Mourinho Joins Wenger To Oppose Ballon D’Or

Chelsea boss, Jose Mourinho, said the Ballon d’Or prize awarded to the world’s best footballer has a negative impact on world football.

The Portuguese said he agreed with Arsenal boss, Ar­sene Wenger, that football was concentrating too much on indi­viduals instead of the team.


“He is against the Ballon d’Or and I think he’s right,” Mourinho, 52, said.

“In this moment football is losing a little bit of the concept of the team to focus more on the individual.”

Mourinho, who had won sev­en league titles in four different countries and the Champions League twice, told the Daily Telegraph that it was the group that wins, not the individual.

He said: “For me, football is collective. The individual is welcome if you want to make our group better. But you have to work for us, [it’s] not [a case that]we have to work for you.

“When the top player ar­rives, the team is already there. It’s not him who comes to dis­cover the team, like Columbus discovering America. No, no, you are coming now to help us be better.”

Mourinho also revealed his first job was as a teacher work­ing with children with Down’s syndrome and mental disabili­ties, a time when he discovered the importance of establishing relationships.

“I wasn’t technically ready to help these kids,” he said. “And I had success only because of one thing, the emotional rela­tion that was established with them.

“I did little miracles only because of the relationship- af­fection, touch, empathy; only because of that.”

Now he used that experience when coaching some of the world’s best players.

He said: “Of course you need the knowledge, the capacity to analyse things. But the centre of everything is the relationship, and empathy, not only with the individual but in the team.”