José Mourinho has signed a two-year contract to manage Turkish giants Fenerbahce and will reunite with his former assistant Ricardo Formosinho, who he last worked with at Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur.
Mourinho, 61, will appear on TNT Sport tonight as a commentator in its coverage of the Champions League final at Wembley, having agreed a two-year deal with Fenerbahçe, who are under pressure to win their first Super Lig title. since 2014.
Mourinho is expected to bring with him a familiar squad, including Formosinho, 67, a former Portuguese player and coach who first worked with Mourinho as part of his team 20 years earlier when he won the Champions League with Porto.
Other Mourinho staff are expected to be regulars, such as fitness coaches Carlos Lalin and Stefano Rapetti and analyst Giovanni Cerra. They all worked with Mourinho in his previous role at Roma. Fenerbahce will announce the full squad line-up, including those who have remained at the club from the previous regime, when they make the official announcement of Mourinho’s appointment in the next 48 hours.
Mourinho arrives at the Turkish club – his 11th spell at 10 clubs over 20 years – with great expectations. There will be a presidential election next week where incumbent Ali Koç will face Aziz Yildirim and both will fully support the new coach having waged a robust campaign. The club has finished second in the last three seasons and is under enormous pressure to win the title in the 2024-2025 season against rivals Galatasaray.
There are also Champions League qualifiers for Fenerbahçe, starting on July 23, when the club enters the second stage.
Formosinho has had a remarkable 34-year coaching career and since 2022 has worked in Morocco, the Sudan Premier League, Bolivia’s Primera Division and, most recently, Cairo’s Modern Future FC. He has also trained in Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Angola and Malaysia, among others. Like Mourinho, he is from the Portuguese city of Setúbal.
