The time Mourinho was a coach at the age of nine, despite being a ball boy

José Mourinho was born to coach. With his particular way of understanding football and with the spectacle that always precedes him, 'The Special One' talked with Audi and remembered one of those anecdotes that he will never forget. When he was just a child.

Mourinho is the coach who has moulded the career of many footballers, but... who is the coach that moulded him? He made it very clear: his father. His career as a player also had an influence, but from a very young age he was faced with those tactical questions that he is now so passionate about.

"He became a coach when I was nine, ten or eleven years old. I was already there with him then. I had access to things that normal people can't have. I was a ball boy, but before the game and at half-time I was in the dressing room," he recalled.

"I listened to what the coach - my father - wanted. I was a ball boy, but I wasn't just there to give out balls. He was also there to remind the players of what the coach had told them. If he told them to close a gap, I would say, 'Hey, why don't you close up? Of course, he wasn't the best coach in the world, but he was the best father in the world," Mou said.