After 25 years, Benfica confirm José Mourinho's return | OneFootball

Benfica has a new coach. The team announced on Thursday the return of José Mourinho, a renowned Portuguese coach who made history in Europe with stints at clubs such as Real Madrid, Chelsea, Porto, and Inter Milan. The commander coached the team from Estádio da Luz in 2000.

After signing the contract and being announced, Mourinho assured he is very motivated to return to the Benfica club after 25 years.

"It's been 25 years, but I'm not here to celebrate my career. I've had the opportunity to work at the biggest clubs in the world and I affirm, as a representative of the millions of Benfica fans around the world, that none of the other giant clubs I've had the opportunity to coach made me feel more honored, more responsible, and more motivated than being the coach of Benfica," said Mourinho.

"In the minds of some people, I have two phases. I have one that lasted a certain period of time and another that would be a less happy phase of my career. My unhappiness is that, in the last five years, I played two European finals, that's the negative part of my career. In the dramatic phase of my career, I played two European finals," Mourinho added.

Photo: MELO MOREIRA / AFP

Benfica Crisis

After the home defeat to Qarabag last Tuesday, in the Champions League, Benfica chose to fire coach Bruno Lage, former Botafogo. He was mainly criticized for the football presented by the team.

For his part, Mourinho had not worked in Portugal since 2004, when he did a historic job at Porto, leading the club to the Champions League title.

Mourinho will make his debut for Benfica this weekend. On Sunday, the club from Estádio da Luz visits AVS, at 2pm (Brasília time), for the Portuguese Championship.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.