Does Fenerbahçe boss Jose Mourinho have any magic left to beat Man United?

ISTANBUL, Turkey — It’s about 40 minutes before kick-off on Sept. 21 when Jose Mourinho steps out at Sukru Saracoglu Stadium and braces himself for a taste of the atmosphere ahead of his first Intercontinental Derby as Fenerbahçe manager.


 


Fenerbahçe vs. Galatasaray is one of the most hostile rivalries in football. There were riots in 2012 when a 0-0 draw confirmed Galatasaray as Turkish champions; shops were smashed and police vehicles were set on fire. In May, after Fenerbahçe won 1-0 at Galatasaray, there was a brawl on the pitch.

Outside the stadium, a sea of home fans in yellow and blue are marshalled by hundreds of police with helmets and riot shields. There’s an armoured van positioned close to the entrance and an outer ring of steel fencing, a water cannon on its roof just in case. Inside, Mourinho watches from the touchline as the Fenerbahçe players leave their warm up, one by one, to jog through Galatasaray’s half of the pitch and punch the air three times to whip up the fans behind the goal.

It’s unnecessary, but Mourinho loves it in the same way he seemed to take pleasure in provoking Barcelona boss Pep Guardiola during his time at Real Madrid or the caustic insults aimed at Arsenal’s Arsene Wenger when he was at Chelsea.

His enjoyment is short-lived.

Galatasaray have won the Turkish championship in each of the last two years, and four of the past seven seasons. Fenerbahçe haven’t won it since 2014 and Mourinho is here to change their fortunes, except his side are 2-0 down inside 30 minutes and eventually lose 3-1.

Mourinho disappears down the tunnel, stone-faced, and it’s not much longer before he slips out of the stadium altogether to return to his hotel overlooking the Bosphorus. There’s bemusement in a room full of Turkish journalists when he skips his postmatch news conference.

Twenty years ago this week, Mourinho’s Chelsea were hammering Blackburn 4-0 at Stamford Bridge. Having arrived from FC Porto as a Champions League winner, he turned Chelsea into a physical, organised juggernaut as they won their first English title for 50 years. He won the treble at Inter Milan, including his second Champions League title, and after moving to Real Madrid, he went head-to-head with Guardiola’s Barcelona — considered by some as the greatest club side ever assembled — and won LaLiga. Back at Chelsea following his stint at the Bernabeu, he won his third Premier League title.

If that was Mourinho on the way up, this is Mourinho on the way down.

After being sacked by Manchester United in 2018 amid an tumultuous ending typical of Mourinho’s career — it’s even known as Mourinho’s “third-season syndrome,” marking the year in which his tenures tend to fall apart — he took jobs at Tottenham and then Roma. Both are big clubs in their own right, but neither capable of competing in leagues dominated by more illustrious rivals. Fenerbahçe can at least offer Mourinho the chance to add another league title to his list of honours in the way Tottenham and Roma could not.

“What is ambition, and what is a safe place and comfortability?” Mourinho said pointedly in his first Fenerbahçe news conference. “My house is in London. To have a London club to fight to be six, seventh, eighth, ninth, and to try to make a miracle and qualify for the Europa League; is that ambition?

“Everybody knows I love Italy. To have a team in Italy and you stay always between fifth, sixth and seventh, is that ambition just because I love Italy?”

By moving to Turkey, Mourinho is slowly slipping out of the spotlight, but this week he will be back in its full glare when United — who have their own under-fire coach, Erik ten Hag — visit Fenerbahçe in the UEFA Europa League. Mourinho, with his sharp-tongue and spider-sense for an opponent’s weakness, has revelled in his role as disrupter before. Does he still have any tricks left?

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When Mourinho was looking for a job in the summer, there was surprise among those closest to him that he didn’t hold out for another opportunity in a major European league. There was a significant offer from newly promoted Saudi Pro League side Al Qadisiyah, but a source told ESPN that he was seduced by Fenerbahçe executives who produced an extensive document explaining why he should take over.

The elaborate presentation left a mark on Mourinho, who has been used to selling himself during the interview process rather than the other way around. He likes to feel loved, and Fenerbahçe pulled out all the stops: thousands of fans greeted him at the airport on his arrival and then packed the stadium to watch him sign his contract.

“First of all, I want to thank you for the love that I felt from the first moment that my name was connected with Fenerbahçe,” said Mourinho. “Normally a coach is loved after victories, but in this case I feel I am loved before victories.”


