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He became a special one. He has been the happiest one. Now it seems Jose Mourinho is the chosen one. He has opted to return to Real Madrid 13 years after leaving.
For weeks the Benfica boss has tried his best to bat away questions over his future.
But, after ending the Portuguese league season with a 3-1 win at Estoril on Saturday night, a campaign in which his side remained unbeaten, Mourinho admitted for the first time that he has the potential to become Real Madrid’s next manager.
And things can be moved quickly. “My future should be decided this week,” Mourinho told me in his press conference. “I need time. I need space. I need time to make a decision. I think this week will be very important.
“I don’t have an offer from Real Madrid. But to hide, there’s nothing to say, I can’t do that. There are some. But not directly with me.”
Jose Mourinho’s Benfica have the best of Estoril to go around the world unbeaten in the Premier League campaign.
Real Madrid president Florentino Perez has not spoken to Mourinho. But he has spoken to Mourinho’s agent, Jorge Mendes.
A clause in Mourinho’s two-year Benfica contract, signed just eight months ago, allows him to leave for £2.6 million. Small changes at clubs like Real Madrid. He has other options.
The one at Benfica. He has been offered an improved contract. But it is unlikely to be accepted. There is also a long-standing offer to manage Portugal’s national team.
They want him to take charge after this World Cup for the next preparations at home. The 2030 tournament will be shared between Portugal, Spain and Morocco. But Real Madrid seems the most likely next destination so far.
Mourinho and Perez remain close. So Mourinho personally referred to the Real Madrid president as “FP”.
“We’ve been close for 13 years,” Mourinho said. “But that doesn’t mean I’ve been at the club for the last 13 years or I’m going to be. We’ve always been close and that doesn’t mean I believe that.”
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Spanish football expert Terry Gibson believes Jose Mourinho should be Real Madrid’s next manager.
Perez and Mourinho almost reunited in 2021 – but the Portuguese committed himself to Roma. No problem this time.
Sixteen years after Mourinho was first appointed, Perez hopes his friend can repeat some of the success of his first spell at the Santiago Bernabeu.
Who can forget Real Madrid’s 100-point season to win La Liga in 2011/12? In that time four years have gone by without a league title. In the last two seasons, Real did not become the Spanish champion.
Mourinho’s Real Madrid had a 72 per cent win rate, bettered by none of those who followed him, including Zinedine Zidane and Carlo Ancelotti.
There is also no obstacle to the election that Perez has called. As things stand, with no opponent yet announced, he will be re-elected unopposed on Real Madrid’s final matchday against Athletic Club next weekend.
Mourinho’s win rate at Real Madrid was 72 percent
Few journalists here in Lisbon expect anything other than a second spell in Madrid for Mourinho.
“I have no doubt that he will be the next manager of Real Madrid,” Nuno Luz, veteran sports reporter for the SIC television channel, who has covered Mourinho for more than 30 years, told me.
“For Mourinho, a return to the center of world football is crucial. Managing Real Madrid again, especially with the benefit of his past experience there, will give him the tools to succeed at a club currently plagued by internal problems.”
Mourinho will leave Benfica with that unbeaten record – only the fifth team to achieve it this millennium – but without Champions League football next season. No defeat but no medal.
“It’s a great thing,” Mourinho told me after the final whistle. “It’s the first time in my career. Being unbeaten, I’ve never done that. I’ll change that for the title. There’s no doubt about that. But it’s something that reflects the mentality and unity of the team.
“It’s something that makes me proud as the leader of the group.”
Fewer than 5,000 were at the Estadio Antonio Coimbra da Motta to watch what is likely to be Mourinho’s last game in charge of Benfica.
The man himself was suited and booted for the occasion. But there were only a handful of photographers to capture it. A far cry from the global media circus that awaits him in the Spanish capital.
The Bernabeu awaits the chosen one. Madrid now seems inevitable.
