Jose Mourinho returned to Real Madrid after thirteen years. Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho has raised concerns about the impact of September's three-week international break, highlighting the amount of time his players will be away from their club.

"The international break does concern me," Mourinho said. "It's a lot of time." Speaking before Sunday's home La Liga match against Malaga (16:00 BST), Mourinho said he was mostly troubled by players linking up with their nations who then do not get game time.

"Players who will join their national teams to play don't worry me as much. It's the ones who join the national teams and are not really involved that concern me," he said. "We'll see how we can go about this and work with the rest of the players. But not having players at my disposal for three weeks is a difficult situation."

The first international break of the 2026-27 men's football season next month will last a week longer than usual, with the traditional October break now scrapped. In recent years, Fifa has used five primary international breaks during the season, in March, June, September, October and November.

But instead of separate breaks in September and October, there will now be a three-week gap for international fixtures across late September and early October, when countries will play four international matches instead of two. The existing international breaks in November, March and June will remain.

A number of reasons are behind the change, including the 2026 World Cup final being played on 19 July, the latest date for a summer World Cup since 1966. Player welfare and travel considerations were also taken into account when the changes were made.

"I totally respect the players' decisions and I don't want to dramatise too much, but very often they pick up injuries during those breaks and right after returning from an international break," Mourinho explained. "So it does worry me, but this is the way these things are and we can't do much about it."

The Portuguese has already spoken at length about the World Cup players in his Real Madrid squad, including Jude Bellingham, Marc Cucurella and Kylian Mbappe, who have had a demanding summer. He said the club are working to manage their workload to reduce the risk of injury.

In his pre-match media conference, Mourinho was also full of praise for Bellingham, highlighting his importance to the team beyond his attacking contributions. "He is a unique kind of player, extremely important for the team," said Mourinho. "His mental strength, tactical ability, the way he recovers the ball, the way he pressures, the way he plays up front.

"We like talking about Kylian, Vini [Vinicius Jr] and Jude, but I'm really happy with all the players. "We have great, great players here."

Mourinho also gave his perspective on the Ballon d'Or debate, arguing that winning the Champions League or World Cup should not automatically make a player the favourite for the individual award. "It's a very beautiful thing individually and that enters into the individual history of a certain player," Mourinho said. "I think it's normal that there are a dozen players of a very high level, of which we have three or four. It is normal that it exists as an ambition."

Mourinho suggested the prize should be ultimately measured by a player's lasting impact on the game. "For me, the Ballon d'Or has to be one of those players that when he finishes playing, we miss for eternity," Mourinho said. "I miss Maradona, Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, Cristiano, Messi, Zizou, Lothar Matthaus - I miss these people. "You can't give the Ballon d'Or to a player because he won the Champions League or because he won the World Cup. It doesn't have to be from Paris St-Germain or the Spanish national team."

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