 


According to a source, Mourinho has always been keen to work in Turkey after the atmosphere during Real Madrid’s trip to Galatasaray in the Champions League in 2013 made a lasting impression. Former Galatasaray manager Fatih Terim is a close friend. Yet Mourinho knows the status he still holds and as if to make the point that he’s perhaps too big for Turkey, he’s claimed part of his motivation to move to Fenerbahçe is to help promote the league and the country.

“I bring attention with me so more people in Europe will follow the Turkish league,” he said at his unveiling.

The Midas touch that helped win league titles in four countries between 2003 and 2015 might be fading, but Mourinho’s appetite for a mischievous quote remains as strong as ever — particularly ahead of big games.
Fenerbahçe against Galatasaray doesn’t need much to set it off and Mourinho — always comfortable fighting fire with fire — was seemingly intent on pouring petrol on the flames.

In the build-up, he accused Turkish referees of favouring Galatasaray and used the media to tell their new signing, Napoli loanee Victor Osimhen, that he dives too much.

“I don’t have problems with Victor,” said Mourinho. “In fact we have a very good relationship, but every time I play against him I speak with him because I don’t like the way he behaves. He dives too much.”

Galatasaray board member Aykutalp Derkan responded by saying the comments were part of a “targeted attack” and called on their supporters to fight back against Mourinho’s “campaign.” In the end, though, it’s Galatasaray’s players who do the talking in the derby and they waste no time rubbing it in, posting a picture of Mourinho on their social media accounts titled “The Crying One.”

After the game and with Mourinho long gone, Fenerbahçe vice president Acun Ilıcalı attempted to head off any hint of discontent in an interview with TV crews waiting in the darkness on the street outside the stadium’s front entrance.
”We are very sorry … It was a defeat we did not expect. We have faith in our players and our coach. I am optimistic about the future but today, of course, I am very sad. As the management, we are sorry.”




“He’s expected to win championships,” Fenerbahçe fan Halil Ugras tells ESPN. “He’s a very big coach who has achieved great success in Europe, and we are sure that those successes will also be achieved here.”




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The draw for this season’s competition has handed Mourinho a reunion with United, and his time at Old Trafford is an almost perfect example of his pattern at most of the clubs he’s worked at.

There was the initial charm offensive, calling the job “the one everyone wants” on his first day. Trophies followed with the 2017 League Cup and 2017 Europa League, but by the summer of 2018, the first cracks started to appear.
 A new contract signed in January — secured after some public flirtation with Paris Saint-Germain — didn’t prevent a full breakdown in his relationship with the club only a few months later.

Mourinho became convinced that then-chief executive Ed Woodward wouldn’t sanction the departure of striker Anthony Martial because he was co-owner Joel Glazer’s favourite player. Woodward, with the recruitment department behind him, refused demands from Mourinho to sign a centre-back he deemed vital to his chances of catching Guardiola’s Manchester City.


 


Club bosses were then furious with an interview Mourinho gave during the preseason tour of the U.S. when he said he was “just hoping to survive and not have some very ugly results,” while offering sympathy to United winger Alexis Sánchez for having to deal with “these players he has around him.”

Mourinho, according to a source, was so unhappy during the trip to America that he almost pulled the plug on a segment for James Cordon’s “The Late Late Show” which had taken months to negotiate. Mourinho made it known on the morning of filming at UCLA that he wanted it cancelled, only to change his mind at the last minute and leave panicked staff breathing a sign of relief.


By the end of Mourinho’s United reign, the atmosphere around Carrington was being described as “toxic.” Woodward could accept his abrasive nature with players, staff and the media when the team was winning, but not when results began to spiral. There were increasing complaints from within the squad until United felt they had to make a change.

United started the season with just five wins from their first 13 games, and Mourinho was eventually sacked after a 3-1 defeat to Liverpool in December. According to the club, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was brought in to put “smiles back on faces.” It was meant in reference to the fans, but it was also true of the players.

“[Solskjaer] is so positive, he’s so upbeat all the time and I think you can see that rubbing off on individuals,” assistant Michael Carrick said shortly after Solskjaer had taken the reins. “That goes a long way to bringing the best out of the players.”

It felt like a pointed statement coming so soon after Mourinho’s departure. Under Solskjaer, United won their next eight games.

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Mourinho still has his playbook of old tricks — pressuring referees and casual put-downs of opponents — but now into the final throes of his career, he’s working with a different set of tools at Fenerbahçe.
 


