India, Oct. 31 -- It was more than 20 years ago that the world was introduced to "the special one", an intense, oddball football manager whose charisma managed to easily overshadow even the star players on his teams.

In 2004, Jose Mourinho was the perfect choice for Roman Abramovich's Chelsea experiment. This was a time when the idea of a rakish billionaire taking over a football club was still a novelty.

Amid all the buzz, the world waited to see what Mourinho would do with this pampered team. He had, after all, already done the impossible, turning the Portuguese club FC Porto, a minnow in an ocean of sharks, into European champions. In the glitzy, drowning-in-money world of Chelsea in those days, when he declared himself "the special ...