2016-05-27 12:49:41
José Mourinho on the way to his apartment in London, he already has the new contract in his pocket. Photo: Will Oliver
(Photo: dpa)
A fine drop of wine to welcome you and a signed three-year contract? On Friday morning, the English football record champion finally made official what had been speculated about for weeks and expected for days: the 53-year-old Portuguese, one of the most dazzling and controversial figures in the coaching business, takes over ManUnited.
“José is quite simply the best coach in the game today,” said General Manager Ed Woodward. Mourinho has been handed a three-year contract with an option for a further year until 2020. In his first ever Instagram post, Mourinho posted a picture with the words “Manchester United Football Club Limited and José Mário dos Santos Mourinho Felix, service agreement”.
“Becoming the manager of Manchester United is a special honour,” Mourinho said. “It’s a club that’s known and admired all over the world.” ManUnited embody a mystique and a romance that no other club can match.
The club of the German national team captain Bastian Schweinsteiger missed out on qualifying for the Champions League in fifth place last season. Winning the FA Cup last Saturday didn’t save Dutchman Louis van Gaal’s job either. So now Mourinho, who was suspended from Chelsea in December due to lack of success, is to lead the club to the top of the Premier League and back to the big European stage. The Red Devils celebrated their last championship in 2013 and their last Champions League success in 2008.
There had been speculation about Mourinho’s involvement for months. It was “football’s worst kept non-secret” for the Guardian. Then everything seemed to happen very quickly: on Tuesday, just one day after the club parted ways with van Gaal, the negotiations became public. But they dragged on. For three days, the media on the island speculated about what was being discussed behind closed doors.
It should have been about image rights and sponsorship contracts. The coronation put the whole thing on top of the message that Mourinho’s former employer Chelsea holds the rights to Mourinho’s name and signature: only the London club, for example, is allowed to sell lingerie in the Portuguese’s name. But that was just a side note.
Most interested now: Which players will “The Special One”, as the 53-year-old is called in England, bring to Old Trafford? Who doesn’t he need anymore? Zlatan Ibrahimovic is being traded, speculating about Schweinsteiger’s future without his sponsor van Gaal. There should be no doubt that Mourinho has negotiated a lavish budget for activities in the transfer market.
“I had a fantastic time with him,” said Ibrahimovic, enthusing about the times together at Inter Milan. Asked if he had a concrete offer from Manchester United, he just chuckled meaningfully into the cameras and said “let’s see what happens”. The Brazilian Willian from Chelsea and the Argentinian Gonzalo Higuain from SSC Napoli are also traded as possible additions.
Schweinsteiger also found words of praise. “Every player would like to train under Mourinho,” he said at the national team’s training camp in Ascona. The DFB captain also knows about the explosiveness of the city derbies in the coming season. At Manchester City, Pep Guardiola is one of Mourinho’s intimate enemies on the bench.
When Guardiola was still a coach at FC Barcelona and the Portuguese at Real Madrid, the two coaches often clashed violently. “It looks like there will be an interesting city duel in Manchester,” said Schweinsteiger.
And the duel against Liverpool FC with the self-proclaimed “Normal One” Jürgen Klopp should also be tough for “The Special One” Mourinho.
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