Paco Buyo Claims Valdano Blocked His Route to Mourinho's Real Madrid Coaching Staff
Former Real Madrid keeper Paco Buyo says José Mourinho wanted him as his assistant at the Bernabéu — but someone at the club vetoed it, and he suspects Valdano.
Former Real Madrid goalkeeper Paco Buyo has lifted the lid on a fascinating behind-the-scenes saga — claiming he was blocked from joining José Mourinho’s coaching staff at the Bernabéu, and pointing the finger squarely at Jorge Valdano.
How It All Started
Buyo’s troubles at Madrid didn’t begin with Mourinho — they go back much further. Speaking on El cafelito de Josep Pedrerol, the ex-keeper traced the roots of his fallout with the club’s hierarchy all the way back to 2000, when he started his coaching career with Real Madrid Castilla.
His time with the B team was apparently far from smooth sailing. Buyo claims certain directors had financial interests in specific players and wanted those players on the pitch — and he wasn’t having any of it. He says he consistently refused, and that those same people later had his son pushed out of the club’s academy. Harsh.
Valdano, Ramón Martínez, and the Exit Door
When Florentino Pérez stepped back from day-to-day running of the club, Buyo says he left things in the hands of Jorge Valdano and Ramón Martínez — and that’s when things got properly frosty.
- His contract wasn’t renewed at Castilla, though Buyo is clear: he wasn’t sacked outright, they simply let it run out
- Valdano delivered the news personally
- Buyo says he told both Valdano and the academy director exactly what he thought — very much on brand for him
- His relationship with Valdano cooled considerably after that
- His relationship with Ramón Martínez? Already dead in the water — apparently Martínez had once tried to ship Buyo off to Valladolid while he was a first-team regular at Madrid. Buyo clearly hasn’t forgotten that one.
The Mourinho Connection
Here’s where it gets really interesting. When Mourinho arrived at Madrid, he reportedly wanted Buyo as part of his backroom setup. Pedrerol pushed him on it directly, and Buyo didn’t dodge the question.
He confirmed Mourinho had indeed put his name forward — but somebody at the club wasn’t keen. Buyo says he was told by Mourinho and someone close to the Portuguese that he’d been vetoed. As for who was behind it? He suspects Valdano, though he’s honest enough to admit he can’t say for certain.
“Mourinho and someone close to him told me I had been vetoed.”
It’s a proper tale of what might have been. Buyo — the keeper who was famously between the sticks during that gut-wrenching final day at Tenerife in 1991-92 when Madrid lost the title — spent years at the club and clearly still has strong feelings about how things ended.
The Bigger Picture
What makes this story compelling isn’t just the Mourinho angle — it’s the portrait Buyo paints of Real Madrid’s inner workings during that era. Power struggles, agents with interests in players, personal vendettas filtering through into coaching decisions. Not exactly the glossy Galáctico image the club was selling at the time.
Buyo’s consistent line throughout is that his directness cost him. He says as much himself — if he’d kept his head down and played the game, he’d probably have stayed. But that’s not who he is, and you get the sense he wouldn’t change it even now.