Football: ‘My achievement is unbelievable’

MADRID: Jose Mourinho qualified his achievement in winning the English, Spanish and Italian league titles as being unbelievable. The coach had taken Real Madrid to their 32nd league title and ended the run of three successive league crowns for bitter rivals Barcelona. However, while that made him only the fourth coach to have won four different league titles – he had also taken Porto to the Portuguese crown – along with Austria’s Ernst Happel, the late Croat Tomislav Ivic and Italian veteran Giovanni Trapattoni, he was more content to take the plaudits for winning the big three. “No coach has ever succeeded in winning the big three titles,” he told Spanish daily ABC. “It was my ambition to do so. It’s an unbelievable achievement both professionally and on a personal level.”

Published in The Express Tribune, May 7^th, 2012.