Jose Mourinho has hailed mentor Sir Bobby Robson as a 'beautiful human being' who the Roma boss felt 'very privileged' to work alongside.
Mourinho already knew a lot about Sir Bobby's achievements in the game with Ipswich, England and PSV when the Portuguese first started working as his translator at Sporting Lisbon in 1992. However, Sir Bobby went on to teach his protégée so much about football, life and the spirit of the North East.
So much so, Mourinho considers himself a 'little Magpie' to this day because, through Sir Bobby, the 59-year-old always felt a connection to Newcastle United after the Geordie told the Portuguese all about his pilgrimage from Langley Park to St James' Park as a young boy. Mourinho has never forgotten those stories or, indeed, how Sir Bobby opened doors for him as his assistant at Porto and Barcelona before he went it alone and became one of the most decorated managers in history.
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"I think the most important thing I took from him is the person that he was," Mourinho told the SoccerBible podcast. "I think much more about who he was as a person than who he was as a coach.
"I take much more from that beautiful human being that one day we lost a match and I wasn’t happy at all and he was telling me, ‘If you think of the happiness in the opposite dressing room, you are not so sad.’ This is him.
"When you spend every day with him for two, four, six years, you get a lot from that gentleman. He had something that belongs to the big ones, which is being humble, natural, making people enjoy to be with you and not being scared of what you represent or who you are.
"That was a beautiful thing with him. He was such an amazing person. Of course, his career speaks for itself. I don't need to say what he did, what he achieved, but, as a person, I felt very privileged."
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