FORMER Barcelona colleagues Ronald Koeman and Jose Mourinho go head to head as managers at St Mary’s tomorrow for the first time ever.
Koeman and Mourinho were part of Louis Van Gaal’s backroom team at Barcelona in the last few years of the last Millennium.
Mourinho had joined the club in 1996, arriving with manager Bobby Robson after a highly successful spell at Porto.
Koeman, a former Barca star, returned to the Nou Camp as Van Gaal’s assistant manager in the summer of 1998.
Barcelona won La Liga in both 1998/99 and 1999/2000, prior to both Mourinho and Koeman leaving to take up their first senior managerial positions that summer.
Mourinho departed Catalonia to take over at Benfica and Koeman left manage Vitesse in his native Holland.
Their managerial paths have never subsequently crossed – until tomorrow.
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