Ranking every Champions League winner
By James Dudko
47. Porto: 2003/04
The win that brought Jose Mourinho to the attention of the rest of Europe has looked less impressive as the years have past.
Lifting Europe’s top prize with Porto is commendable, but the club had already achieved the feat in 1987. While it’s also become common for fans of Mourinho to pretend he built the 2003/04 winners from the ground up, the truth reveals a different story.
Porto hired Mourinho from Leiria in late-January 2002. He inherited a strong nucleus of talent, including goalkeeper Vitor Baia, center-backs Jorge Costa and Ricardo Carvalho and midfielders Dimitry Alenichev, Costinha and Deco.
All six would play when Mourinho’s men thrashed Monaco 3-0 in the Champions League final a little over two years later. Speaking of Monaco, the other reason this Porto side ranks so low is the competition they beat en route to the trophy.
Fans of anyone other than United will fondly remember Mourinho’s touchline sprint when Costinha scored the goal to eliminate the Red Devils at Old Trafford in the last 16. Yet this was a United team in transition as Ferguson attempted to integrate the maverick talents of a young Cristiano Ronaldo into a team still geared to feeding a slowing Ruud van Nistelrooy.
As for Porto, a 4-2 win over Lyon in the last eight was followed by a narrow 1-0 semi-final victory over Deportivo La Coruna. All the while this team earned little plaudits for the way it played, despite the success, something that would become a common theme throughout Mourinho’s career.