There’s no Didier Drogba, Sergio Ramos or Wesley Sneijder like he enjoyed at Chelsea, Real Madrid and Inter Milan. Instead he’s got a 38-year-old Edin Dzeko, former Leicester City centre-back Caglar Söyüncü and Brazilian midfielder Fred, a player no longer deemed good enough for United.

After the derby defeat, he accused his team of being “naive” in twice conceding goals from throw-ins and a few days later, with the defeat still making headlines, Mourinho was asked why Fenerbahçe haven’t yet seen the “Mourinho Effect.”





“What is the ‘Mourinho Effect?'” he answered. “Trophies. Cups. We cannot win trophies in September.”



Aside from the setback against Galatasaray, Mourinho’s Fenerbahçe have started well. They’ve won five and drawn one of their seven Super Lig games and are unbeaten in the Europa League group stage, but it hasn’t stopped Mourinho suggesting that this group of players isn’t quite what he’s used to.

He hinted at a lack of quality in the squad in August after Fenerbahçe lost their Champions League play-off against Lille, who finished fourth in Ligue 1 last season, by claiming the Europa League is a more realistic competition for the team to be involved in. It marks a change in his thinking that reflects where he is in his career: Mourinho was once scathing of the Europa League, saying on his return to Chelsea in 2013 that he “didn’t want to win it” because “it’s not our level.”

As Champions League success has become harder to find, Mourinho has been forced to change his view of Europe’s lesser club competitions. He won the Europa League with United in 2017 and lifted the Europa Conference League with Roma in 2022. Doing something similar with Fenerbahçe, who have never reached a major European final, would be a remarkable achievement even for him.

“I think Turkish competition is getting better in the last two or three years due to the players who are arriving,” Galatasaray assistant coach Ismael Garcia tells ESPN. “I still believe the Turkish league has more potential than its show in reality. We should really be fighting to be the sixth competition in Europe. The arrival of Mourinho is super positive for Fenerbahçe and for Turkish football.”

Mourinho speaks like he still believes he’s a Champions League manager. The reality, though, is that he hasn’t managed a game in the competition proper since his Spurs side were knocked out by RB Leipzig in the round of 16 in March 2020.

He might not want to accept it, but if the Europa League is Fenerbahçe’s level, it’s also now his, too.

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Mourinho’s behaviour became a concern for United long before he was finally replaced. For now, though, the fiery streak in his personality is being embraced by Fenerbahçe.

It went down well with fans that Mourinho made a point of saying in his first news conference he would vehemently defend Fenerbahçe. He said that “the shirt is now my skin,” and the quote is splashed across another video playing in the club shop. “It is very important for us that our coach understands our culture,” says Halil Ugras.





In the club shop at their stadium in the Kadikoy district of Istanbul, a Mourinho montage plays on a loop on the giant screen above the racks of shirts and scarfs. But rather than a collection of clips of him lifting trophies, it’s made up of some of his notable controversies. There’s footage of him smashing a case of water bottles on the touchline at Old Trafford and provoking the Barcelona fans at Camp Nou after knocking them out of the Champions League with Inter in 2010.

There’s another clip of him cupping his ear to the Juventus fans after leading United to victory in Turin in 2018, and also beating the Chelsea badge on his jacket after winning at Anfield to end Liverpool’s Premier League title hopes in 2014. The video finishes with the picture of Mourinho smiling above the caption “to be continued.”




“Mourinho has always been the most disliked coach in the league, especially by rival fans,” Ugras said. “It’s because of how hungry he is to win. His character is perfectly suited for Fenerbahçe. It’s the embodiment of Fenerbahçe.”

As things stand, Mourinho is set to spend the next two years at Fenerbahçe.
They’re hoping he can take them back to the top of Turkish football, while Mourinho — although he would never admit it — is looking to bring back some of the shine to his reputation and maybe get another chance further up the ladder.

While coaching contemporaries Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp have spoken about retiring in their 50s, Mourinho hasn’t ruled out working into his 70s. When his club career is over, he would be open to taking on an international job; in Portugal, it’s considered a matter of time before he takes over their national team.

For now, according to a source, he has “too much energy” for just a handful of matches a year. The way he prowled up and down the touchline against Galatasaray — shouting, clapping, arguing — proved the point.

Pitted against one of his former clubs in the Europa League this week, it will be another chance for Mourinho to show a glimpse of that old magic — and perhaps that famous love of mischief.