Mourinho shows Madrid he is the Real deal (News Feature)

By Peter Auf der Heyde May 23, 2010, 0:25 GMT

Madrid - The last time Jose Mourinho won the Champions League with Porto in 2004 it proved to be his last game on the bench of the Portuguese club.

On Saturday night in the Santiago Bernabeu, Mourinho again won the Champions League as his Inter Milan side beat Bayern Munich 2-0 through a brace from Diego Milito and again it seems more than likely that it was the last game on his side's bench for the one they call The Special One.

The Portuguese said, less than an hour after the victory ceremony, that he will be joining Real Madrid next season and he certainly did his job prospects with the Spanish giants no harm on Saturday.

Although he refused to confirm that in the press conference after the match, his statements seemed to indicate that a parting of ways was imminent.

'If I become coach of Real, it would be because they are a huge club. They want to win. They are like Inter, they want to win not only at home, they also want to win in Europe.'

When asked directly when he was going to speak to Real Madrid president Florentino Perez, he said Monday.

He also confirmed that there were discussions going on between clubs. 'But I don't know my next project yet,' he said.

At the end of the match, tears of joy followed by Mourinho carrying his son through the stadium on his shoulders and taking the Champions League trophy away from players who were holding onto it, were small indicators of the roller coaster ride of emotions that await the Real fans if Perez gets his man.

In Friday's press conference before the final, Mourinho said that the last time he won, he already knew that he was going to leave Porto.

'This time I can't say this. But in a few days maybe we will know more,' before adding: 'I still want to coach in Spain some time.'

Mourinho is a prime example that you do not have to be a good footballer to become a good coach. Although his father Jose Felix Mourinho was capped once for Portugal, his son obviously failed to inherit his talent and soon gave up trying to make a career out of playing.

He moved into management and became an interpreter for Brian Robson at Sporting Lisbon and Porto before following him to Barcelona. There he later became assistant coach to Luis van Gaal, who ironically was in charge of Bayern Munich in Saturday's final.

'I worked like a beast under him, but as we were practically 24/7 and I lived just 50 metres away from him, I learnt a lot. The main thing that I learnt was that you had to work very hard to achieve anything.'

Although he had an opportunity to leave Barcelona and become coach elsewhere after just a year, he decided to stay and learn more under van Gaal.

In 2000, he decided to follow a call from Benfica and he became their coach, but resigned after just nine games when the then president refused to extend his contract.

But his short stint at Benfica had been impressive enough to quickly find him another job and he joined Unioa de Leira, whom he took to an unprecedented fifth place in the Portuguese league.

From Leira he moved to Porto where he stayed for two and a half seasons, winning two Portuguese championships, the cup and then, as crowning glory the Champions League by beating Monaco.

Chelsea billionaire owner Roman Abramovich was desperate to win the Champions League with his club and decided that Mourinho was the coach to do it and he brought him to the club in June 204.

Although Mourinho failed to win the highest prize in European football, he brought success to the Blues, again winning two league titles and the FA Cup.

In September 2007 he suddenly left Chelsea, by mutual consent, which probably had much to do with his not having won the Champions League.

He was not without work for very long as he joined Inter Milan to take over from Roberto Mancini at Inter Milan.

Again he brought with him success and two Italian league titles and a cup were his before Saturday night.

And it could well be that his reign with Inter is over - just as it was with Porto and Chelsea - with two league titles and a cup victory.

The only difference is that he gave Inter - as he did Porto - the Champions League as a crowning parting gift.