MADRID, SPAIN – SEPTEMBER 08: Real Madrid head coach Jose Mourinho looks on before the UEFA Champions League 2026/27 Liga Stage MD1 match between Real Madrid CF and FC Internazionale Milano at Estadio Santiago Bernabeu on September 08, 2026 in Madrid, Spain. (Photo by Denis Doyle/Getty Images)
Jose Mourinho has spoken at length about leaving Roma midway through the 2023-24 season, insisting his career at the club is “dead” after losing the Europa League final in 2023 and insisting he was not responsible for the ugly scenes aimed at referee Anthony Taylor and his family at the airport the following day.
Mourinho is set to return to the Stadio Olimpico with Real Madrid in the Champions League on Tuesday (20:00 Baku time) and spoke at length in an interview with Ivan Zazzaroni in the Italian capital. Corriere dello Sport.
Mourinho: “I will never say a bad word about Roma”
The “special one” still looks back on his time at Roma with great fondness. He ended a 14-year wait for the trophy and claimed the first edition of the Conference League in 2021-22 and then led the Giallorossi to their second European final in the Europa League in 2022-23.
That final ended in a penalty shoot-out defeat to Sevilla after a 1-1 draw after extra time, but the game was soon overshadowed by Mourinho’s post-match rant with referee Anthony Taylor in the car park, calling the officials’ performance a “disgrace”.
The following day, Taylor and his family were mobbed at the airport by disgruntled Roma supporters, some of whom threw chairs as they passed through Budapest Airport.
Mourinho says he feels today is the end of his Roma career, but insists he is not responsible for the unpleasant scenes at the airport.
Mourinho told Corriere dello Sport: “I have never said a bad word against Roma and never will, I have nothing bad to say about ownership.”
“I made a negative comment about Thiago Pinto, I apologize for that, but I like to leave clean. Sometimes it may not seem like it, but in personal relationships, at the club, I am a very polite person. I left this job well and I feel that there will always be a home for me, even if not now.
“Coming back to Real Madrid is also coming home, I was there for three years, but it feels like 30 years because it was a special, special period. I came home because of this emotional connection with the club.”
Mourinho: “I was dead on the day of the Europa League final”
Mourinho began discussing his “special” relationship with Roma fans.
“They were special to me. I remember the first day I arrived at Malpensa airport and there were 1,000 people there. I was thinking, ‘I haven’t done anything yet, I’ve only just arrived here, I haven’t even played a game yet, I haven’t scored a point for these people’. It had an impact, I didn’t deserve it.
“After that, I think they realized that I didn’t make a fuss about myself, my image or my relationship with the owners or the ‘politics’ in Italian football, not even with the press.
“They understood that everything for me is Roma and Roma fans. I fought for them and gave everything. We won a competition that maybe means less to some clubs that are used to winning all the time. For a team that doesn’t win that much, it means a lot.
“A friend of mine went to Trigoria recently and sent me a picture of the entrance. The trophy is still there and that’s it. It’s the trophy everyone sees on their way to the training ground.”
Mourinho then discussed the events surrounding the 2023 Europa League final and his disparaging comments about referee Taylor.
“The bond also comes from their love for the club and it always touches you. They understood that I gave everything. I made mistakes, I lost matches, but they always understood that I fought for them. The final in Budapest is the high point of this relationship.
“The final ends, we go on holiday and when I come back I’m already dead. With UEFA, I’m dead and they paid me for something I’m not responsible for.
“What happened at the airport was not my responsibility. I was responsible for insulting the referee in the car park, and I had to pay for it. I had to pay for what happened at the airport, because it was not my fault, but I paid for it. My relationship with the owners, who had a different profile, cost me, and after a few months I came back after the last approach. It came out.”
Mourinho would remain in charge of Roma until next January but insists the Europa League final is the end of his Giallorossi career.
He later added: “I’ve never discussed my relationship with Friedkins publicly. If I were to go back to Rome now and bump into them in the hallway after the game, I’d say hello without a problem. But on the day of the final, I feel like I’m being kicked out.”