The man who has been dubbed the special one is at it again, delivering another trophy, this time Roma’s first major European trophy in their history.
Jose Mourinho admittedly has enjoyed greater moments in his glittering managerial career, but his latest success, even reduced him to shedding a tear.
Europe’s third tier club competition has been ridiculed in some quarters, but that won’t worry the man who is a born winner and is only concerned about delivering trophies.
Mourinho has now become the first manager in history to win all three major European competitions after making it five wins out of five in European finals. He has also become the first manager to win a European trophy with four different clubs, after previous successes at Porto, Inter Milan and Manchester United.
Remarkably, this is the 26th trophy of Mourinho’s managerial career, which started with Porto’s Uefa Cup win back in 2003.
When he was announced as Roma boss last May, he was given the difficult task of building the club back to where it should be in Serie A, challenging for honours after a very disappointing seventh placed finish in 2020-21.
The special one has instilled togetherness in this current Roma side, by bringing their first trophy in 14 years.
There will be some who will point out that this was Mourinho’s first trophy win since capturing the Europa League with Manchester United in 2017.
Former player at United Chris Smalling joined Roma three years ago and is just one player who has really developed under Mourinho this season along with Tammy Abraham who has been a massive success under the special one at Roma after joining from Chelsea last August. In his first season in Italy, he has bagged 27 goals, a European trophy and a place in Gareth Southgate’s England squad.
The 59-year-old has slowly begun to rebuild his reputation following torrid spells in charge of Tottenham and Manchester United in the Premier League which both culminated in acrimonious departures after failing to deliver major trophies to both sides.
With United he won both the EFL Cup and the FA Community Shield but failed to deliver a trophy with Tottenham in his two-year spell with the club.
The doubters will always say that he has lost his winning magic recently, but look back at his record with Chelsea, having won the Premier League title three times in 2004-5, 2005-6 and 2014-15. It was a while ago, but with any manager who can install the belief and get the best out of his group of players, he will always deliver.
Could this success with Roma possibly see the return of Mourinho back to the Premier League at some point in the future? After all, there wouldn’t be too many clubs who if offered would be turning down his services.
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