José Mourinho, mission impossible?

José Mourinho arrives at Fenerbahçe, while the club is in a long and impressive drought. Can he bring it back to the top?

Since Saturday, we have known that José Mourinho will be the coach of Fenerbahçe. Mourinho took the plane this Sunday morning, after attending the Champions League final, heading to Turkey. The “Special One” flew to Istanbul to sign his contract and be presented by his new employer, before taking up his position on the Fener bench.

The former coach of FC Porto, Chelsea, Inter Milan, Real Madrid, Manchester United and AS Roma, was warmly welcomed by Turkish supporters, faithful to their reputation. Mourinho will work outside Western Europe for the first time in his career to help Fenerbahçe regain the throne on the national stage. Indeed, the Istanbul team has not been champion of Turkey for 10 years, leaving its enemies Galatasaray and Besiktas, but also Trabzonspor and Basaksehir to lift the trophy again before them between 2014 and today.

Will the Wizard of Cups strike again?

Specialist in European competitions – he won the Champions League with Porto (2004) and Inter Milan (2010), the Europa League with Porto (2003) and Manchester United (2017) and the Europa Conference League with AS Roma in 2022 – Mourinho will also have the mission of making Fenerbahçe competitive again on the Old Continent, which has not been the case for a long time as well. The Canaries’ best performance in the Europa League dates back to the 2012-2013 season with a semi-final. In C1, the club reached the quarter-finals in 2008, when it had players like Robert Carlos, Alex, Diego Lugano and Mateja Kezman in its ranks.

With the resources that will be made available to him for recruitment, will José Mourinho manage to help Turkey’s second most successful club regain its splendor? In terms of media attention and public enthusiasm, the mission has already been accomplished.