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Men want to be him, women want to bed him – it’s little wonder Jose Mourinho is known as The Special One.

He speaks five languages, has won seven titles and is repeatedly named in polls of the World’s Sexiest Men. He even manages to look good in a tracksuit.

Despite this, the 51-year-old Chelsea manager remains genuinely oblivious to his sullen, smouldering charms, and utterly devoted to his wife of 25 years, Matilde Faria. More’s the pity.

“My wife trusts me, my wife knows me,” he says. “She has been with me since I was 17 and she was 15 – everything is so crystal clear for us.

“My social life doesn’t exist. I have my professional work and I have my family life. I am not the kind of guy with a social life and I am so happy the way I am.

“The secret in everything is love. If you are successful in football, it is because you love football.

“If you are successful in any job, I believe it is because you are in love with that job and if you have a successful family it is because people are in love with each other. Love is the basic.”

(Image: PacificCoastNews)

For a man with such a busy career, father-of-two Jose puts a lot of effort into his personal life. He says he’s a romantic at heart and recently got his wife’s nickname (Tami) tattooed on his wrist as a surprise for her birthday.

“I’m romantic in the sense that the people I love, they have to know that I love them, and they do know it, and they feel it,” he explains. “My wife did a tattoo and challenged me to do it. I didn’t at first because I always felt, ‘Urrrgh it hurts’ and ‘I don’t have to do this to my skin’, and so on and so on.

“But it was her birthday and I thought it would be a good gift to her. So I had my wife and my kids’ names on my wrist and it was not as painful as I thought. It was easy.

He goes on: “For me, the perfect weekend is when I am at home with my family. This is rare and not normal so I like it. So perhaps watch my son play football and then have dinner in a restaurant.

“My son and daughter are now of ages where they have their own lives. I cannot make a decision like five or six years ago, for example, leave here today, now, get on a plane, and just go to Sardinia or the south of Portugal.”

Jose’s confidence in his own success often sees him labelled the most arrogant coach in football. That does not bother him unless the person calling him arrogant is a personal acquaintance. Then he gets very upset.

(Image: Rex)

“If people say I am an arrogant football manager, maybe they are not so wrong,” he muses. “These people don’t know me personally – they are not my friends, they are not my family.

"But if some family or some friends say I am arrogant, then I am upset. Because I am not an arrogant friend, I’m not an arrogant family member. I am soft.”

As we speak Chelsea have a rare weekend off, which means Jose can watch his talented 15-year-old son (Jose Mario Mourinho Jnr, obviously) play football for his own club, Fulham.

“I never get to see him play and this weekend I can, so I will.”

He may be one of the best coaches ever but the ex-Real Madrid manager is no pushy soccer dad.

“Never!” he says with a smile. “I am the quietest father of the group. I go there, I am put in my corner, and I make no comments, nothing. I am very calm.”

While this is an unusually open and intimate interview with the Chelsea manager, it does not get off to the greatest of starts.

(Image: Getty)

First there’s an encounter with a 6ft 6in minder who seems convinced I am hiding an AK47 in my handbag.

Once reassured that I am in fact carrying little more than a notebook, dictaphone plus mascara and lipstick – well, it is Jose Mourinho – I am allowed to await my audience.

Jose and I are introduced and led to a changing room. He promptly sits down beside a spilling kit bag and a shin pad and I awkwardly shuffle in alongside. He is playing with his phone. I wait politely. No one speaks. The tension is palpable.

With Jose still tapping away on his phone, looking like he would rather be undergoing some root canal work than chatting to me, I start talking to the crown of his trademark silver hair.

My first three questions are met with monosyllabic grunts although, to be fair, this sounds pretty hot in his Mediterranean accent. I find myself talking to him in foreigner-abroad-pigdgin-English as if he’s a simpleton. Not surprisingly, this fails to open the floodgates.

Flailing and desperate, I hear myself ask what his favourite food is. “Meat”. Does he cook? “No”. Does his wife cook? “Yes.” So far, so non-Pulitzer winning.

But like his teams, Jose finally begins to warm up and he becomes charming and wry. I could weep with relief.

We start bonding over our mutual hatred of selfies, the new autograph.

(Image: PA)

I ask if it bothers him when fans approach for photos. I’m expecting a media-managed “no”. Instead, he nods feverishly and mutters, ‘Yes, yes.’

“To kids, I always say yes but to other people it depends on the situation,” he adds. “When I’m on my own, OK, I understand, normally people are nice. But if you are in a restaurant, having lunch, and people stop you... not nice.

“Or if you trying to buy a pair of trousers or a shirt and people interrupt... people should just respect the moment but I know it’s part of the job. If I say I like it, I would lie. But it’s part of my job and you have to respect the job.”

The self-proclaimed Special One is here in his capacity as Yahoo’s global ambassador. He has just finished judging the brand’s #Special1s competition, finding 10 of the planet’s most skilful youngsters (including two Brits – Vlad Taraskin, 17, and Daniel Adjei, 21)- and giving them a 90-minute training session.

Jose may talk the talk now, but as a player he never really walked the walk, playing defence for second-division Portuguese clubs before retiring.

(Image: onEdition)

After studying sport science and teaching PE he became youth team coach at Vitória de Setúbal then got his big chance as translator then assistant to Bobby Robson at Sporting Lisbon, Porto then Barcelona.

He was also assistant to current Premier League rival Louis Van Gall at Barca, then managed Benfica, União de Leiria and Porto before moving to Chelsea in 2004.

In four years he won two Premier League titles and the support of both players and fans. After title-winning stints in Italy and Spain the prodigal returned to Stamford Bridge last year.

Unflappable Jose insists that Tami is no football widow.

He does, though, admit to finding match days gruelling – “I stand for 90 minutes, I walk, I scream, I speak, I analyse.”

To unwind, he watches back-to-back box sets. He recently completed the latest series of 24. And, much like the show’s hero Jack Bauer, Jose is cool, calm and collected under pressure.

Just don’t call him arrogant...

Jose Mourinho is Yahoo’s Global Football Ambassador, go to www.uk.yahoo.com/sport to read all his expert opinions.