each other suggest that this escalation on Monday evening has a long history.

Galatasaray has won the Turkish championship five times in the last ten years. Fenerbahce's last Süper Lig title, on the other hand, was eleven years ago. In order to finally break the dominance of their big rivals, the club from the Asian part of Istanbul hired the highly decorated Mourinho before this season - a Champions League winner with FC Porto and Inter Milan and national champion with FC Chelsea, Inter and Real Madrid.

But in terms of sport, things are not going as planned. Gala is still six points ahead of Fener in the table. So Mourinho has been doing for months what has been increasingly annoying many in England and Italy in recent years: He is shifting the debate from the pitch to the media - with constant criticism of the referees. With accusations of favoritism towards Galatasaray. With controversial scenes from the rivals' games, which he then shares on social media.

One consequence of this is that the Istanbul derby in Galatasaray's stadium was this time officiated by a top referee from abroad. And when Mourinho praised the experienced World Cup, European Championship and Champions League referee Slavko Vincic from Slovenia afterwards, the controversial monkey quote was also used.

"After the dive in the first minute and their bench jumping around like monkeys: with a Turkish referee you would have had a yellow card after one minute and after five minutes" he would have had to substitute one of his players, said Mourinho, imitating the rowing arm movements with which his colleague Okan Buruk had protested on the sidelines in the scene in question.

The Galatasaray club management responded to this the same evening. "Since the beginning of his work in Turkey , Fenerbahçe coach José Mourinho has repeatedly made derogatory statements towards the Turkish people," the club's statement said. "Today, his discourse has developed beyond mere immoral comments to clearly inhumane rhetoric." These are “racist statements”. Therefore, the “official complaints to UEFA and FIFA”.

But regardless of the outcome of this case, it is also clear that it is less and less the football coach Mourinho who is causing a stir. Rather, it is the provocateur, "the most gifted populist in world football," as the "Spiegel" magazine calls him.

Tactically, the most successful coach of the 2000s has long since lost touch with old rivals such as Pep Guardiola (Manchester City), Carlo Ancelotti (Real Madrid) or Simone Inzaghi (Inter Milan). Mourinho, the people's tribune, plays with the emotions of the masses, and Mourinho, the coach, only lets them play destructive football: that has been the pattern of the past few years. A Europa League victory with Manchester United (2017), the Conference League success with AS Roma (2022): that's all that has come out of it recently.

In Rome, Mourinho was sacked a year ago when he was ninth in the league table. This was such a relief for his team that they went on to win 12 of the next 17 games. "The Special One", as he was when he was introduced to Chelsea in 2004, is not even what Mourinho calls himself anymore.