Jose Mourinho has publicly addressed his infamous bust-up with former Chelsea doctor Eva Carneiro in his new Netflix docu-series. The Real Madrid boss was involved in the incident back in 2015, during his second spell in charge of the Premier League side.
Mourinho refused to apologize to Carneiro, even after 11 years of their clash, after she found his words to have been deeply offensive. He explained that he was not sexist in any way with the remarks, pointing out that such moments of tongue-lashing are normal in football and ought not to be a big deal.
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“For me, a lady doctor is the same as a man’s doctor. So, as always, I use my vocabulary when I’m not happy. There are words in moments where the tension is very, very high. Normally, people with football culture, with football DNA, with football background, they go over it in one second. In that case, it was different”, he said (via Daily Mail).
The incident took place at the start of the ill-fated 2015-16 season, with Chelsea having won the Premier League in the previous season. The Blues were up against Swansea City and had received a red card through Thibaut Courtois. Eden Hazard went down after a challenge, and team doctor Carneiro raced onto the field with physio Jon Fearn to administer treatment.
Upon seeing them go on the pitch, Mourinho was enraged, because he knew that Hazard would have to come off the pitch for a bit, leaving nine players on for his side. Carneiro claimed that he sexually discriminated against her as he launched a tirade and called her the ‘daughter of a wh*re’.
Chelsea would drop Carneiro from first-team duties after the game, and she eventually left the club a month later. She received a settlement from the club after she took them to a tribunal, citing discrimination by the manager and a subsequent dismissal.
Remembering Jose Mourinho’s second spell at Chelsea
A young, fresh-faced Jose Mourinho announced himself as a world-class manager in his first stint in charge of Chelsea, winning back-to-back Premier League titles. He eventually fell out with the club’s owner Roman Abramovich and was sacked, before the club turned to him once more in 2013.
He was handed a four-year contract to the delight of the fans, and finished third in the Premier League in his first season back, while also reaching the semi-final of the UEFA Champions League. The 2014-15 season yielded a third league title for the Portuguese tactician, and the Blues also won the EFL Cup. They lost only three times in the league, and led the pile from week 1 until week 38.
On the back of a successful season, Chelsea handed Mourinho a new four-year contract in August 2015. Things unravelled quickly, as they picked up only 11 points from their first 12 league games. Less than halfway through the season, the Blues decided to part ways with him after nine defeats in the first 16 league games.
Edited by Sulayman Salahudeen
