EXCLUSIVE: Jose Mourinho’s next move after Fenerbahce sacking revealed

Robin Bairner

• Updated: 30 Aug 2025 06:44 CDT
• 4 min read

Exclusive

Jose Mourinho was sacked as Fenerbahce manager on Friday, leaving one of the most legendary coaches in the game on the job hunt.

A former boss at the likes of Manchester United, Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur and Real Madrid, Mourinho has established himself as one of the modern greats, having secured a raft of silverware during an illustrious career in the dugout.

While the 62-year-old Portuguese will no doubt attract interest from numerous clubs around the world over the course of the next few months, he has already highlighted one role that he wishes to take.

Speaking on The Transfers Podcast powered by FootballTransfers, insider Duncan Castles has revealed that Mourinho wants to take the jump into international football. This is no knee-jerk reaction to being sacked by Fenerbahce, but instead is something that the manager has been considering for several months.

“We flagged this up ahead of the summer that Mourinho wanted to leave Fenerbahce after his first season there. He wanted the Portugal national team job and was pushing hard to get it,” Castles explained.

“The president of the Portuguese Federation wanted to appoint him. The issue was compensation. Ideally for Mourinho, he would have been dismissed by Fenerbahce in the summer after failing to win the Turkish league in his first season there and would have been free to join Portugal without compensation.

“The other complication was Roberto Martinez, who then went and won the UEFA Nations League, which made it much more difficult for the federation to make a change.”

Mourinho ‘hopeful’ of Portugal job after the World Cup

After missing out on the post last summer due to circumstances outside his control, Mourinho could well take the job in little under 12 months.

“My guidance has been for several weeks now that Mourinho has continued to target that job and is hopeful of taking it after Martinez has taken Portugal to the 2026 World Cup,” Castles continued.

“That’s the job he’s looking for. I think he’s made it a lot more complicated for himself to get it because it wasn’t a very elegant dismissal process. We saw Mourinho criticise the transfer market policy of Fenerbahce ahead of a crucial Champions League playoff against Benfica, talking about how individuals like Edson Alvarez came too late.

“He also criticised that not enough effort had gone into trying to sign Marco Asensio from PSG. I understand the deal was in place if Fenerbahce had qualified for the Champions League, and now there’s a good chance he’ll go back there.”

Mourinho will be no doubt hopeful of leading Portugal into the 2030 World Cup, which will take place across his homeland as well as Spain and Morocco.

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