Mourinho 'pulled ears of schoolboy, 12, who said he was not the best'

The self-proclaimed 'Special One' flew into a rage when his 11-year-old daughter told him about playground jibes that he was not "the best", it has been revealed.

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

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

Shocked witnesses said the drama unfolded when the former Chelsea boss went to pick up his daughter Matilde from her £6,500-a-year bilingual school in Setubal, near Lisbon, yesterday afternoon.

One told how he watched Mr Mourinho grab Pedro Antonio and hand out his unorthodox dressing-down, and said he was left "speechless".

Isabel Simao, the headmistress of St Peter's School, said it had followed a 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. She claimed her dad was the best but the boy said he wasn't. It was as simple as that."

But Mrs Simao was forced to step in after seeing Mr Mourinho's furious 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."

Mrs Simao said she called Mr Mourinho and the boy's family to a meeting before the school board and said the world famous 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. Mourinho said he was sorry for what had happened and he apologised to the boy and his parents. Everything was sorted out in the end."

Mrs Simao said Miss Mourinho 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, his former spokeswoman Eladio Parames, told Correio da Manha that the boy had insulted Matilde, but refused to comment further.

The Special One has had a difficult few months. After he was sacked by Chelsea in September he said he wanted to spend more time with his family and would wait to be offered a manager's job with another world-class team.

Then last month it was claimed that he had a lengthy affair with Elsa Sousa, while he was manager at Leiria, before his time at Porto and then Chelsea.

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

Pedro Farrim's father Antonio said: "It is all perfectly resolved. I have nothing more to declare. For me, the matter wasn't even that important. I repeat – the matter between me and Mr José Mourinho is resolved."