#4 Diego Milito
In one sentence, Diego Milito had the potential to be a world beater but spent most of the time in lower leagues and smaller clubs due to the ignorance of many coaches. It was Mourinho who brought this goal scoring machine from Genoa to Inter Milan. The deal was simple – Mourinho wanted to regain the Champions League and prove to the world that he was the best in the business. Milito wanted to win laurels for his hard work on the pitch and the deal worked wonders for Internazionale.
There was a spirit of a great athlete inside Milito which was clearly evident from his goal scoring abilities. Twice in his career, he achieved a goal scoring average of more than one goal per game. But people knew little of his winning mentality.
A player needs to adjust to the team and handle the pressure when playing big games. Milito had this in his blood and Mourinho was one of the few people to have recognized it. He was a complete package – he posed an aerial threat, made menacing runs up front, assisted and scored goals frequently.
In 2010, Milito, Wesley Sneijder and Samuel Eto’o, the three signings of Mourinho in 2010, marched briskly towards Italian and European glory, taking everyone by surprise. The treble achieved by Inter Milan was also praised by Sir Alex Ferguson. He heaped praise on Mourinho by saying that it was an incredible achievement to win the treble with an Italian team.
What more could Milito have wished for? Apart from the treble, he also won the 2010 UEFA Best Player of the Year award.