Jose Mourinho opens up on Real Madrid return after potential Benfica farewell - Reporter notebook

He's been the Special One. He's been the Happy One. Now it seems Jose Mourinho is the Chosen One. Chosen to return to Real Madrid 13 years after he left. 

For weeks the Benfica boss has done his best to bat away questions about his future.

But, after ending the Portuguese league season with a 3-1 win at Estoril on Saturday night, a campaign in which his side has gone unbeaten, Mourinho admitted for the first time that becoming the next Real Madrid manager is on the cards.

And things could move quickly. "My future should be decided this week," Mourinho told me at his press conference. "I need time. I need space. I need time to make my decision. This week I think will be very important.

"I don't have a proposal from Real Madrid. But to hide, to say there is nothing, I cannot do that. There is something. But not with me directly."

Real Madrid President Florentino Perez has not spoken to Mourinho. But he has spoken to Mourinho's agent Jorge Mendes.

A clause in Mourinho's two-year Benfica contract, signed just eight months ago, allows him to walk away for £2.6m. Small change to a club like Real Madrid. He has other options too.

Staying at Benfica is one. He's been offered an improved deal. But is very unlikely to accept it. There is also a long-standing offer to manage Portugal's national team.

They want him to take charge after this World Cup to prepare for the next, on home soil. The 2030 tournament will be shared between Portugal, Spain and Morocco. But Real Madrid looks by far the most likely next destination.

Mourinho and Perez remain close. So much so Mourinho refers to the Real Madrid president as "FP" in private.

"We are close for 13 years," Mourinho says. "But that doesn't mean I've been in the club for the last 13 years or that I am going to be. We were always close and that doesn't mean anything I believe."

Perez and Mourinho almost reunited in 2021 – but the Portuguese had just committed himself to Roma. There are no such issues this time.

Sixteen years on from first appointing Mourinho, Perez hopes his friend can repeat some of the success of his first spell at the Santiago Bernabeu.

Who could forget Real Madrid's 100-point season to win LaLiga in 2011/12? It had been four years without a league title at that point. Real have gone the past two seasons without being Spanish champions.

Mourinho's Real Madrid win rate of 72 per cent has not been bettered by any of those who followed him, Zinedine Zidane and Carlo Ancelotti included.

The fact that Perez has called an election is no obstacle either. As things stand, with no opponent yet declared, he will be re-elected unopposed next weekend on the day of Real Madrid's final game against Athletic Club.

Few journalists here in Lisbon expect anything other than a second spell in Madrid for Mourinho.

Veteran sports reporter Nuno Luz of the SIC television channel, who has covered Mourinho for over 30 years, told me, "I have no doubt that he will be the next Real Madrid manager.

"For Mourinho, it is crucial to return to the very epicentre of world football. Managing Real Madrid again, especially with the benefit of his past experience there, will provide him with the tools to succeed at a club that is currently riddled with internal issues."

Mourinho will leave Benfica with that invincible record - only the fifth team to achieve it this millennium - but without Champions League football next season. No defeats but no medals either.

"It's a great thing," Mourinho told me moments after the final whistle. "It's the first time in my career. Being invincible, I never did it. I would change that for the title. No doubt about that. But it's something that reflects the mentality and togetherness of the team.

"It's something to make me proud as the leader of the group."

There were fewer than 5,000 at the Estadio Antonio Coimbra da Mota to see what is more than likely to be Mourinho's latest game in charge of Benfica.

The man himself was suited and booted for the occasion. But only a handful of photographers were there to capture it. A far cry from the global media circus that awaits him in the Spanish capital.

The Bernabeu awaits the Chosen One. Madrid now seems inevitable.