'The perfect coach for Real Madrid' - Roma boss Jose Mourinho responds to talk of Bernabeu return & reiterates desire to manage in Saudi Arabia

Posted Thursday, November 23, 2023 by Goal.com

Jose Mourinho has suggested he is more likely to move to Saudi Arabia than return to coach Real Madrid any time soon.

WHAT HAPPENED?
Mourinho's contract at Roma will come to an end at the end of the season and he was reported to have rejected a lucrative offer to move to the Saudi Pro League during the summer. The prospect of returning to Spain to succeed Carlo Ancelotti at Madrid has been raised, too, but Mourinho feels the club already have the ideal man in charge.

WHAT MOURINHO SAID
Mourinho told Rai2: "Me at Real Madrid? When you have a super coach, why should you think of another? Knowing Don Florentino [Perez, Madrid president], and I know him very well, he is a super intelligent man. If he reads the press he has his very clear ideas. As a Madridista, as a man who has some white ribs, and as an Ancelottian, I hope that the season goes fantastically and that next season Carlo is still there, because I think he is the perfect coach for Real Madrid."

THE BIGGER PICTURE
Asked if he would consider moving to the Middle East, Mourinho again admitted that such a deal seems inevitable, adding: "I’ll tell you the truth, I think I’ll go there one day. But when I say ‘one day’ I don’t mean tomorrow or the day after."

WHAT NEXT FOR MOURINHO?
Mourinho's Roma team are currently seventh in Serie A and three points adrift of the Champions League places. They are in action again in the Italian top flight on November 26 when they take on Udinese at the Stadio Olimpico.