Bahrain’s Under-23 national team and Olympic soccer coach Anthony Hudson has returned to the kingdom after a session shadowing ‘The Special One’.

Real Madrid’s legendary coach José Mourinho invited the son of former Chelsea and England international Alan Hudson along to his squad’s training sessions as well as a head-to-head meeting in his office.

Anthony, 31, who lives in Amwaj, couldn’t believe his luck as he took notes of wisdom at Real’s Valdebebas facility from the man regarded by many players, managers, and soccer pundits as one of the finest football coaches of all time. “I learned so much from him during his training on the pitch ... he’s the best I’ve ever seen,” he said.

Hudson has been in Bahrain for the past 11 months. He was brought into the set-up by former national coach Peter Taylor. When Taylor was axed and replaced by Argentinian technician Gabriel Calderon the Bahrain Football Association showed how much faith they have in the young Englishman by insisting he stay on.

Hudson took Bahrain to the final of the GCC U-19 Cup in Doha, narrowly losing 2-1 to Saudi Arabia after beating the hosts Qatar in the semi-final. The association is now looking to set up a tournament to help the team prepare for the U-23 Gulf Cup competition in September, which follows the senior contest currently being played in the kingdom.

Hudson will be using his Spanish adventure and inspirational moments with Mourinho to help prepare his squad of young Bahrainis for a forthcoming international friendly next month.
He said: “I have come away with an even bigger estimation of the man. I met him during a week in which he was under intense pressure.

“I was amazed by his constant communication and how he opened his doors for me. There are coaches in England’s lower divisions that would not have made the time to even respond to my emails and for him to make the sort of effort he did, especially during that week he was having, was just amazing.”

Mourinho pronounced himself ‘the special one’ upon his arrival to manage a club in the English Premiership. He then led Real Madrid to their first top-flight La Liga title in four years and successfully broke Barcelona’s stranglehold over the game in Spain. He has won a total of 21 major trophies following success at former clubs Porto, Chelsea and Inter Milan to become his own sporting phenomenon.

However, this season Real have struggled domestically. Despite beating Real Sociedad 4-3 in what was considered a ‘must win’ match in early January, Mourinho’s side were held to a 0-0 draw at lowly Osasuna in La Liga on Saturday and looked a shadow of the team that romped to the title last season, falling 18 points behind leaders Barcelona.

Hudson could feel the pressure during his stint in Spain but it was water off a duck’s back for Mourinho.

“How he does things on and off the pitch and how he handled that week was great,” Hudson explained. “I know a lot of coaches that would have crumbled, but he was brilliant.

“And, I think that 99 per cent of managers would have said to me, listen I’m really sorry, it’s a bad situation … instead he gave me his time. I think it just says that he is bigger than any problem, any bad result, any crisis or any poor run of form.

“For example, I sent him an email a day before one of his biggest games since he has been with Real Madrid, and bear in mind the day before the match he had three video sessions with the team, a press conference, training and a dinner to attend.

“I emailed him to say thanks and that I had had a great time. Not even five minutes later he replied back. I think little things like that are huge and you never would have known that he was under so much pressure.”

Coming from a football family, Hudson watched his father play for major English sides such as Chelsea, Stoke and Arsenal and mingled with his dad’s teammates and other football greats.

His older brother Alan Junior also played for Arsenal. Hudson always wanted to play football, dropping out of school at 16 to join the youth system at Premier League West Ham United. He had a spell at Luton Town and also played for Dutch First Division side NEC Nijmegen.

Although he loved playing the game, he decided to move into the field of coaching and has no regrets. He said: “I have always wanted to be in football. There was nothing else I wanted to do. I was a good player but I realised that I probably wasn’t good enough to play at the very highest level.

“As soon as I started coaching at the age of 21 I loved it and I never really looked back.”

He headed to the US and in 2005 became player/assistant head coach of Wilmington Hammerheads, having spent the previous two years working as an academy coach at AC Diablos SC.

In 2008, he was appointed Real Maryland Monarchs head coach at the age of 27. He soon became one of the youngest coaches to obtain the UEFA Pro License, and having studied with the English Football Association, Hudson soon became the youngest head coach in the US. In his very first season as manager he led the club, which had the worst record and finished bottom of the table in 2008, to the quarter-finals of the 2009 play-offs. Hudson was also nominated for the 2009 US Coach of the Year Award.

After leaving Real Maryland in June 2010, Hudson returned to the UK and began coaching under the guidance of Harry Redknapp at Tottenham Hotspur, now at QPR.

On April 2011, Hudson, then aged 30, was appointed manager of Conference side Newport County, making him the youngest in the UK. He arrived with a ‘glittering reference’ from Redknapp, who likened him to ‘a young José Mourinho’.

Redknapp has been a father figure in his career and Hudson is forever grateful for the charismatic manager’s support and help, alongside Taylor who he regularly calls. During Hudson’s free time, he studies the game intensely and visits as many clubs as possible to boost his unquenchable thirst for football knowledge.

He added: “I look at all the coaches out there and I admire certain qualities that they have. There are a lot of Mourinho’s characteristics that I admire but at the end of the day I still want to be me and I think that is hard enough because there are so many influences and people I look up to.

“There are too many qualities and achievements to explain why Mourinho is ‘The Special One’ but let’s just say it’s because he said so!”