Laporta ruled out Mourinho's signing for Barcelona!

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La Liga

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Barcelona Getafe

10/10/26 18:30:00

1.05 13.00 34.00

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José Mourinho was the most voted candidate by the board of the Barcelona transfer market in the process to replace Frank Rijkaard in 2008, as revealed by journalist Xavi Torres on RAC1. However, Joan Laporta finally ruled out the Portuguese and chose Pep Guardiola after listening to Johan Cruyff and Txiki Begiristain.

José Mourinho won the first vote at Barcelona

Torres explained that Barcelona even traveled to Galicia to meet with Mourinho during the search for a new coach. In that meeting, Marc Ingla participated, and although planned, Txiki Begiristain could not attend after missing a flight in Madrid.

The next step was to present the different candidacies to the board. According to Torres' account, Mourinho was the coach who received the most support, while Manuel Pellegrini got three votes and Guardiola did not get any in that initial vote.

The contacts between Barcelona and Mourinho have been documented since that time. The club acknowledged in June 2008 a meeting between Ingla, Begiristain, and the Portuguese coach, although they maintained that Guardiola was their top choice for the bench.

Mourinho, on the other hand, had a different version of the meeting. The coach claimed that it was Ingla and Begiristain who requested the meeting in Lisbon after Mourinho had just taken over as Inter's coach.

👀 This was how Laporta vetoed Mourinho's signing by Barça

✍️ @didacpeyret https://t.co/2L0DDDdbem

— Diario SPORT (@sport) September 28, 2026

Joan Laporta chose Guardiola after consulting Cruyff

The internal vote did not end up being decisive. According to Torres, Joan Laporta made the final decision after hearing from Johan Cruyff and Txiki Begiristain, who supported Guardiola's candidacy to start a new era at Camp Nou.

The choice was confirmed on May 5, 2008, when Barcelona announced that Guardiola would replace Rijkaard. The former reserve team coach took over the first team after his time with Barça B, without having received votes in that initial board vote, as recounted by Torres.

Begiristain's influence also appeared in the reports published at the time. El País pointed out that the technical secretary had backed Guardiola and that his understanding of the club's model had weight in the selection process.

José Mourinho also wanted to coach Barcelona

Torres also suggests that Mourinho had a personal interest in taking on the role and even sought help to facilitate his arrival at Barcelona. The coach was familiar with the club from his time as an assistant to Bobby Robson and Louis van Gaal between 1996 and 2000.

The reconstruction of the process also reveals that Mourinho's project was not unfamiliar to the sports management. In 2010, Mundo Deportivo reported that in 2008 he submitted a 27-page document detailing his methodology, squad analysis, work system, and staff proposal.

The scenario that ultimately did not materialize would have been different from Guardiola's. Torres believes that Mourinho would have maintained elements of Barcelona's football culture, albeit with a different interpretation on the field. This assessment belongs to the journalist and does not represent an executed decision.

The next point of interest now lies in how that internal vote influenced the outcome: José Mourinho was the most supported option within the board according to Torres' account, but Joan Laporta ended up choosing Guardiola, a decision that was finalized in May 2008. Almost 20 years later, the Portuguese coach faces his second spell at Barcelona's eternal rival, Real Madrid.

This news is an automatic translation. You can read the original news, ¡Laporta descartó el fichaje de Mourinho por el Barcelona!