Bernardo Silva next: Ranking Jose Mourinho’s 14 Portuguese signings for non-Portuguese clubs | OneFootball

Jose Mourinho has made a habit of signing Portuguese players throughout his career and is about to repeat the trick by taking Bernardo Silva to Real Madrid.

Often picking players from the pool represented by his own agents, Mourinho has linked up with several of his countrymen in different territories.

It all began with a big focus on Portuguese talent at the start of his Chelsea reign and his commitment to compatriots remains unwavering.

Here’s our ranking of Mourinho’s compatriots that he’s signed for non-Portuguese clubs.

14. Nuno Morais (Chelsea)

More like ‘Who?’-no Morais.

Guys?

Signed from Portuguese second-tier side Penafiel in the same summer Mourinho was appointed by Chelsea in 2004, the defensive midfielder only made four Premier League appearances.

He ultimately sailed off to spend more than a decade in Cyprus with APOEL. Fair play.

13. Gedson Fernandes (Tottenham Hotspur)

A total waste of time for everyone involved.

Most 21 year olds about to join a club on loan with an option to buy worth more than £40m must be decent; Spurs never bothered to find out when it came to Fernandes.

The midfielder seriously struggled for gametime during his year on loan with Spurs, never starting a Premier League game.

“All young players want to work with Jose Mourinho because he’s one of the best – all of us as players want to stay near the best, so it’s fantastic to work with him,” Fernandes said upon joining.

Mourinho had respect for Fernandes – “I will never be the one to push him or say that I don’t want him here,” he insisted a couple of months before the 18-month loan was terminated – but just not enough room in his plans for him.

He was the only Portuguese signing Mourinho made during his time with Spurs, with an attempt for a better Fernandes – Bruno – falling short.

12. Renato Sanches (Roma)

To be fair to Sanches, he managed to rebuild his career from being a Swansea City flop to a somewhat respectable midfielder again in France.

But he took a massive step backwards after he joined Roma on loan from PSG in the summer of 2023.

The midfielder scored on his first Serie A start for the club, but it was also his only Serie A start. And it only lasted 45 minutes.

Sanches’ spell with Roma was characterised by seven different injuries within the space of a year. Mourinho didn’t last the course of the season and needless to say, Roma didn’t buy Sanches permanently after he’d gone.

11. Ricardo Quaresma (Inter Milan)

A maverick on his day but it rarely was his day during his Inter spell.

Quaresma cost Inter more than €18m to sign in 2008 and he had a bright start with a debut Serie A trivela goal.

But he never scored for Inter again and Mourinho bemoaned his lack of work for the team.

Just four months after his arrival, Quaresma was binned off on loan to Chelsea and later named the worst player of the season in Serie A.

10. Maniche (Chelsea)

Great for Mourinho at Porto. Not so much at Chelsea.

9. Sergio Oliveira (Roma)

A steady if unspectacular member of the Roma squad that Mourinho led to Europa Conference League glory.

Oliveira joined midway through his first season there on loan from Porto and just about met expectations in midfield, but not enough to earn a permanent move as Mourinho instead proceeded to do what he does best: sign Nemanja Matic.

8. Nelson Semedo (Fenerbahce)

Has by all accounts done fairly well since leaving Wolves for Fenerbahce – where he was Mourinho’s only Portuguese signing – in 2025.

They didn’t work together for long, though. Mourinho was sacked less than a month after the right-back’s arrival.

7. Rui Patricio (Roma)

After thinking it was a good idea to replace Alisson with, erm, future Aston Villa benchwarmer Robin Olsen, and then being let down by one-time Spurs loanee Pau Lopez as his successor, Roma knew they needed a new keeper to appease their new boss Mourinho in 2021.

He turned to his Gestifute stablemate Patricio to fill the void and it cost Roma less than £10m to buy him from Wolves.

It did the trick at first, with Patricio ever-present in his first Serie A season and playing a key part in Roma’s Europa Conference League triumph.

But his form dropped off massively over the next couple of years and he lost his starting place just after Mourinho was sacked in January 2024.

6. Diogo Dalot (Manchester United)

Eight years is a long time in football but that’s how long Dalot has been on Man Utd’s books now.

One of those campaigns was spent on loan at AC Milan but the full-back has been a United first-team regular for the past five seasons.

Is he great? No. But has it been a respectable enough spell? Yeah, we’ll give him that.

His form has been up and down over the years and we never saw his best while he was playing under Mourinho, but almost 250 appearances from a player who cost £19m is a decent return.

Might there be another Mourinho reunion on the cards?

5. Fabio Coentrao (Real Madrid)

Mourinho will be hoping his next Portuguese signing for Real Madrid is as good, if not better, than the last.

Coentrao arrived from Benfica in 2011 in a part-exchange deal with Ezequiel Garay, brought in to add competition for Marcelo at left-back.

He never quite dislodged Marcelo but was a worthy understudy who in a parallel universe would have been a capable starter himself.

Coentrao made 106 appearances for Madrid, winning La Liga at the first time of asking as part of Mourinho’s record-breaking side.

4. Ricardo Carvalho (Real Madrid)

After playing for Mourinho at Porto and Chelsea, Carvalho linked up with the Special One again after his appointment in Madrid in 2010.

Carvalho enjoyed a strong debut season, making 48 appearances, but featured less heavily over the next two.

There had been some scepticism at the time of his move – when he was in his 30s – but Carvalho held up his standards at first.

“I can understand why some criticised the move. I was 32 and I’d been at Chelsea a long time,” he reflected towards the end of his debut season. “I had a physical problem, which started because I was not given time to recover fully. I was out for longer than is normal for a muscular problem. There was pressure, I wanted to play and I got injured again. It was not properly healed and I had a relapse.

“But I was convinced I’d succeed. I knew I’d play well here. It’s a different game and I wanted to prove I was in shape physically and mentally.”

3. Tiago (Chelsea)

Part of the Chelsea squad for Mourinho’s debut season after joining from Benfica, Tiago went on to play more than 50 times.

Despite his importance, Chelsea let him go after a single year, selling him to Lyon to grant his wishes of playing more ahead of the 2006 World Cup.

“He is a wonderful boy and was a very good player for us. We will miss him – the player and the person,” Mourinho said at the time.

Years later, after settling at Atletico Madrid, Tiago revealed Mourinho tried to sign him again for his second Chelsea spell.

2. Paulo Ferreira (Chelsea)

One of the more reliable players of Mourinho’s first Chelsea side, Ferreira followed him from Porto in 2004.

Becoming an important player, the right-back helped Chelsea win the Premier League title in his and Mourinho’s debut season.

Ferreira eventually made more than 200 appearances for Chelsea, where he stayed until retiring in the same summer that Mourinho returned for his second spell with the club.

At his best, Mourinho declared Ferreira as the world’s finest right-back.

1. Ricardo Carvalho (Chelsea)

But it’s another of Mourinho’s all-time favourites – that familiar face of Carvalho – who comes out on top.

Also making the move from Porto to Chelsea in 2004, the centre-back was a consistent player at Stamford Bridge for six years before his second Mourinho reunion in Madrid.

They had their flash-points while working together at Chelsea, but clearly retained a mutual respect.

Carvalho’s final appearance tally for Chelsea was 210 and, like Ferreira, he became a three-time Premier League champion.