”The Special One” congratulated his former Real Madrid students on their victory in the Euro 2024 final on his Facebook page. “Congratulations to them and the coach who helped them debut when these players were still in the academy,” Mourinho remarked, addressing the two players who the Portuguese coach brought into Real Madrid’s first team: Nacho and Morata.

“Carvajal, who must go to Bayer Leverkusen, is obviously not included in our count. Mourinho apologised for that, speaking for himself. “Clearly that coach doesn’t understand anything about Carvajal.”

Mourinho intended to bring up the 2012–13 campaign, in which the “Special One” chose to part with Real Madrid’s youthful defence for five million euros to Bayer Leverkusen.

The Portuguese strategist did not think much of the 1992-born right-back at the moment. But in the Carvajal case, Real Madrid’s board of directors added a buyback clause, and the defender returned to the Bernabeu stadium a year later.

The rest is history, as Carvajal went on to become one of “Los Blancos”‘ most effective defenders.

Carvajal (together with Nacho) accomplished a unique feat this year by winning the European championship for both the national team and the club in the same summer, along with Spain. Jorginho, Ronaldo, Pepe, and Carvajal were the only other talents to accomplish this before Nacho and Carvajal.