Jose Mourinho’s iconic Old Trafford touchline sprint was the climax to a bizarre psychological master plan, according to former FC Porto star Costinha.
The Special One’s stock was on the rise during the 2003/04 campaign, having led the Portuguese giants to UEFA Cup glory the previous year.
The relatively unknown manager was quickly becoming a household name across Europe and had set his sights on club football’s biggest prize.
To achieve such a feat with a Portuguese club in the era of the Premier League, La Liga and Serie A’s financial dominance, felt like a throwback to old-style European Cup days.
Mourinho’s vision to dream bigger transcended throughout the legendary Portuguese club, bringing about an incredible success few expected.
Read more on Jose Mourinhi
But the heroics didn’t come without some conflicting moments as Costinha found out only too well following a birthday night out with teammates.
“My birthday is December 1st and as I usually did, I invited all FC Porto players to my birthday, for dinner,” Costinha recalled.
“We played against Maritimo, I think it was four days before. The dinner was on Tuesday or Wednesday and our next match was on Sunday.
“Dinner ended and I said ‘right, I have childhood friends coming from Lisbon, I’m going out to have a drink with them.’
“I’m going, but I will be up front about it. I’m not going to hide it and tomorrow I’m going to train and on Sunday I’m going to play and I want to win.
“Nobody needs to come and I’m not going to invite any of you because I don’t want anyone pointing a finger at me because one of you gets caught.”
“There was no point hiding anything at FC Porto, they knew everything.
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“Whoever thought they could do stuff without the club’s knowledge was mistaken.
“The team said: ‘No Costa, it’s okay we will come with you’, so we all went out.
“We went out, everyone assumed their own responsibility. Then we played Maritimo. We drew, and at half time I remembered Mourinho’s words and the substitutions he made.
“He took out Benni [McCarthy] and Maniche and I said something weird is going to happen here. At the end of the game Mourinho said nothing.
“Two days later when I arrived for training early with Jorge Costa, I looked around and saw the club president’s car. When the president parked at the training centre it was because something was wrong.
“We’re sitting in the changing room and Jorge Costa says, ‘Mourinho is coming here to talk’. Mourinho rarely came into the training ground changing room, he used the say it was the players’ sanctuary.
“Mourinho walks in and says, ‘you’ whilst pointing at me. You are responsible for the draw against Maritimo, you took the players out on your birthday.
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“Just know if we don’t win the Portuguese league and the Champions League, it’s your fault. And I’ve already told the president I want you gone, I don’t want you here in January.
“He gave me such a lecture that I took my kit off, I didn’t want to train.”
The spat with Mourinho occurred prior to a Champions League clash with Real Madrid with Porto having already qualified for the round of 16.
Costinha was on a yellow card and at risk of missing the round of 16 first leg. He also knew that any decision not to train was risking a player uprising in support of him, something he was keen to avoid.
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“It showed the group spirit we had,” he added. “They said ‘if you don’t train, neither do we’.
“I told them they must train. I was between a rock and a hard place, I got dressed and trained.”
Mourinho continued his berating of Costinha saying: “You are going to play in Madrid and if you get a yellow card, I don’t care because you won’t be here in January.
“I don’t give a s***, your life here in Porto is over.”
Things took a bizarre change of direction during that morning’s training session leaving Costinha stunned and confused.
Later that day, a post-session confrontation in the car park ensued, that changed his relationship with Mourinho for good.
“The entire training session he was saying ‘good job Costa, that’s it Costa, as if nothing happened. I thought he was mocking me.
“After training, as I was about to leave, Mourinho pulled in front of me and blocked my car before saying ‘see you tomorrow Costa’.
“I was p***** and from then on our relationship became very formal. I didn’t speak to him the way I used to and no longer joked with him.
“I played in Madrid, received a yellow card and after the match he came and hugged me and said ‘I knew I could count on you.’
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“I was like ‘This guy is insane’.
Porto’s reward for qualifying from their Champions League group was a plum tie against Premier League champions Manchester United.
United had lifted the trophy five years earlier and were hell-bent on securing another in the final in Gelsenkirchen.
Costinha was readying himself for an exit from the club with no expectation of facing Sir Alex Ferguson’s side in the intriguing double header.
However, Mourinho had other plans up his sleeve and threw another curveball at the midfielder.
“We came back in January after the winter break and I played the first game against Rio Ave,” said Costinha.
“Mourinho comes to me and says have you seen the Champions League draw? Amazing. We play Manchester United at home first but you can’t play because you are suspended.
“We will win maybe 1-0 or 2-1 then in the second game you will be available. He then gets up and leaves.
“I sat there looking at him thinking, ‘Wasn’t I supposed to leave the club?’
Mourinho’s prediction came true as Porto claimed a 2-1 first leg victory over the Red Devils thanks to a double from McCarthy.
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The script produced its fairytale moment for Costinha who had been made to suffer ever since that night out in December 2004.
And it was fitting that he headed home a last-gasp leveller at Old Trafford to send the Portuguese side through to the quarter final at United’s expense, sparking Mourinho to sprint down the touchline to join in the celebrations.
Porto went on to win the Champions League, defeating Monaco 3-0 in the final whilst scooping a clean sweep of UEFA Super Cup, Portuguese Cup and domestic title.
In the end, no blame was attached to Costinha but on reflection, the midfielder understood why Mourinho took such a strong stance with him.
“I’m strong mentally and he knew he could say these types of things to me and the others would watch,” he said.
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“The others would think, ‘if he can do this to Costa, I don’t know what he would do to us’.
“He wanted to send a strong message and the truth is, it worked.”
