The Fenerbahce coach is at the National Stadium to watch the match between Portugal and Croatia in view of the 2024 European Football Championships. He spoke about his new adventure in Turkey by throwing digs at his former team.
It’s a spring-loaded Mourinho who speaks before the Portugal’s match with Croatia: “Two good teams, both with chances and aspirations for the European Championship. They will use this match to compete against a good team.
Croatia is a good team, they have retained the hard core of the golden generation. A good match for both. I’m here to see the Croatian goalkeeper (Livakovic), who is mine and I want to see him in action.”
“Roma doesn’t play to win, Italy doesn’t have much talent”
As for the favorites to win the final, Mourinho excludes Italy: “It’s a semantic question. Practically everyone thinks like me. Portugal, England, France, then Germany, Spain. Italy? I do not believe. It’s not a very talented generation. I don’t think they will win again.”
Fenerbahce’s choice: “I missed playing to win. Roma played to win because they said that when I was there they played to win but that wasn’t true. So much so that nothing has changed since my departure. In European competitions it was outside the box, at a national level nothing has changed. Fighting for the championship, which is something that motivates me, which I didn’t have at Roma, I didn’t have at Tottenham. I miss not being able to drop points.”
On the Champions League, he launches a provocation: “There are three play-offs, I have eight players in the European Championship, the first is on 28 July. I asked all the saints to be eliminated as soon as possible. I already told the goalkeeper (Livakovic) that even if he goes to the final, the next day he will return to Istanbul to play.”
The new Fenerbahce coach then talks about the reinforcements: “There is no set budget. It is a team that fought for the championship until the end, it was four points behind Galatasaray, theInternally it’s a good team. But obviously if we want to become champions and do something interesting in Europe we need something. The director (Mário Branco) speaks the same language as me, he is a man of experience, he knows the reality of Turkish football. We won’t know who the president is until tomorrow, but all three have approved my arrival.” Last joke on Rafa Silva: “He’s a great player, but they told me he wasn’t far from Galatasaray.”
