It is 20 years since Jose Mourinho announced his arrival on the world stage by sprinting down the Old Trafford touchline after beating Man Utd in the Champions League.
Benni McCarthy might be on the Manchester United coaching staff now, but he was also the chief protagonist of one of the most memorable Old Trafford moments in the last two decades.
Ferguson said Mourinho was "full of it" that night, calling the Scot "big man" and "boss", but the Porto boss fired a shot across the bows post-match with the kind of searing put down he would trademark over the years to come. "We get this free-kick and because it’s in the 90th minute, this is the last one we’re gonna get in the game, ‘give me a go’ and he’s like ‘nah, nah, Benny, you know me, this one is in my range’. I said ‘nah mate, it’s a little bit further out for you this, that’s me, please, give me this one and you’ll get the next one’. He goes, ‘no, give me this one and you’ll get the next one’.
"Then he gets up and grabs me and he says ‘great free-kick, I knew you would score. Now, defend, you tell everybody we get it, we pump it up the stadium and we just protect’. He kept slapping me and I was thinking ‘it hurts’." "You could tell that had something extra – he was different. He had an extraordinary ability to communicate, combining professionalism with a calmness that filtered down to all his staff. It is impossible to win without friends, and Mourinho had plenty at the club – he protected his boys from everything, hence his desperation to celebrate with them on nights like this! I remember it like it was yesterday.
“The coach said ‘I told you they’re gonna be no match you for us. Ferguson hates us now, he never even shook my hand, he said I’m disrespectful because of my celebration," he said. "It was something in our Portuguese culture we’re not used to, but it was something I kept and during my career I did it a few times when some opponent does something magnificent against my team. It was something from big people that can make others feel special."
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