Problem statement: When a team achieves success, how much of it depends on the coach and/or of the players profiles. In this paper we identify the performance psychological profile of elite soccer players from Chelsea and Benfica, assessing their profiles to discover a Mourinho effect, while he is a nowadays special coach and coached most of these players. Approach: We applied an international and national validated questionnaire to the players and we complement the analysis with a qualitative approach with data collected through specific interviews (29 professional players - 21 from Chelsea and 8 from Benfica). Statistical procedures consider descriptive, comparative and correlation analysis. Results: The overall sample values are: Motivation (27.55+2.097), Self-confidence (26.83+2.494), Competitive Attitude (26.03+2.758), Positive Thoughts (25.10+2.160), Attention (25.07+3.046), Visualization (23.55+3.429) and Negative Thoughts (22.24+2.824). Concerning the comparative analysis between the players that were trained by Mourinho and other, we could not identify significant statistical differences; however, some of the phenomena indexes emerge showing that Mourinho players present higher levels in self confidence, attention, motivation and weaker effect of the negative thoughts. Conclusions and recommendations: As the success of the teams where Mourinho coached is an evidence, we suspect that the main reasons for success should rely upon collective either than individual characteristics of the players. This will be the next step in our research on the coaching process.
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