PROFILE - Mourinho seeks new challenges with Fenerbahce after record-breaking achievements

By Selcuk Bugra Gokalp

Fenerbahce's newly-appointed head coach Jose Mourinho, one of the most successful football coaches in history, is after new challenges with the Turkish Super Lig powerhouse.

Nicknamed "The Special One", Mourinho has been unveiled on Sunday as Fenerbahce senior team's new boss. He got a warm welcome in Istanbul, and a signing ceremony for him was held.

Serkan Akcan, beIN SPORTS commentator and writer for Turkish sports daily Fanatik, told Anadolu on Monday that Mourinho is the greatest signing in Fenerbahce's 117-year history.

"Fenerbahce made the biggest transfer in their history with the Mourinho move," Akcan said and added, "The fact that Mourinho being a trendsetting manager is universally recognized. Since the UEFA Champions League final on June 1, Mourinho has been doing Fenerbahce's PR."

Akcan also talked about the financial aspect and the impact on possible major transfers of Mourinho move.

"Top coaches like Mourinho want a squad budget as much as they want a salary. I think Fenerbahce fans should be as excited about the possible squad as Mourinho is. There is no doubt that there are many footballers today who would want to be in Mourinho's team," he said.

"From now on it's up to the Fenerbahce management to use their influence to sign the most elite players they can sign for the missing positions, without stepping in Mourinho's authority," Akcan added.

The 61-year-old Portuguese head coach has bagged 26 trophies during his successful career, including all three UEFA club trophies -- the Champions League, Europa League and Europa Conference League.

Mourinho previously won the top-tier Champions League with Porto and Inter Milan, the second-tier Europa League with Porto and Manchester United, and the Europa Conference League with Roma.

The Europa Conference League is the third-tier UEFA competition after the Champions League and the Europa League, and it was founded in 2021.

- From interpreter to coach

Mourinho has had a different coaching career than his colleagues from the very beginning. He began his football staff days by studying sports science at the Technical University of Lisbon.

His proneness to foreign languages opened the way for him to be an interpreter for famous English manager Sir Bobby Robson at Sporting Lisbon in 1992, and he joined him as an assistant coach at Porto in 1994.

After winning two Portuguese league titles in 1994 and 1996, Robson was offered a job by Spanish club Barcelona, and Mourinho did not leave his side.

The duo parted ways as Robson left the club after bagging the Spanish Cup and UEFA Cup Winners Cup in 1997.

The Cup Winners Cup was abolished in 1999.

But Mourinho stayed at Barca to become a translator and assistant to famous Dutch manager Louis van Gaal. Barcelona had a short term of success with van Gaal until his departure in 2000. Mourinho and van Gaal won two Spanish La Liga titles (1998 and 1999), the UEFA Super Cup in 1998, and the Spanish Cup the same year.

Mourinho also left the Spanish club to try his hand at full club management, returning to his home country to join Benfica in 2000.

- Making a name for himself

After some good results with Benfica, including a 3-0 win against reigning champions Sporting, he left the club after just nine games because with his famous non-bending character, he quarreled with the club’s board.

After a short stint with Portuguese club Uniao de Leiria, he joined Porto in 2002.

He joined The Dragons mid-season, but the team won 11 of the 15 games left in the fixture and made their way to the UEFA Cup.

The second-tier UEFA Cup was rebranded the Europa League before the 2009-10 season.

Mourinho left his first historic mark in the 2002-03 season as his team Porto managed to clinch a "Famous Treble" – winning a domestic title, domestic cup and European cup in the same season – as they sealed the Portuguese League, Portuguese Cup and UEFA Cup.

Despite losing an important player, Helder Postiga, Porto raised the bar next season as they won the Champions League this time along with the Portuguese league and Portugal Super Cup.

In the 2004 final, Porto beat Monaco 3-0 as Mourinho's men stunned the football authorities with a Champions League fairy tale.

Mourinho left his post as a Porto legend.

- Flying over Europe: Chelsea, Inter, Real Madrid days

Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich purchased England club Chelsea reportedly for £140 million ($187 million) in 2003 and laid eyes on major trophies.

In the Abramovich era, the club had big signings to create a powerful team for both the English Premier League and European campaign.

After Claudio Ranieri's exit, Chelsea hired Mourinho as their manager in June 2004.

Several important players, including Ivorian forward Didier Drogba, Dutch winger Arjen Robben and Czech goalkeeper Petr Cech joined Mourinho's Chelsea.

Chelsea won their first title in 50 years with a Premier League record of 95 points in the 2004-05 campaign and won the English League Cup, but they were eliminated by Liverpool in the Champions League semifinals.

The Blues clinched their second consecutive title the following season and bagged the Community Shield.

Mourinho's Chelsea lost the 2006-07 Premier League title to Sir Alex Ferguson's Manchester United but won the English FA Cup, and the League Cup. He left Chelsea in 2007 without any defeats in 60 home games and joined the Italian club Inter Milan in June 2008.

In his first season at Inter, he guided the Nerazzurri to the Serie A and Italian Super Cup championships.

Mourinho marked another historic season of his career in the 2009-10 campaign as he won the 2010 Champions League title.

Inter clinched a "treble" after beating Germany's Bayern Munich 2-0 in the Champions League final at Madrid's Santiago Bernabeu Stadium.

In the same season's Champions League semis, Inter eliminated 2009 champions Barcelona as Mourinho faced his former mentor van Gaal in the Madrid final.

Following this triumph, Mourinho left Inter to join Spanish powerhouse Real Madrid.

Mourinho extended his unbeaten home run record to 135 games over the nine seasons.

He would later go down in history as the manager with the longest unbeaten run for matches played at home after extending his run to 150 games from March 16, 2002 to Real Madrid's 0-1 defeat against Sporting Gijon at Madrid's Santiago Bernabeu Stadium on April 2, 2011.

His first season with the Whites was below-par, as they only clinched a Copa del Rey (Spanish Cup) title.

Pep Guardiola's Barcelona -- one of the best Barcelona teams in history -- won the La Liga and the 2011 Champions League after eliminating Real Madrid in the semifinals.

But Mourinho's so-called "second-season-charm" worked again in the 2011-12 season and Real Madrid grabbed a historic La Liga championship with 100 points by breaking both point and goal records of the league, but could not win any other title.

Then he left Real Madrid in 2013.

- Back to Premier League

Struggling Chelsea wanted to return to its good old successful days, so they knocked on Mourinho's door once again and the second "Special One" era at Chelsea began in the summer of 2013.

His first season with Chelsea finished without any titles, but he built up his squad for the following season, making new signings, including future star Mohamed Salah from Egypt.

Mourinho won the Premier League title and the League Cup the following season, but his third season was disastrous for both him and the Blues, as Chelsea placed 10th in the league and finished the 2015-16 season without any trophy, so Mourinho left the club without waiting for the season to end.

In the 2016-17 season, he was appointed the manager of Manchester United, another Premier League club.

The Red Devils finished the league in the sixth spot but won the Europa League, the League Cup and the Community Shield.

After two more seasons without any success, Mourinho took his leave from Man Utd in December 2018.

- From Rome to Istanbul

After coaching Premier League's Tottenham Hotspur between 2019 and 2021, Mourinho signed with Roma in July 2021 to guide them to their maiden UEFA trophy, the 2022 Conference League title.

So he became the first and only head coach to clinch all three UEFA competitions’ trophies.

He left his post at Roma in January and then joined Türkiye's Fenerbahce on Sunday.

The world famous manager, who has won championships in every league he has coached a team in, promised to "improve" Fenerbahce and assured the Yellow Canaries' fans that "their dreams are now his dreams."