In a recent interview with Bild, Wolfsburg forward Andre Schurrle stated Jose Mourinho’s demanding personality was one of the major reasons behind his departure from Chelsea. Signed by Mourinho in 2015, Schurrle appeared 30 times in the Premier League during his first season before falling out of favour.
He said, “Chelsea was a dream for me. But after I was out for a few weeks through an infection, the coach, unfortunately, did not count on me much more often. Mourinho showed me how hard life can be as a footballer. If you had one bad game, you would be out of the team.”
He hasn’t been the only victim of the Portuguese’ strange managing style. We look at 3 players whose careers were almost sabotaged by Jose Mourinho.
Iker Casillas
The Spaniard was an absolute legend for both Real Madrid and the national team. He had won everything for the club and the country and was surely looking at a proud retirement from one of the biggest club in the planet.
In February 2009, Casillas even equalled Paco Buyo’s record of 454 matches played for a goalkeeper and has since surpassed it to become Real Madrid’s most-capped goalkeeper of all time at only 27 years.
During the 2011–12 season, Casillas won the IFFHS Best Goalkeeper award, making him only the second goalkeeper to win it behind Gianluigi Buffon four times and the only goalkeeper to win the award four times in a row.
On 22 December 2012, Casillas was dropped by José Mourinho for a La Liga match against Málaga in favour of Antonio Adan. This was the beginning of a series of sour disagreements between the Portuguese coach and the player, some of which, along with other internal affairs.
In January 2013, after a serious injury to Casillas, Mourinho signed Diego López from Sevilla. Casillas never really got back into the first team and he finally moved to Porto in 2015.
Lassana Diarra
The French midfielder completed his move from Portsmouth to Real Madrid in January 2009 for a fee in the region of £18.8 million and became a household name soon. He had a good start to the season, earning the respect and admiration of Real fans, but then Jose Mourinho stepped in as the new manager in 2010 and Lassana Diarra fell down the pecking order. With the arrival of Sami Khedira, Diarra lost his place as a regular at the Santiago Bernabeu.
Although Mourinho said he would not be leaving and said that he saw Diarra as a starter, the speculations had started of him leaving Bernabeu and his first tea actions got limited. Diarra had a decent 2011–12 season as he won the La Liga title with the club, but it seems he was forced out of the club to accommodate the stay of Kaká. He has changed three clubs since- Anzhi Makhachkala, Lokomotiv Moscow, and Marseille.
Nuri Sahin
He was a big name signing for Madrid. When he moved from Borussia Dortmund to Real Madrid in the summer of 2011, many people were expecting the Turkey international to become a superstar at the Santiago Bernabeu. He made his official debut as a substitute in a 7–1 thrashing of CA Osasuna at the Santiago Bernabéu on 6 November 2011, as he had been sidelined by injury problems since August earlier that year.
On 20 December 2011, he scored his first goal for Real Madrid as they thrashed SD Ponferradina 5–1 in the Copa del Rey. Sahin had all the talent to succeed, but Jose Mourinho never bothered to give him the time to adapt. He returned to Dortmund soon owing to the lack of first team action and injuries.
