Contract valid until the end of 2026/27. “Who says no to Benfica?” ‘Special One’ returns to Luz, 25 years later, “in a moment of great maturity” and as “coach of one of the best clubs in the world.”
José Mourinho is the new coach of Benfica, with a valid contract until the summer of 2027the president of the Luz Club, Rui Costa, in the Portuguese coach of 63, reported on Thursday at a press conference, already alongside the “Special One”, who made the first words as a man of the incarnate rudder.
“I have so many emotions but the experience helps me control them. I want to thank the trust and honor I feel right now. Being Portuguese, there is not one who doesn’t know the story, the culture of the benfiquist nation, but I want to leave something clear: I have to be able to block all these emotions and look at my work at Benfica in a very simplistic way. I am a coach of one of the best clubs in the world And I want to focus on this, ”said José Mourinho, in Seixal.
“None of the other giants I could train made me feel more honored or motivated than being Benfica coach“He said.” I will live to Benfica, I will live for my mission. “
Contract “respects candidates” to the presidency of Benfica
The details of contractbesides the duration, they are not yet known. Rumors point to 7 million euros gross a year, which would make José Mourinho the best paid Portuguese coach ever.
The contract was prepared with a direction that may fall soon, signed a month from the presidential election. But Mourinho guarantees that the agreement “has a huge ethical respect for other candidates.”
“The day after the elections I will be the coach But the freedom it gives and that under normal conditions there would also be no satisfied. My wish is to fulfill the two years of successfully and that the club wants to renew because I want to be successful at Benfica, ”said the Portuguese coach.
Benfica “has all the conditions” to be champion
In relation to criticismMourinho warns: “I did some blurry, but I am very strong in not feeling the media noise. I am not a maniac with what they say about me and about my team.” And it remembers those who think there is “two curricula” that “in the last five times I played two European finals.”
“In the minds of some people I have two resumes, one that lasted a certain time and another that in some heads is a less happy phase of career. My unhappiness is that in the last five times I played two European finals. But I am not important, I come to a career phase and as a person. I think less about myself, I am less egocentric. It is in your DNA.
For Mourinho, this “is the beginning of a career: now I am in a moment of great maturity“.
“If someone thinks I end up my career in four or five years, they will be fooled. I wanted to be here last night, it was only possible to come tough. I will end up when I feel that something has changed. Today, what I feel is more hungry than 25 years ago at a different stage from the human point of view,” says the 62-year-old coach.
About Campus That awaits him, believes that Benfica current “has all the conditions” and “enough quality in the resort to be champion”.
“[O Benfica] There are two lost points, it will certainly lose some more, I hope not many, ”he confesses.
“We have to bite a lot, because Benfica has bitten little in the last games,” he says. Mourinho will train the team on Thursday afternoon, in the penultimate training before the meeting with AVS.
About the experience in Türkiye, where he went without titles, Mourinho admits: “I did badly to go to FenerbahçeIt was not my level in terms of football, but to return to Benfica is to return to my world. ”
In the dragon, where he was already very happy, he expects “a different reaction”.
“I am a historic coach and I have not returned for 20 years, now returning as a coach of the great rival, I am waiting for something different, but the respect we have will not change,” predicts José Mourinho.
Mourinho returns to light 25 years later to debut as the Eagles’ main coach, at the time of 2000/01, then under the presidency of João Vale and Azevedo, but would come eight games and three months later, in December, already with Manuel Vilarinho as president.
Mourinho’s hiring comes after the club announced, in the early hours of Wednesday, after the defeat in the Champions League debut against Qarabag, with Benfica informed the Securities Market Commission (CMVM) that, 10 days after the last game of the 2025/26, both the club and the coach can terminate contract.
