Jose Mourinho guided Inter Milan to Champions League glory and then confirmed he will hold talks with Real Madrid on Monday. Inter beat Bayern Munich 2-0 at the Santiago Bernabeu in Saturday’s big European final, but Mourinho,
having won an historic treble with the Italian giants, claimed he now has other coaching challenges ahead.
Having become only the third coach to have won Europe’s premier competition with two different clubs (he won with Porto in 2004) Mourinho said he now wants to go one better.
“I want to be the only coach to win the Champions League with three different clubs,” he said. “It’s more likely that I will leave rather than stay.”
Mourinho, who joined Inter two years ago, and has also won two Serie A titles and an Italian Cup, is being courted by Real Madrid. He confirmed that he will meet Madrid president Florentino Perez on Monday.
“Only Real are interested in me but I haven’t spoken with anyone and I haven’t signed anything,” said the Portuguese coach, who has delivered Inter’s first European title since 1965.
“When I win I don’t stop and in Italy I have won everything. I’ve won the Champions League with two clubs and I can do it with three. There are many things (in Italy) that I haven’t liked and for three to four months I’ve been thinking of going.”
He said that only after speaking to Perez will he know if Real can offer him what he wants. I don’t know their project yet, I need to know it first and that’s why I can’t (yet) say I’m the coach of Madrid,” he said.
“I’m the Inter coach, I’m very proud to be Inter coach but if I become Real coach it will be because they are a club with enormous ambition, because they want the same as me, to win and to tackle important and difficult challenges. It seems that Madrid is a club that wants to win important things but to do so it’s not the shirt that wins, it’s not money, it’s mentality, being ready to play for the club and being together and that’s why I’m happy at Inter, it’s a fantastic family.” — AFP