He is been the Particular One. He is been the Pleased One. Now it appears Jose Mourinho is the Chosen One. Chosen to return to Actual Madrid 13 years after he left.
For weeks the Benfica boss has finished his finest to bat away questions on his future.
However, after ending the Portuguese league season with a 3-1 win at Estoril on Saturday evening, a marketing campaign during which his facet has gone unbeaten, Mourinho admitted for the primary time that changing into the subsequent Actual Madrid supervisor is on the playing cards.
And issues might transfer rapidly. “My future should be decided this week,” Mourinho advised me at his press convention. “I need time. I need space. I need time to make my decision. This week I think will be very important.
“I haven’t got a proposal from Actual Madrid. However to cover, to say there may be nothing, I can not do this. There’s something. However not with me straight.”
Actual Madrid President Florentino Perez has not spoken to Mourinho. However he has spoken to Mourinho’s agent Jorge Mendes.
A clause in Mourinho’s two-year Benfica contract, signed simply eight months in the past, permits him to stroll away for £2.6m. Small change to a membership like Actual Madrid. He has different choices too.
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Sky Sports activities reporter Gary Cotterill is in Lisbon and rounds-up the very best of the Portuguese again pages as they report on who they assume will substitute Jose Mourinho at Benfica – ought to he make the transfer again to Actual Madrid
Staying at Benfica is one. He is been supplied an improved deal. However may be very unlikely to simply accept it. There may be additionally a long-standing supply to handle Portugal’s nationwide crew.
They need him to take cost after this World Cup to organize for the subsequent, on dwelling soil. The 2030 event will likely be shared between Portugal, Spain and Morocco. However Actual Madrid seems to be by far the almost certainly subsequent vacation spot.
Mourinho and Perez stay shut. A lot so Mourinho refers back to the Actual Madrid president as “FP” in non-public.
“We are close for 13 years,” Mourinho says. “But that doesn’t mean I’ve been in the club for the last 13 years or that I am going to be. We were always close and that doesn’t mean anything I believe.”
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Spanish soccer professional Terry Gibson thinks Jose Mourinho needs to be the subsequent supervisor of Actual Madid.
Perez and Mourinho virtually reunited in 2021 – however the Portuguese had simply dedicated himself to Roma. There aren’t any such points this time.
Sixteen years on from first appointing Mourinho, Perez hopes his pal can repeat a few of the success of his first spell on the Santiago Bernabeu.
Who might neglect Actual Madrid’s 100-point season to win LaLiga in 2011/12? It had been 4 years with out a league title at that time. Actual have gone the previous two seasons with out being Spanish champions.
Mourinho’s Actual Madrid win charge of 72 per cent has not been bettered by any of those that adopted him, Zinedine Zidane and Carlo Ancelotti included.
The truth that Perez has referred to as an election is not any impediment both. As issues stand, with no opponent but declared, he will likely be re-elected unopposed subsequent weekend on the day of Actual Madrid’s last sport towards Athletic Membership.
Mourinho had a win charge of 72 per cent at Actual Madrid
Few journalists right here in Lisbon count on something apart from a second spell in Madrid for Mourinho.
Veteran sports activities reporter Nuno Luz of the SIC tv channel, who has lined Mourinho for over 30 years, advised me, “I’ve little doubt that he would be the subsequent Actual Madrid supervisor.
“For Mourinho, it is crucial to return to the very epicentre of world football. Managing Real Madrid again, especially with the benefit of his past experience there, will provide him with the tools to succeed at a club that is currently riddled with internal issues.”
Mourinho will depart Benfica with that invincible report – solely the fifth crew to realize it this millennium – however with out Champions League soccer subsequent season. No defeats however no medals both.
“It’s a great thing,” Mourinho advised me moments after the ultimate whistle. “It’s the first time in my career. Being invincible, I never did it. I would change that for the title. No doubt about that. But it’s something that reflects the mentality and togetherness of the team.
“It is one thing to make me proud because the chief of the group.”
There have been fewer than 5,000 on the Estadio Antonio Coimbra da Mota to see what’s greater than prone to be Mourinho’s newest sport answerable for Benfica.
The person himself was suited and booted for the event. However solely a handful of photographers have been there to seize it. A far cry from the worldwide media circus that awaits him within the Spanish capital.
The Bernabeu awaits the Chosen One. Madrid now appears inevitable.
