Jose Mourinho’s 2006 Premier League medal he threw into crowd actually belonged to Robert Huth

Images of Jose Mourinho throwing his winners’ medal into the crowd after guiding Chelsea to another Premier League title in 2006 have often circulated over the years.

But 16 years on, a former club insider has claimed that Mourinho did not chuck HIS prize into Stamford Bridge’s Matthew Harding End – as it actually belonged to defender Robert Huth instead.

Neil ‘Spy’ Barnett, who worked as a pitch announcer and presenter at Chelsea for 32 years before being axed in 2018, debunked the famous incident after a photo of Mourinho throwing the medal resurfaced on Twitter.

Images of Jose Mourinho throwing his 2005-06 Premier League winners’ medal into the crowd have been savoured by Chelsea fans over the years

But a former club insider has claimed 16 years on that the medal did NOT belong to Mourinho

Ex-Chelsea pitch announcer Neil Barnett claims the medal belonged to Robert Huth

The initial tweet from a Blues fan account read: ‘José Mourinho throws his 2005/06 PL winner’s medal into the crowd of Chelsea fans to show his love for them. One of us, forever.’

However, Barnett quote tweeted the post and wrote: ‘It wasn’t his. It was Robert Huth’s who hadn’t reported that day in order to force a move’.

Huth indeed left Chelsea at the end of that season, completing a £6million switch to Middlesbrough in August 2006 after initially failing a medical with the club.

The German centre-back featured 13 times in the Blues’ title-winning campaign, their second consecutive triumph under Mourinho, but was left out of the squad entirely for three of their final four fixtures.

Mourinho threw the medal into the crowd after his side clinched back-to-back titles in a 3-0 win at home to Manchester United on April 26, which was indeed one of the matches Huth failed to make it into the squad for.

Barnett worked as a Blues pitch announcer and presenter for 32 years before leaving in 2018

Huth was absent from the game in question and did indeed seal a move away that summer

Barnett’s claim therefore appears to hold up, but quotes from Mourinho himself after the incident in 2006 suggest he may well have given his AND Huth’s medals away that afternoon.

‘The crowd here is special,’ the Portuguese boss said at the time. ‘They have contributed so much to the record we have at home. It is extra special in the Matthew Harding Stand. The medal was for everyone.

‘The lucky guy will go home with an incredible memory – or make a fortune on Ebay. Someone gave me a second one, so that one went too.

‘In Porto I kept the medal for me. That was for the Champions League and it was only one. I was guessing, in future, it could be difficult to get another one. I have one from last season in the Premier League and the medal is the same one. You can’t keep everything.’

However, after the incident in 2006 Mourinho suggested he threw two medals into the crowd

Whoever it belonged to, one of Mourinho’s medals was sold by the lucky Chelsea fan that caught it for a whopping £21,600 in 2008.

A second medal was then auctioned for £16,800 two years later. 

Mourinho guided Chelsea to back-to-back Premier League titles in his first stint at the club after swaggering into English football in 2004.

The Special One was sacked by Roman Abramovich at the start of the 2007-08 campaign after missing out on the title the previous year, before he returned to Stamford Bridge six years later.

In his second spell with the Blues he picked up another title as well as the League Cup, only to be sacked again by Abramovich during a calamitous defence of their crown in 2015-16.

Sportsmail has approached Chelsea for comment on Barnett’s claim.