Chelsea manager, Jose Mourinho, has revealed that he snubbed a chance to join Paris Saint-Germain on two separate occasions and also admitted he was never interested in the role at Manchester United.
The Special One is set to take his side to Paris in order to face PSG in the Champions League last-16 first leg tonight, and before the game, he has been talking about how the club approached him on two different occasions to try and manage them.
Mourinho revealed he was asked before he took the job at Real Madrid, and was also asked after he left Madrid.
“I know the PSG project well, I know it well because when they started this project with the owner, the president and director of football Leonardo, I was to be the coach.
“I met them in Qatar, so I know the project well. The project was to start dominating in France, and then to dominate in Europe. The domination in France is there, they are champions, champions, champions.
“They want to dominate in Europe too and, to be fair, you look to Paris in the last two seasons in the Champions League and they lost in the quarter-finals, once narrowly to Barcelona and last season against Chelsea in the last second. So they feel they are there. Paris is a big team with big ambitions.
“I did not take it on because I was in Real Madrid and it was a real ambition for me to be champions in Spain – because I wanted to be a champion in Spain, England and Italy. It was a big challenge for me to compete directly against Barcelona, probably the best team in Europe for the last decade. It was not the right moment for me to go.”
Mourinho also commented on the Manchester United job and whether he ever considered replacing Sir Alex Ferguson.
He added: “I knew Ferguson was retiring months ago and I’m happy with his trust as it was big news.
“I imagine just a small circle of people around him knew about his decision and it was a responsibility for me to know what he planned.
“He told me his plan as we’re friends. And because he’s a friend, I told him the club I wanted to coach in England was Chelsea again.”
Written by Alex Batt – @AlexBatt – @AlexsArticles
