Jose Mourinho’s World Cup Message to Real Madrid Players Makes Intentions Clear

The 63-year-old is back at the Bernabéu and has a big summer ahead of him.

José Mourinho won’t be cheering on his players at the World Cup. | Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/Getty Images

New Real Madrid manager José Mourinho has joked that he wants all his players to lose at the 2026 World Cup so that they come home for pre-season club duties earlier.

The 63-year-old returns to the Madrid dugout after 13 years away, having been appointed to succeed Álvaro Arbeloa earlier this month.

Mourinho’s remit is clear. The veteran Portuguese manager must get Madrid firing again after two bitterly disappointing seasons without a major trophy. In order to do that, he will oversee a roster revamp while attempting to get a handle on the locker room drama that proved so disruptive last season.

The job is not a small one, but it appears as though Mourinho is keen to get stuck into it—and wants to start working with his key players as soon as possible.

Speaking to Adebayo Akinfenwa on the Beast Mode On podcast, Mourinho gave a candid answer to a question about his personal hopes for the World Cup.

"You want the truth? I want the Real Madrid players to lose and go on vacation. Because I want the lads back for preseason," he said, with a wry smile.

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When Does Real Madrid’s Pre-Season Begin?

Players at the World Cup will get an extended break this summer. | Karl-Josef HILDENBRAND / AFP via Getty Images

Mourinho is scheduled to join the team at Valdebebas on July 13 to begin Real Madrid’s pre-season. That is six days before the World Cup final on July 19.

Madrid has 13 first-team players competing at the tournament—a number that should increase with the expected signing of Netherlands’s Denzel Dumfries. Only Arda Güler (Türkiye) is set for a group-stage exit, while many players including Kylian Mbappé, Vinícius Jr and Jude Bellingham have designs on going all the way.

Those who go deep into the tournament will naturally be given extra time off to rest before re-joining their Madrid teammates, resulting in a truncated pre-season campaign—something, from a selfish perspective, Mourinho would be keen to avoid.

Real Madrid are yet to announce any details of the pre-season schedule or a tour. The new La Liga season will, however, get underway on the weekend of August 15—with fixtures set to be announced at the end of June.

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Mourinho Denies Coming Storm

José Mourinho says he wants peace not war. | Gualter Fatia/Getty Images

Meanwhile, Mourinho has also denied suggestions he will come in and pick fights with Madrid’s biggest stars, instead insisting he wants to help the club’s top players to stay and improve.

He said: “I read a few things where people were saying: ‘José Mourinho is coming here and he’s going to cut some of the top players that supposedly they had some problems during the season’. No.

“I want these players! I want the best players. Now I have to find a way to have a team and not to have problems like, eventually, I don’t know, I’m just reading, that they had in previous seasons. But the best players are the players that you want.

“If you have problems with not very good players, that is a big problem. The big players are the big players.”

Mourinho’s first spell at Madrid from 2010–2013 ended in acrimony, amid reports of rifts between the manager and several of the club’s biggest names including Iker Casillas and even Cristiano Ronaldo.

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