Jose Mourinho has denied being behind a remarkable scouting report of Barcelona’s 2006 team that targeted Lionel Messi for injury and called Ronaldinho a “constant cheater.”
Mourinho’s Chelsea side and Barcelona, then managed by Frank Rijkaard, shared a memorable Champions League tie during the 2005-06 season – which the Catalans won 3-2 on aggregate.
The extraordinary report, originally published by Performance Analysis in Action on Twitter, details the Blues’ plans to stop the side that eventually went onto win the competition after beating Arsenal in the final.
Notes from the report highlight the then-18-year-old Messi as one of his side’s biggest threats, encouraging to foul him “outside the box and as early as possible” while Ronaldinho, then the reigning Ballon d’Or, is described as “constant cheater – falls easily.”
But the former Manchester United manager has quickly dismissed suggestions he is the man behind the dossier.
"I am sorry to disappoint those I think I wrote the reports, but I did not,” Mourinho told The Sun.
"The reports are not mine. I did not write them.
"The last report I wrote I have it at home. I was in Barcelona and this was in the 1999/2000 season.
“I was assistant and I shared with other colleagues the responsibility of analysing and preparing documents about our opponents for the manager.
“Since I arrived at Benfica and until now my analysis never became official reports, but key ideas that helped me to prepare the training work and the matches planning.
“Official reports were always done by analysts, assistants and computer technicians, but never by me."
Selected notes from Barcelona scout report
| Oleguer | 'Defensively poor' |
| Carles Puyol | 'Aggressive but emotional. Bad positional sense' |
| Rafael Marquez | 'Fakes contact like no other' |
| Sylvinho | 'Doesn't know how to defend' |
| Andres Iniesta | 'Very dynamic player' |
| Ronaldinho | 'Very poor defensive transition and defensive work - exploit' |
| Samuel Eto'o | 'Explosive and aggresive with and without the ball' |
