Mourinho Counts Benfica’s Unbeaten 2025-26 Season as His Ninth League Title Despite Finishing Third

José Mourinho has taken a characteristically self-assured approach to reflecting on his final season at Benfica, declaring that the club’s unbeaten 2025-26 Primeira Liga campaign deserves a place among his career honours — even though it produced no trophy.

Speaking on the Beast Mode On Podcast with host Adebayo Akinfenwa, the newly appointed Real Madrid manager addressed the unusual nature of Benfica’s season, during which the Lisbon club went the entire league campaign without a defeat yet still finished third, eight points adrift of champions Porto.

“If you want a funny answer, and at the same time an arrogant answer… I won eight championships, but never unbeaten. So now this one counts as nine,” Mourinho told Akinfenwa. “It’s not a title but it’s a good feeling.”

Mourinho had returned to Benfica in September 2025, rejoining the club where his managerial career first began in 2000. His previous eight league titles were won across four clubs — Porto, Chelsea, Inter Milan, and Real Madrid — making him one of the most decorated managers in European football history.

The 2025-26 Primeira Liga season presented a paradox familiar in football, though rarely seen at the top level: a side completing a season undefeated without lifting the title. The outcome drew comparisons to Arsenal’s celebrated 2003-04 Premier League campaign, when the north London club went 38 games unbeaten to claim the title — a benchmark Mourinho himself referenced.

“We were never top of the league. We had a pretty good season. Porto, they lost a couple of matches, but they won, won, won, won, won,” he explained. “We were winning, winning, winning, and the moment you have a draw, the distance goes a little bit. We couldn’t get them, but the feeling of being unbeatable… of course, Arsenal are the ones in that sense. It was a good feeling.”

The closest historical parallel to Benfica’s achievement is Preston North End’s 1888-89 Football League season, when they went unbeaten en route to the title. Going undefeated without winning a championship remains an extreme rarity in top-flight European football, underlining the statistical significance of what Benfica managed, even if the campaign ultimately yielded no silverware.

Mourinho’s comments were made in his capacity as the incoming Real Madrid head coach, a role he previously held between 2010 and 2013, during which he won one La Liga title in the 2011-12 season. His return to the Santiago Bernabéu represents one of the most high-profile managerial appointments in European football ahead of the 2026-27 season.

For Benfica, the focus now turns to the next campaign and how the club responds to another season without a Primeira Liga title. Porto’s consistency in converting wins, even amid occasional defeats, proved the decisive factor in denying Benfica a championship that their unbeaten record might otherwise have suggested they deserved.