José Sena Goulão / Lusa
José Mourinho, Rui Costa: Who is the coach who says no to Benfica?
Real Madrid made official with Benfica the signing of José Mourinho, and the payment of the termination clause that linked the Portuguese coach to the Luz club. Mourinho leaves, Marco Silva enters, who signed a two-year contract, with the option for one more.
Benfica made the coach’s departure official this Tuesday Jose Mourinho to Real Madrid, who paid 15 million euros compensation, according to the statement sent by the I League football club to the market regulator.
“Benfica SAD informs that the Real Madrid CF formalized the intention to hire coach José Mário dos Santos Mourinho Félix for the amount of €15,000,000, corresponding to the termination clause of the current sports employment contract, with the coach having given his agreement to this hiring”, reads the statement from the ‘eagles’ sent to the CMVM.
José Mourinho returned to Benfica in September 2025, to replace Bruno Lage, 25 years after his first spell at the Luz club, finishing the I Liga without defeats, but in third positionbehind champion FC Porto and second-placed Sporting.
In addition to staying out of the Champions League next season, Benfica, under the command of the former special onehe was eliminated in the quarter-finals of the Cup of Portugal, against FC Porto, in the League Cup semi-finalsfor Sporting de Braga, and in the play-off to access the round of 16 of the Champions League final, precisely against Real Madrid.
The 63-year-old coach will return to Real Madridafter having spent three seasons with the Merengues, between 2010/11 and 2012/13, winning a Spanish League, a Spanish King’s Cup and a Spanish Super Cup.
Mourinho leaves, Marco Silva enters. The Portuguese is Benfica’s new coach, having signed a two-year contract, with option for a furtherannounced today the club that finished in third place in the I Football League 2025/26.
“Sport Lisboa e Benfica – Futebol, SAD informed the CMVM that it reached an agreement with coach Marco Silva to conclude a sports employment contract to be in force until the end of the 2027/2028 sports season, extendable until 2028/2029”, informed the ‘incarnate’ SAD, in a statement sent to the CMVM.
After five seasons playing for Fulham, Marco Silva ends his career a decade in English footballwho started with Hull City (2016/17), continued at Watford (2017/18) and Everton (2018 to 2019), before moving to the ‘cottagers’, in 2021/22, in what was the only season in which the coach did not play in the Premier League.
That year, led the Londoners to the Championship titlethe second tier in England, and respective promotion to the Premier League, in which it achieved, consecutively, a 10th place (2022/23), a 13th (2023/24), an 11th (2024/25) and again an 11th (2025/26), always with records in the region of 50 points (52 in 2022/23, 47 in 2023/24, 54 in 2024/25 and 52 in 2025/26).
With a coaching career started at Estoril Praiathe club where he left as a player and where he was also sporting director for a few months, won the II League title with the Estorilistas in the first seasonin 2011/12, and in the following two, he took them, respectively, to fifth and fourth place in the main division, as well as qualifying for the Europa League in both.
Afterwards, went to Sporting and, in his only season in charge of the ‘lions’, came third in the I Liga and won the Portuguese Cupin the final against Sporting de Braga, in 2014/15.
Between the departure of the ‘green and whites’ and their departure for England, he guided the Greeks of Olympiakosfor which he lifted the Hellenic champion trophy (2015/16).
Marco Silva is the Benfica’s sixth coach since Rui Costa assumed the presidency of the club, in 2021, and, in this period, the eagles were led by Jorge Jesus, Nélson Veríssimo, Roger Schmidt, Bruno Lage and Mourinho.
During this period, the reds just achieved a championship titleunder the command of the German, in 2022/23.
