José Mourinho Begins Second Spell at Real Madrid
José Mourinho clocks in at Valdebebas again. Thirteen years after his first reign began, the Portuguese coach has officially started his second spell in charge of Real Madrid, opening pre-season on Monday morning, 13 July 2026, with the kind of clinical routine that usually precedes a storm.
The day began not on the training pitch, but in the corridors and consulting rooms of Clínica Sanitas, where the squad underwent medical examinations before any ball was kicked. Only at 17:00 did Mourinho step out for his first training session, the moment the new era moved from paperwork and planning to boots and grass.
A Skeleton Group, by Design
This was no grand reunion with the club’s full galaxy of stars. The World Cup has carved a hole through pre-season, and Madrid are feeling it.
Jude Bellingham, Kylian Mbappé, Vinícius Jr and Thibaut Courtois are among those still away on international duty or on post-tournament rest. They will return in stages, drip-feeding quality into Mourinho’s hands over the coming weeks rather than in one dramatic unveiling.
So day one belonged to a leaner, more functional group. Eduardo Camavinga, Franco Mastantuono, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Dean Huijsen were among the most notable names present, the first to work directly under Mourinho in this new chapter. For them, this is an opportunity: fewer bodies means more minutes, more instructions, more scrutiny.
To pad out the numbers, Mourinho will turn to Castilla. Youth-team players will be drafted in to keep the training rhythm sharp and the drills realistic. It is an unusual start for a club of Madrid’s scale, but an unavoidable one given the World Cup calendar. For the coach, it also offers a rare, extended look at the academy talent that usually floats on the periphery of first-team plans.
The full picture of his squad will not arrive for weeks. For now, Mourinho is working with an outline, not the finished canvas.
Turbulence Before the Return
His comeback does not happen in a vacuum. It follows a stretch of instability that sits uneasily with a club built on dominance.
Xabi Alonso’s project, once framed as a long-term bet, lasted roughly a year. Álvaro Arbeloa, promoted from youth-team duties in search of continuity and identity, managed barely six months before the club moved on again. Two ideas, two projects, both cut short. The dressing room has not been short of talent, but the silverware has not matched the names on the teamsheet.
Mourinho walks back into that tension. The brief is blunt: turn individual brilliance into collective success, and do it consistently. This is not a romantic return; it is a hard-nosed appointment from a club that has grown impatient with half-built projects.
He has not waited for pre-season to start working. Since Florentino Pérez secured re-election as club president and Mourinho’s appointment was confirmed, the coach has been shaping the project from the shadows. Monday is simply the first public step, the point where plans leave the laptop and hit the training pitch.
Reports ahead of the restart, including those from Football España, have pointed to early movement on recruitment and coaching staff. The choices around his backroom team and the profiles targeted in the market will reveal as much about this second spell as any early friendly.
Doors Open, Questions Waiting
One detail underlines the club’s current state: there is still no confirmed date for Mourinho’s formal presentation to the media, according to Mundo Deportivo. For now, the work happens behind closed doors, without the full glare of the cameras.
Transfer business sits in a similar in-between space. The market is active, but not frantic. Both the entrance and exit doors are open, with the core of the squad understood to be broadly settled. This is not a summer of revolution, at least not yet, but of selective, strategic adjustment.
The real judgements will not be made on a quiet Monday in July with a half-strength squad and a handful of academy call-ups. They will come when Bellingham, Mbappé, Vinícius Jr, Courtois and the rest of the international contingent are back at Valdebebas, when Mourinho has his full armoury and no excuses.
For now, there is only the image of a familiar figure in a familiar place, starting again. The last time José Mourinho arrived at Real Madrid, he came to break a Barcelona hegemony and reshape a dressing room. This time, the task is different but just as stark: restore order to a club that has forgotten what a stable project looks like.
The work has started. The question is whether this second act ends in the sustained power Madrid crave, or becomes just another short-lived chapter in a restless era.
