Real Madrid return to the Santiago Bernabéu on Wednesday evening for a fixture that carries far more weight than a routine home opener: as ONE previewed the occasion, it will be José Mourinho's first match in the home dugout since he walked out of the club thirteen years ago.
The visitors are Real Sociedad, in a rescheduled Matchday 1 clash pushed back from the opening weekend because several Real Madrid players were still involved in the closing stages of this summer's World Cup. It follows Mourinho's winning start to the season away at Espanyol, where his new-old side needed a late intervention to hold on for a 2-1 win.
Mourinho, 63, was appointed Real Madrid's head coach on June 11, signing a three-year contract through June 2029 and taking over from Álvaro Arbeloa. Arbeloa, previously in charge of the club's reserve side Castilla, had only been handed the senior job in January after Real Madrid parted ways with Xabi Alonso following a Spanish Super Cup final defeat to Barcelona.
President Florentino Pérez, freshly re-elected on a platform that included bringing Mourinho back, presented the Portuguese in a deliberately low-key ceremony in the club's boardroom rather than the usual stadium unveiling — no fans, no press pack, just Mourinho and Pérez signing the contract.
It closes a circle that opened in 2010, when Mourinho arrived from Inter Milan for a three-season spell that delivered La Liga with a record points tally in 2011-12, plus the Copa del Rey and a Spanish Super Cup. The reign ended in as much acrimony as achievement, his relationship with senior players and the Spanish press having curdled badly in his final year at the club.
His last appearance on the Bernabéu touchline, on June 1, 2013, was a 4-2 win over Osasuna in that season's final match — a farewell marked by whistles from much of a sparse crowd and defiant chants of support from a smaller knot of ultras. Seven different head coaches have occupied the Real Madrid bench since he left, including two separate spells apiece for Carlo Ancelotti and Zinedine Zidane, and the club has collected six Champions League titles in his absence.
Ahead of Wednesday's game, Mourinho used his pre-match press conference to appeal directly to supporters. "I want the Bernabéu to welcome the team with passion," he said, according to Real Madrid's official website, framing the return as an attempt to restore an edge he believes the club has lost over two trophyless seasons.
There is no shortage of romance around the fixture — Mourinho back where his most decorated club spell began, in a stadium rebuilt almost beyond recognition since he last stood pitch-side — but Real Madrid's immediate task is more prosaic: turning an unconvincing opening win over Espanyol into three points at home, and the start of an actual title challenge after two barren years.
