José Mourinho has formally begun his second spell as Real Madrid manager, with Mundo Deportivo reporting that the Portuguese opened pre-season at Valdebebas on Monday morning, 13 July 2026, starting with medical examinations at the Clínica Sanitas facility before taking his first training session at 17:00.
Who Is in and Who Is Out on Day One
The session is a stripped-back affair by design. Players with World Cup commitments – Jude Bellingham, Kylian Mbappé, Vinícius Jr, and Thibaut Courtois among them – are absent and will return on a staggered basis. Those present include Eduardo Camavinga, Franco Mastantuono, Trent Alexander-Arnold, and Dean Huijsen, who become the first to work directly under Mourinho.
To fill out squad numbers for training sessions in the meantime, Mourinho will draw on players from the Castilla. It is an unconventional opening to a pre-season already complicated by the World Cup calendar, and a reminder that the manager’s full picture of his squad will take weeks to assemble.
The Backdrop to Another New Era
Mundo Deportivo note that Mourinho’s appointment follows an unsettled stretch at the club: Xabi Alonso’s project lasted only around a year, and Álvaro Arbeloa – who stepped up from youth-team duties – brought barely six months of stability before being moved on. The brief is clear enough: consistency and results from a squad that has the individual quality but has not converted it into silverware with any regularity.
Mourinho himself has been at work on the project since his confirmation was announced after Florentino Pérez secured re-election as club president. Monday simply marks the point where theory becomes practice. Reports ahead of pre-season have pointed to early recruitment activity and coaching staff moves, according to Football España, signalling the direction of travel.
What Comes Next
A formal press presentation for Mourinho has not yet been scheduled, according to Mundo Deportivo, with no date confirmed at the time of writing. Transfer activity remains an open question: the source notes that both the entry and exit doors at the club are ajar, though the squad’s core structure is understood to be broadly settled. The more meaningful judgements on this new era will come once the international contingent is back on the grass and the competitive programme begins.
