Training with Jose Mourinho

By Brian Lofrumento | 29th July 2009

Training with Jose Mourinho | read this item

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inter-milan-training When Inter Milan and AC Milan came to Boston this weekend, the Italian community and press came out in full force. Yesterday’s article was all about Inter’s pre-training visit to the famed and fashionable Newbury Street in Boston, and from there Jose Mourinho and his squad took a big yellow bus right on down to Foxborough, the home of the New England Patriots and Gillette Stadium.

As Premiership Talk photographer Faraaz Naqvi and I arrived at the stadium, there wasn’t a player in sight. Instead, the parking lot was flooded with media members’ cars (how did I know? Instead of Ronaldinho’s Toyota Camry and Jose Mourinho’s Honda Civic the lot was dominated by the Ferraris and Porsches owned by reporters such as myself).

Upon checking in, Faraaz and I mingled with our fellow reporters. At first it was the typical “nice to meet you” stuff, but the tension was broken quickly by the intricacies of the English language. This came as no surprise to me. After all, with two Italian teams in town, the Italian media was sure to be out in full force. Of course with such a melting pot of people there would be language barriers, right?

Right. As we were all waiting to be let into “the guts of the stadium” as one writer calls it, we were lucky enough to witness Gillette Stadium’s finest security guards arrive for the beginning of their shifts. The glass door leading to the inside of the stadium was right there for all to see, “EXIT ONLY” clearly labelled in font bigger than Ronaldinho’s belly. Even with that, during the 45 minutes that we had to wait to enter we had the pleasure of seeing virtually every single intelligent security guard yank on a locked door. That’s the door that’s usually open…

Upon entering the stadium and walking onto the pitch, the first and most obvious thing that grabbed my attention was the four story AC/DC stage setup behind one of the goals. Man, I’d hate to sit behind that thing. More on that later, though.

After we took our places at the edge of the field (“don’t cross the white line!”) I started to meet and greet those around me. There was a Portuguese translator for the Inter’s Brazilian contingency, a huge Inter fan from New York, and some photographers straight from Italy.

One of the funniest incidents came when the writer from New York and I started talking to an elderly member of the press standing nearby.

“Where are you from?” asked the New Yorker.

“Connecticut,” replied the elderly man in a thick Italian accent.

“Are you Italian,” I asked, hoping to start a conversation about Milan, Rome, and Florence. Instead, I learned a lesson about being Italian.

“No.”

“Haha, what do you mean no? Weren’t you born there?”

“Yes.”

“Then you’re Italian to me!” I retorted.

“No. I’ve been here 35 years.”

I guess being Italian wears off…

Onto the training, though. Inter Milan was first to take the pitch, and after going through their stretching routines I got to see my first ever Jose Mourinho drill. After dividing the team in half, Mourinho told the team in the green jerseys to use their feet as usual, but the team in the blue jerseys had to use their hands. Yes, you read it right.

It was quite outrageous seeing the likes of Ricardo Quaresma doing stepovers only for Esteban Cambiasso to bend down and pick the ball up before throwing it to Patrick Vieira. Jose Mourinho apparently has a very soft spot for rugby.

Inter Milan’s training session was largely uneventful following their game of handball, and before leaving the pitch they made sure to say thank you to the few hundred fans in attendance (these are the people that bought the $125 tickets to the game).

After Inter left the pitch, the media army was invited in to the players’ tunnel to meet and greet the players. Check back tomorrow for part three of this exclusive behind the scenes series.