Is there a “Mourinho” effect over the psychological performance profile of elite soccer players?

Problem statement: When a team achieves success, how much of it depends on the coach and/or of the playersprofiles. In this paper we identify the performance psychological profile of elite soccer players from Chelsea andBenfica, assessing their profiles to discover a Mourinho effect, while he is a nowadays special coach and coachedmost of these players.Approach: We applied an international and national validated questionnaire to the players and we complement theanalysis with a qualitative approach with data collected through specific interviews (29 professional players - 21from Chelsea and 8 from Benfica). Statistical procedures consider descriptive, comparative and correlationanalysis.Results: The overall sample values are: Motivation (27.55+2.097), Self-confidence (26.83+2.494), CompetitiveAttitude (26.03+2.758), Positive Thoughts (25.10+2.160), Attention (25.07+3.046), Visualization (23.55+3.429)and Negative Thoughts (22.24+2.824). Concerning the comparative analysis between the players that were trainedby Mourinho and other, we could not identify significant statistical differences; however, some of the phenomenaindexes emerge showing that Mourinho players present higher levels in self confidence, attention, motivation andweaker effect of the negative thoughts.Conclusions and recommendations: As the success of the teams where Mourinho coached is an evidence, wesuspect that the main reasons for success should rely upon collective either than individual characteristics of theplayers. This will be the next step in our research on the coaching process.