It came out of nowhere, yet, the anticipation to it had been building. Jose Mourinho getting sacked by AS Roma is one of those moves where it doesn’t seem unexpected considering their results but still comes as shocking. Already, the rumours of Jose Mourinho’s next club have started cropping up.
Of course, that’s natural with a personality like Mourinho, who’s box-office viewing. Despite the sour ending, he remains the only coach in Roma history to win a European title in more than six decades. If not for a contentious finals loss to Sevilla, he’d have followed the Conference League win with a Europa League victory.
However, their lack of good league performances and the inability to beat stronger teams ultimately sealed his date. Still, one can argue that Mourinho has left with his reputation intact as that of a person of delivers trophies.
So, which could be Jose Mourinho’s next club? Here are most likely options:
Saudi Arabian league
Mourinho never missed a chance to remind everyone this season that he rejected the chance to become football’s highest-paid coach when he said no to Saudi League’s offer to coach a team in the league.
It is not yet clear what the team was but the Gulf state chasing after a big name in the dugout isn’t remotely surprising.
After his sacking by AS Roma, there aren’t many natural landing spots for the Portuguese so this time, he might actually decide to rake in the dough by moving to Saudi.
Ronaldo’s favourite, Luis Castro currently has the reins of the club and the Portuguese hasn’t had a very close relationship with Mourinho anyways. However, if Saudi Arabia wants box-office, there aren’t many pairings more box-office than Ronaldo managed by Jose Mourinho.
Elsewhere, Jaissle joined Al-Ahli only at the start of the season while struggling Al-Ittihad recently hired Marcelo Gallardo. Al Hilal are flying with Jorge Jesus so Al-Nassr remains the most logical option as well.
Good move in footballing terms? Debatable. Good move to bring more eyeballs to the league? Slam dunk.
Chelsea
Here we go again. Despite managing so many clubs since his rise at Benfica, there remains something special that attaches him to Chelsea’s fabric as it does to no other club. Perhaps it’s because he led Chelsea’s maiden charge to becoming a Premier League elite, or his homecoming which promised so much before turning sour.
The third time’s the charm, as they say, and Mauricio Pochettino’s Chelsea might end up causing that job to become vacant earlier than expected.
What could go wrong with handing the reins of multiple youngsters on eight-year contracts to Jose Mourinho? A lot, but it definitely put the Portuguese back in the limelight where he became “A Special One”.
FC Porto
Run it back where it all began? Make no mistake, FC Porto aren’t doing badly under Sergio Conceicao, but they are currently the third-best team in a league that has only three genuine contenders (Sporting are first and SL Benfica are second).
They did reach the next round in the UCL but if they lose there, as is expected when they face Arsenal, the spectre of a homecoming for their legend could be in the offing.
It could be the case that after being in the grind of Serie A with a team that was never really expected to challenge for the title, Mourinho fancies a return to his home.
With Porto, he will have a bonafide league contender, and any scalps he manages to take in Europe will rebuild his legend.
At this stage of his career, Mourinho runs as much on the cult of his personality as he does on the results under his coaching. There is perhaps no other club where that cult of personality will be as strong as it will be at FC Porto.
Run it back.