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Jose Mourinho: I dont pray to God about football
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Chelsea manager José Mourinho has spoken out about his deep Christian faith, he however admitted he never prays to God about football.
The 52-year-old Portuguese former football player, who is regarded as one of the greatest managers of all time, said he is a truly religious
man.
"I believe totally, clearly," he told the Telegraph. "Every day I pray, every day I speak with Him. I don't go to the church every day, not even every week. I go when I feel I need to. And when I'm in Portugal, I always go."
He said he prays for his family, children, wife, parents, for happiness and a good family life. "But I can say the reality is I never go to the church to speak with Him about football. Never!"
He and his wife Tami support a Catholic food programme in Setúbal, Portugal but for genuine reasons of charity, not to be seen as do gooders. "We have a principle that we do it not for people to know, or to promote our profile. We do it because we can, and we want our son and daughter to understand how privileged we are, and to understand that other people need support," he said.
Mourinho's first job was teaching children with Down's syndrome and with mental disabilities. From there he went on to coaching 16-year-olds.
"Now I coach the best players in the world, and the most important thing is not that you are prepared from the technical point of view; the most important thing is the relationship you establish with the person. Of course you need the knowledge, the capacity to analyse things. But the centre of everything is the relationship, and empathy, not only with the individual but in the team. And to have that empathy in the team we all must give up something," he said.
"It's not about establishing the perfect relation between me and you; it's about establishing the perfect relation to the group, because the group wins things; it's not the individual who wins things."