Mourinho discusses Roma renaissance: “If you love football, you don’t want to stop.” | OneFootball

José Mourinho went into detail about leadership, motivation and finding the necessary ingredients to deliver Roma their first European trophy.

“Well, it is my nature,” he told Sky Sports UK when asked what keeps him going through the years.

“It is the nature of somebody who wants to be in football for many years. If you are not in love with football and you achieve everything there is to achieve in football, you just quit and you enjoy your medals. And you enjoy your life outside football.”

“But if you love football, you do not want to stop. If you love football, you do not feel that you are getting older. You feel fresh, you feel young and that feeling goes until your last days.”

“So, the motivation is part of the DNA.”

“What is more, I have won in these four countries very, very early on. I did not need to be there three, four or five years to win. It was immediately. In the first or maximum second season.

“I think that is because I tried to understand the team. I studied. I tried to get the best of the differences by trying to put into practice my own ideas but at the same time respecting the local cultures and, in my case, also the local feeling and approach to the game.”

“There have been changes in terms of leadership – it is about involvement now.

“Leadership means people have to follow you. And to follow you, they have to believe in you. Normally they believe in you if they feel empathy, if they feel honesty.

“In my personal case as a leader, what that means to me, means exactly the responsibility of not letting your people down. You have to be with them and for them, all the time.

“They have to trust you.”

“At a young age, I would say I was a silent leader. But my job doesn’t let me be a silent leader which is my nature. I have to be in the public eye all the time, I have to communicate through media all the time and that makes a big difference.”

“The key to success remains the same – it’s all about the strategy. You cannot predict everything but the more prepared you are, the more you can put into the training.”

“You can reduce that unpredictability and that gives the feeling of making your choices and decisions easier. You know that football games have some risk of course, but you have to try to reduce that risk by preparing the best you can.”