Catalan journalist Xavi Torres revealed that José Mourinho was strongly backed within Barcelona’s board to coach the first team in 2008, and that the Portuguese manager clearly led an internal vote, while Pep Guardiola received no votes. Nevertheless, club president Joan Laporta decided in favour of Guardiola on the recommendation of Johan Cruyff and sporting director Txiki Begiristain.
Torres gave his account during a special episode about Mourinho broadcast by RAC 1 on 23 September, alongside journalists Joan Buch and José María Lázaro. The programme examined the background to Barcelona’s search for a manager to succeed Dutchman Frank Rijkaard, and the contacts that preceded Guardiola’s appointment.
Barcelona considers Rijkaard’s successor from three candidates
Barcelona was preparing in spring 2008 to bring Rijkaard’s era to an end after two seasons without a major trophy, and the board began considering candidates to lead a new phase. The shortlist included Mourinho, then Villarreal manager Manuel Pellegrini, and Guardiola, who was in charge of the reserve team and had never coached a top-flight side.
According to Torres, Barcelona’s interest in Mourinho went beyond including his name on the shortlist. Marc Ingla, then the club’s vice-president, held a meeting with the Portuguese manager in Galicia to hear his plans, and then relayed details of Mourinho’s proposal to members of the Catalan club’s board.
Torres said Mourinho achieved what was described as an overwhelming victory in the board’s vote on the candidates, while Pellegrini received 3 votes and Guardiola none. But the initial vote did not become the final decision on who would succeed Rijkaard. According to the account, Laporta ended the discussion by choosing Guardiola, despite his lack of support in the earlier vote.
Laporta overrules the vote and chooses Guardiola
Barcelona’s president relied on the views of Cruyff and Begiristain, who recommended giving the job to the reserve-team manager. Torres quoted Laporta as saying, in clear terms, that the club would choose Guardiola because Cruyff and Begiristain had nominated him for the post. Mourinho was not merely a candidate interviewed by Barcelona’s board: Torres said the Portuguese manager was extremely keen to return to the club.
Mourinho had previously worked at Barcelona during the 1990s, when he was part of the coaching staff under English manager Bobby Robson and then Dutchman Louis van Gaal. Torres added that Mourinho had personally asked him to intervene and speak to people who could influence the decision at Barcelona, because he wanted the job and believed the timing was right for his return to the club.
The Catalan journalist had known Mourinho since his earlier spell at Barcelona, meaning his account was based on personal contacts with the manager rather than simply following the negotiations from outside. Torres also discussed how Barcelona might have looked had Mourinho taken charge.
Torres’s vision of Mourinho’s style at Barcelona
He believed appointing the Portuguese would not necessarily have meant abandoning the style linked to the club’s identity, because Mourinho’s previous years at Barcelona had given him an understanding of its philosophy and the type of football its supporters expected. He said Mourinho’s team would probably have been stronger and more intense, but believed the manager would have played “good football”, having learned during his time at the club how Barcelona wanted to play.
This view contrasts with the sharp footballing divide that later emerged between Mourinho and Guardiola. Barcelona ultimately chose Guardiola, who was 37 and had never worked as a top-flight manager.
Guardiola begins an era that yielded 14 trophies
Over 4 seasons, he became one of the club’s most successful managers and led the team through an era in which it won 14 trophies, having begun the job despite receiving no votes in the initial board vote described by Torres. Mourinho, meanwhile, took charge of Inter Milan and led them in 2010 to a treble of the Italian league, cup and Champions League, before moving to Real Madrid that same year.
There, the former Barcelona managerial candidate became one of the club’s leading rivals and faced Guardiola directly during a period marked by fierce competition between Real Madrid and the Catalan side. Torres’s account places that rivalry in a different context: according to his version, just two years before joining Real Madrid, Mourinho had enjoyed the strongest backing within Barcelona’s board.
But the final word belonged to Laporta and his faith in Cruyff and Begiristain’s recommendation, not the vote’s result. The decision launched Guardiola’s era and set the stage for one of football’s most famous managerial rivalries.
