Tomorrow is the most anticipated football game to be played in the world watched by millions across Europe and the rest of the world. It is the final of the leading competition in the world where everyone wants to play their trade, the UEFA Champions League. Where the two teams, Bayern Munich and Inter Milan take on each other at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid (Spain). Kick off at 19.45. (Yes, it’s on a Saturday for the first time).
This game is attracting more attention on the future of Jose Mourinho (Inter Milan’s Coach), where questions are being asked on where he will be next season after this final. Judging by Mourinho’s previous managerial posts, he likes to move on from the club where he has won all the allocated competitions within the country and succeed within Europe on 2 occasions. When he was at FC Porto (2002-2004), he won the UEFA Cup as well as UEFA Champions Leagues in succession. Then he moved to Chelsea FC (2004-2007), where he did not find his luck within the European club competitions and only had the domestic medals to prove his worth as a manager. Although, his reputation off the field was the charismatic, he was known as ‘The Special One’ by the British media. Quite often his comments in press conference, during the match and post-match would be captivating towards opponents, referees and fans. His Chelsea post came to an end by ‘mutual consent’ after a series of disagreements with club owner Roman Abramovich. Mourinho took a few months out from the game and an opportunity to manage in Italy was his destination with Inter Milan in 2008, where he is still coaching. His persona is almost pragmatic as he wants to win everything he can grab his hands to. Once he wins whatever he can, he moves on to seek for a new challenge.
This is why I think, if he wins with Inter Milan the Champions League which would complete his treble this season with already winning Serie A and the Coppa Italia, he will move on to another club. All eyes will be on Madrid, where Real Madrid could be the future for Jose Mourinho. The reason why he would choose Real Madrid is because he has been successful in Portugal, England and Italy. Although, having being Sir Bobby Robson’s interpreter at Barcelona in 1990’s, the fans were not impressed by him. There could be many other reasons for him to coach Real Madrid but based on his previous spells as managers who prefers to go to teams where he adds players to the squad where they have come close to achieving silverware or having already won some silverware. Chelsea FC was being heavily invested by owner Abramovich which led to millions of pound signings (Duff, Bridge, J.Cole, Johnson, Veron, Crespo, Makelele, Mutu, Cech, A.Cole and Robben). This Chelsea team was already on the verge of triumph with the money being invested and Mourinho still brought in the likes of Tiago, Essien, Drogba, Kezman, Carvalho and Ferreira. The similar situation happened at Inter Milan, they were already champions of Italy for two seasons and the team was built by Mancini which had world class talent on display. Some players in the squad were Ibrahimovic, Julio Cruz, Cesar, Maicon, Vieira, Cambiasso, Zanetti, Samuel, Chivu and Adriano. Mourinho added his own signings with Mancini, Muntari and Quaresma and he won the Italian Supercup, in addition to the last season he added Sneijder, Lucio, Milito, Pandev, Tiago Motta and the swap deal of Eto’o in exchange for Ibrahimovic.
I cannot see Pep Guardiola leaving Barcelona as they are crowned the newly Spanish champions and the only destination for Mourinho would be Real Madrid as he has hinted he wants to coach a team in Spain. Also he declared he wanted to coach his national team Portugal before he retires from the game. His mentality and enthusiasm for the game will aid Real Madrid because there are world classed players who were brought in last summer’s spending spree with the likes of Kaka, Cristiano Ronaldo, Benzema and Alonso. He is the person who can deal with ego’s surrounding the club and he will put football professionals in their place if they get the wrong side of him. If he decides to join Real Madrid, he’ll be able to spend as Madrid president Florentino Perez has a no nonsense style with the cheque book. Areas Real Madrid will need to improve would be their defence possibly a centre back and left back and another striker depending on legendary Raul leaving the famous white shirt. So tomorrow’s game will be entertaining and let’s hope it will provide a spectacular game for the neutrals. Most importantly we will find out the future of Mourinho’s destiny.
