JOSE MOURINHO effectively confirmed himself as the new manager of Fenerbahce during TNT Sports’ Champions League final coverage at Wembley.
The Portuguese coach, 61, is being heavily linked with taking over the Turkish giants after being sacked by Roma in January.
And he appeared to all but confirm his arrival during his role as a pundit on Saturday night.
During an interview in front of the Wembley pitch, Manchester United legend Rio Ferdinand asked him: “Who is the most famous person in your phonebook?”
After initially not understanding the question, Mourinho pondered for a second before hilariously saying: “At the moment it is the president of Fenerbahce.”
Ferdinand burst into laughter, before Mourinho also managed a snigger.
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The former Chelsea and Real Madrid boss has been linked with a litany of jobs in recent weeks, including the sporting director’s role at Saudi Pro League side Al-Qadisiyah.
He recently outlined the minimum requirements for his next role.
He told The Telegraph: “The only thing I want is that the targets and the objectives have to be established by everyone in a fair way.
“I cannot go to a club where, because of my history, the objective is to win the title. No.
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“The only thing I want is that it has to be fair. Do you think if I was at a big Premier League club and we were sixth, seventh, eighth, in the table, I still have a job?
“What I am saying is people [should] look at me the way they look at others.
“What is important for me is if the club has objectives and for me to be able to say I am ready to fight for these.
“I don’t want to say realistic, but [at least] semi-realistic. Because when I went to Roma nobody was dreaming about European Cup finals and we did it.
“It’s not possible I go to a club almost relegated and the objective is to win the Champions League. It’s good but it is not fair.”
Ex-Prem stars at Fenerbahce
JOSE MOURINHO will have a whole host of familiar faces in his dressing room when he takes over at Fenerbahce.
There are no fewer than SIX players in the Turkish giants’ squad who previously played in the Premier League.
They are:
- EDIN DZEKO Fenerbahce’s club captain was at Man City from 2011 to 2016, scoring 72 goals in 189 appearances, including the dramatic equaliser before THAT Sergio Aguero winner vs QPR
- MICHY BATSHUAYI Belgian forward arrived to much fanfare at Chelsea in 2016 but five loans in six years, two of them to Crystal Palace, showed it didn’t quite work
- FRED Man Utd spent £52m on the Brazilian holding midfielder who formed half of the underwhelming’McFred’ partnership and won just the League Cup in five years at Old Trafford
- DUSAN TADIC Serbian forward enjoyed four seasons at Southampton before returning to the Eredivisie with Ajax, reaching the Champions League semi-finals
- RYAN KENT Technically didn’t play in the Premier League but made one FA Cup appearance for boyhood club Liverpool then left for Rangers in 2019
- CENGIZ UNDER A disappointing season on loan at Leicester in 2020-21 from Roma, scoring two goals in 19 appearances for the Foxes who did not trigger their option to buy the Turkish winger.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
