MOU IS BACK!
At 63, José Mourinho took off running along the touchline.
87th minute. Barcelona 1, Real Madrid 1. Bellingham conjured up a play, Camavinga entered the box and sent in a cross. Mbappé tapped it into the goal and the Camp Nou fell silent.
Then came what nobody expected, and what everyone recognized instantly. Mourinho took off, sprinting several meters, and threw himself onto his knees on the grass. Sliding. Tongue out.
Madrid arrived with doubts. Some had already written them off. Facing them was a Barcelona side that hadn’t lost all season in La Liga. And a coach who had returned to the white team’s bench more than ten years after leaving.
Suddenly, time stood still. It was the same man. The same gesture. The same knee planted in the grass as always, as if the years had fallen away along the touchline.
It’s the ninth time Mourinho has beaten Barcelona. With Chelsea, Inter and Real Madrid.
Afterward, in the press room, he didn’t get carried away. He said Madrid doesn’t play to win at the Camp Nou, but to win the championship. He praised Lunin. He said Valverde had played injured for more than 40 minutes.
But the image was already made. And no press conference can erase it.
Some men grow old; others wait for their moment. Mou never left. He was just waiting for his knee to hit the turf.