Why Jose Mourinho pulled the ears of schoolboy, 12, who said he was not 'the Special One'

The self-styled "Special One" allegedly flew into a rage when his 11-year-old daughter told him about a playground jibe that he was not "the best", it was revealed yesterday.

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He found the culprit, a 12-year-old pupil, and held him by the hair while he pulled his ears, a Portuguese newspaper reported.

Mr Mourinho, 44, was summoned before the headmistress and made to formally apologise to his tearful victim and his family.

Witnesses said the former Chelsea boss chastised the boy when he went to pick up his daughter Matilde from her £6,500-a-year bilingual school in Setubal, near Lisbon, on Wednesday afternoon.

One witness told how he watched Mr Mourinho grab Pedro Farrim and said the boy was left "speechless" by the incident.

Isabel Simao, the headmistress of St Peter's School, said it followed a playground row between the boy and Matilde Mourinho.

She said: "From what I can gather it was just a typical children's row with children's words.

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"She claimed her dad was the best but the boy said he wasn't. It was as simple as that."

Mrs Simao was forced to step in after seeing Mr Mourinho's reaction.

"I saw Mr Mourinho grabbing the child's arm," she said.

"There was no physical assault in the literal sense of the term.

"Pedro cried a bit at first and seemed frightened but we calmed him down.

"I asked him several times if Mr Mourinho had punched or kicked him and he denied it.

"But I knew that Mr Mourinho had also grabbed his hair, as the child has long hair.

"He was upset about what happened. He is, after all, a 12-year-old boy but he accepted the apology."

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Mrs Simao said she called Mr Mourinho and the boy's family to a meeting before the school board and said the football manager presented a formal apology to the boy, his parents and the school.

She said: "We treated it like we would any other incident and called a meeting to tackle the problem. Everything was sorted out in the end."

Mrs Simao said Matilde had told the school board that Pedro had insulted her father, but that the boy had denied saying anything offensive.

A friend of Mr Mourinho, Eladio Parames, told Correio da Manha that the boy had insulted Matilde, but refused to comment further.

Mr Mourinho's agent yesterday refused to comment on the school row.

Pedro's father Antonio said: "It is all perfectly resolved."