Iker Casillas says his relationship with José Mourinho was “very cold”. The line lands with extra force because the new documentary comes as Mourinho is back at Real Madrid, where reports say he is trying to impose strict fines, punctuality rules, nutrition changes and injury-recovery changes at Valdebebas. Casillas was benched and frozen out during the 2012-13 season, and that old rupture is the part of this story that still cuts deepest.
Casillas and Khedira on the old breakdown
Casillas did not dress it up. “In those years, I really think it was taken to a limit where in the end, the rope broke,” he said. Sami Khedira was even blunter about the atmosphere around the squad. He called the locker room “a nightmare” and said the dispute spread beyond Casillas, affecting other key players and the mood around the group.
That is the awkward part for Mourinho, because the documentary is not just reopening an old grudge for nostalgia's sake. It is reminding people of how quickly his first spell at Real Madrid, from 2010 to 2013, turned into tension around player power, routines and authority. Mourinho himself said Casillas asked for more holidays for national-team players, wanted training sessions pushed back an hour because of traffic in Madrid, and did not want the squad to go to the hotel before matchday. He added, “And in a short period of time, I realized they're spoilt.”
Mourinho also framed the rivalry with Barcelona in combative terms. “This is Barcelona [and] Real Madrid. When you go to the national team, then you can kiss the guy, but not now. This is war.”
Why the new rules sharpen the story
The documentary would already have been enough to reopen the old debate. The timing makes it sharper. Reports of strict discipline at Valdebebas sit alongside the same names, the same club and the same manager, so the contrast is obvious even if the club is in a very different place now.
Real Madrid begin the 2026 La Liga season in 16th place with 0 points from 0 matches. They finished 2nd in 2025 with 86 points from 38 matches, so the rebuild Mourinho is walking into is a serious one. The question is not whether he has the authority to set standards, it is whether those standards calm the place down or bring the old friction back into view.
The evidence in this package points to both possibilities. Casillas and Khedira describe a spell that split people, not just a feud between two personalities. Mourinho is now back trying to reassert control, and the documentary makes clear how quickly control became the issue the last time he was there.
Written by Daniel Hartley with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 1 outlet. How we work →
