The votes are in. Yesterday we revealed who had won Goal.com's Player of the Season prize in La Liga, with Lionel Messi pipping Cristiano Ronaldo to the award. But when it came to the best coach of the campaign, there was always going to be only one winner - Jose Mourinho.
The Portuguese led Real Madrid to glory in the Primera Division as the capital club rewrote the record books in 2011-12, securing 100 points and scoring 121 goals on the way to their 32nd league title in Spain.
And in doing so, Mourinho's Madrid ended a period of Barca dominance in La Liga, as Guardiola's side had claimed the previous three titles in an ultra-successful spell.
| HOW YOU VOTED |
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1. Jose Mourinho - 65.60% 2. Pep Guardiola - 21.32% 3. Diego Simeone - 6.27% 4. Juan Ignacio Martinez - 5.63% 5. Manolo Jimenez - 1.19% |
Mourinho made sure three didn't become four, however, as Pep was unable to match former boss Johan Cruyff's record of four straight successes in the competition.
Madrid claimed their first title since 2008 with an unprecedented haul of 100 points and a new goals record of 121, surpassing the mark of 107 set by John Toshack's Blancos side in 1989-90.
Real all but won the title with a shock success at Camp Nou in mid April, and went on to seal it with a 3-0 victory over Athletic Bilbao at San Mames, finishing nine points clear of Barca and coming good on Mourinho's second-season promise of improvement.
In this poll, the Portuguese claimed 65.6 per cent of the overall votes, with Guardiola well behind in second with just 21.32%. Atletico Madrid's Diego Simeone finished third with 6.27%, ahead of Levante's Juan Ignacio Martinez (5.63%) and Zaragoza's Manolo Jimenez (1.19%).
| HEAD TO HEAD | Jose and Pep in La Liga |
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| 32 | League games won |
28 | |||
| 121 | Goals scored |
114 | |||
| 100 | Points earned |
91 |
Simeone led Atletico to a fifth-placed finish, missing out to Malaga for a place in the Champions League on the very last day of the Primera Division campaign. The Argentine added steel and much-needed consistency at the Vicente Calderon, however, and brought home a trophy, too, as the Madrid side claimed the Europa League in Bucharest earlier this month with victory over fellow Spanish side Athletic Bilbao in the final.
Behind Atletico in sixth came Levante, a club with one of the lowest budgets in the top flight, as Juan Ignacio Martinez's men defied the odds to seal a place in European competition for the first time in their history.
And at the other end of the table, Zaragoza beat the drop as Manolo Jimenez masterminded a miracle escape, with the Aragonese outfit picking up 15 points from their last six games to survive against all the odds.
But Mourinho was the man, for the readers at least, as he made it seven league titles in four different countries, having now also triumphed in three of Europe's elite championships: Spain, England and Italy. His 2011-12 vintage success, however, has arguably eclipsed those previous league wins, as he has not only dethroned the side considered by many to be the best in history, but set a host of new records on the way. Mourinho, then, is Goal.com's Coach of the Season in La Liga, winning just a shade under two thirds of the vote. Emphatic and unanimous.
