Former FC Porto star Benni McCarthy has revealed that he would have done anything for Jose Mourinho after he was won over during his first few days with the Portuguese giants.
Porto signed the striker on a loan deal from Celta Vigo in 2002, but the club sacked then coach Octavio Machado, who pushed to sign the former South Africa international.
McCarthy admits that he was concerned about his decision to join Porto after the coach was sacked, but stressed that Mourinho came in and made sure that he had no doubts that he would get his chances under the new Porto boss.
The former striker revealed that the new Porto coach had an emotional conversation with him and following that McCarthy admits that he was prepared to do anything for him.
He insisted that no coach had spoken to him in the way Mourinho did and it highlighted what a good man-manager the current Tottenham manager can be.
McCarthy told The Athletic: “I arrived at Porto in 2001 in a bad state. I scored on my debut and we won, but then the manager was sacked.
“I couldn’t believe that the man who took me there got fired.
“This young guy replaced him and said: ‘Benni, I know of you and I have watched you. I think you are a fantastic player and I want you to be my guy’.
“Then Jose Mourinho proceeded to tell me all about me.
"He knew everything; he’d watched my games at Celta.
"How did he have this information? Jose told me that I could always speak to him, even if it was to get something off my chest.
“I started crying, really. I thought ‘Wow!’ This had not happened to me in Europe.
"He was treating me like a son and I thought, ‘I cannot disappoint this guy, he has given me the lifeline that I want’.
“I wanted to run through a brick wall for him.”
McCarthy was part of the Porto side that went on to win the Champions League under Mourinho in 2004.
