Eighteen years have passed, and Marc Ingla, Barcelona's vice-president for sporting affairs at the time, still keeps as a treasure in one of his desk drawers the storage drive that José Mourinho handed to him during the meeting that brought them together in Lisbon, when the Portuguese coach was one of the leading candidates to succeed Frank Rijkaard in the manager's seat at the Camp Nou.
According to the Spanish newspaper "Mundo Deportivo", this was the spring of 2008. Barcelona were reeling, a state of complacency having taken hold over a large section of the team.
Bracing for a second straight season without trophies, the board went looking for solutions through a radical change of direction.
Mourinho, the most controversial coach of that period, had found himself without a club after his sudden departure from Chelsea at the start of the season, despite his previous successes with Porto and Chelsea.
Jorge Mendes, his influential agent, knew only too well how much José and his family wanted to return to Barcelona.
The coach had spent four happy years living in the city, working as an assistant to Bobby Robson and Louis van Gaal. Mendes proposed a meeting in Lisbon.
They gathered in one of the meeting rooms at the offices of the Gestifute company, in the Portuguese capital. Ingla attended alone, Txiki Begiristain having apologised the day before that a personal commitment he could not postpone would keep the sporting director away.
The truth, though, is that the former Dream Team member was never sold on this option. He preferred Pep Guardiola, who had just begun his coaching career with the reserve team.
Once the usual greetings were out of the way, the Setúbal-born coach pulled a white storage drive from one of his pockets. On it sat a detailed 27-page presentation setting out what Barcelona would look like under his leadership.
In what looked like a nod to Johan Cruyff, with whom he did not enjoy a good relationship, Mourinho held firm to the 4-3-3 formation and its various tactical developments as the system of play that could not be abandoned.
He also stressed the need to use the ball in every training session, just as Cruyff used to, including the sessions dedicated to physical preparation.
The presentation ran to an extensive analysis of the squad. Mourinho cast doubt on the possibility of Ronaldinho continuing, while leaning towards keeping Samuel Eto'o and Deco.
Sylvinho, Lilian Thuram and Javier Zquierdo, by contrast, landed on the list of players earmarked for departure. He also raised questions about the role of Edmílson, Oleguer and Zambrotta within the line-up.
New signings went untouched. Instead, the Portuguese spoke about bringing in former club players as part of his coaching staff, such as Luis Enrique, Txapi Ferrer and Sergi Barjuán, men he had worked with during his earlier spell at Barcelona.
The greatest friction came over his relationship with the media. They told him plainly he needed to improve his dealings with journalists, following the clashes seen in the recent knockout meetings between Chelsea and Barcelona, when Mourinho had displayed the worst aspects of his personality.
A poor end to the season had sealed Rijkaard's fate, having led Barcelona to two La Liga titles and a Champions League.
Bernd Schuster's Real Madrid finished the La Liga season well clear, and Barcelona's players were forced to stand in a guard of honour to salute the Royal team at the Santiago Bernabéu. Manchester United knocked them out of the Champions League in the semi-final.
When the time came to pick the replacement coach, Joan Laporta once again listened to Cruyff, who clearly backed Begiristain's choice of Pep Guardiola.
So the features of the best team in Barcelona's history began to take shape, coinciding with the rise of Lionel Messi's star. Mourinho, meanwhile, felt insulted by the rejection of his candidacy and turned into the number one enemy of the Catalan club.