Jose Mourinho moves to Fenerbahce for two years and without any promises

The Portuguese coach José Mourinho admitted this Monday that he had contacts with two candidates for the presidency of Fenerbahçe, but it was with the current management that he had the first contacts in the project that seduced him.

“The first person to contact me was Mario Branco, the sporting director of Fenerbahce. This was my first contact with the club, and this was the impetus for my attention, my interest in being the coach of Fenerbahce,” said the coach, who was previously the coach of Fenerbahce. has been without a club since January, when he left Italian club Roma.

Mourinho was introduced at a lengthy press conference lasting almost two hours, causing the 61-year-old coach to laugh from many journalists when he spoke towards the end about the length of the conference.

“In 20 years of football, this is the longest press conference of my career,” the coach said.

After signing a contract for two seasons, Mourinho admitted that he had contacts with Aziz Yildirim, another candidate for the presidency of the Istanbul club, but did not ask anyone for permission to sign the contract, which is what he would do with the president in office, who is also running for a new term .

“I will be Fenerbahce coach for the next two years, the answer is yes. [se trabalhará com Yildirim, caso seja eleito]. I signed the contract when Ali Koc was and remains president and Mario Branco was and remains sporting director,” he commented.

The Portuguese coach added that he was seduced by the project and the level of the organization: “The project influenced me and now it’s my turn to influence the project.”

“Regardless of the chronology, the important thing is that this gentleman to my right is the manager of Fenerbahce. Despite the moment, I can say that there is no doubt that I was the first to talk to Jose Mourinho about moving to Fenerbahce. “, – he also singled out the Portuguese Mario Branco.

The director, who held the same position at Estoril Praia and Famalican and who has been with Fenerbahçe since 2022, said that he is worried about the sporting aspect and therefore the bet on José Mourinho.

“We managed to attract one of the best coaches in the history of football to the club, the only one who won all three UEFA club competitions. This is what they should focus on, I am grateful to the president for trusting my proposal and the coach for trusting the president’s project,” the leader said.

In terms of goals, Mourinho has made it clear that he can’t make promises, but the dream is to win the league and qualify for the Champions League, a very difficult scenario in a season without a full squad.

“No promises [aos adeptos]but a huge commitment, passion, work, compassion for them, and the way to express it is to work the way we want,” he began, saying.

The coach then pointed to the championship, which Fenerbahçe has not won since the 2013/14 season.

“But obviously the big goal, the big dream is to win the Turkish championship, with the greatest respect to those who won in previous years against three different clubs, but we want to fight for it,” added Mourinho, and when Basaksehir, Besiktas, Trabzonpor and Galatasaray have won in the last five seasons.

At the conference, the coach also admitted his uncertainty, wanting to count on eight national team players who would arrive at the European Championship earlier.

“Of course the qualifying rounds and play-offs will be tough, especially because we don’t have time to prepare. I’ll say something I shouldn’t say: I want our Euro players to go.” early, come relax and train. We want to get into the new Champions League, the Europa League gives us more opportunities to do something great, but the main goal is to try to play in the group stage of the Champions League,” he admitted.

Fenerbahçe, who finished second in the league, will have to go through the second qualifying round for promotion to the Champions, scheduled for July 23 and 24 (the first match), and July 30 and 31 (the second), so the season will start earlier.

Fenerbahçe will be the 10th club that Mourinho will manage in his career, after Benfica, Unian Leiria, Porto, Chelsea (twice), Inter Milan, Real Madrid, Manchester United, Tottenham and Roma.

The Istanbul side are Turkey’s second-most successful team with 19 league titles, behind only Galatasaray (24), but have not lifted the trophy in a decade, since the 2013/14 season. The last three seasons they finished the championship in second place, and in the last season they were only three points behind their eternal rival, who became a two-time champion.

Jose Mourinho, who replaces Ismail Cartal in this position, will become the third Portuguese coach to lead Fenerbahce, after Vitor Pereira (between 2015 and 2016, as well as in the 2021/22 season) and Jorge Jesus (2022/23).