Mourinho named FIFA World Coach of the Year

Posted on January 11, 2011 by SoccerPunter

Jose Mourinho was named world coach of the year on Monday for securing the treble of Champions League, Serie A title and Italian Cup with Inter Milan last season.

The 47-year-old Portuguese – known as the ‘Special One’ – edged out Spain’s World Cup winning coach Vicente Del Bosque and Barcelona‘s Pep Guardiola, who he is now crossing swords with as Real Madrid boss.

In landing the Champions League with Inter – when they beat Bayern Munich in the final last season – he became only the third coach to win European club football’s most prestigious trophy with two different clubs having first landed it with Porto in 2004.

The others were Ernst Happel, with Feyenoord in 1970 and Hamburg in 1983, and Ottmar Hitzfeld, who guided Borussia Dortmund to the 1997 trophy and then Bayern Munich in 2001.

Mourinho, never one to hide his high opinion of himself had in typically punchy fashion insisted last month that he and not Del Bosque was truly deserving of the honour.

“Me, I’ve made my choice. 11 months work, 57 matches played, three titles including the most important of all, ‘THE’ tournament, the Champions League. I have won everything, I could not do any more than that, equally so for the players.”