Interviewing José Mourinho: ego, charisma, talent and his ‘rucksack of pain’

Director Joe Pearlman says he expected Real Madrid manager to ‘try to manipulate us’ in making of Netflix seriesEven in the hyperreal world of football, there are few characters more compelling, more polarising, or more everything than José Mourinho, the best and worst of public him on full display in a new three-part Netflix series. “It reminded me how good he was,” says Joe Pearlman, who directed Mourinho, and the actual Mourinho is, believe it or not, keen to communicate the same. As he puts it in the show: “I look, you look, I see more than you.”Making documentaries, though, is often about taking people to the places they’re most skilled at avoiding.

“I knew the interviews were going to be very intense,” says Pearlman, “and he was going to try and control the narrative and manipulate us. Everything bad is everyone else’s fault and everything he’s done is validated by winning. Because that’s all that’s important.” Continue reading...