José Mourinho’s return to the Stadio Olimpico will come from the opposition dugout, with the Real Madrid coach preparing for a Champions League meeting that carries a personal weight beyond the fixture itself. Before that night, Mourinho has revisited his years at Roma, insisting that his bond with the club and its supporters has survived the manner of his departure.
A Roman chapter that remains open
Mourinho said he would never speak against Roma or the club’s ownership, describing the capital as a place that will always feel like home to him.
“There has never been, and there never will be, a word from me against Roma or its owners,” he said. “When I leave a club, I leave with a clear conscience and with the feeling that this will always be my home.”
His time in Rome contained trophies, confrontation and a difficult ending, but he presented it above all as an emotional relationship with a fanbase that embraced him before he had managed a match.
The moments Mourinho remembers
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On 2 July 2021, at 14:33, Mourinho arrived at Ciampino Airport for his first day as Roma coach. Thousands of supporters were waiting for him despite the fact that he had not yet done anything on the pitch for the club.
“I did not deserve that welcome, but that is Roma,” Mourinho recalled.
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The following season brought the 2022 Europa Conference League, won in Tirana. Mourinho stressed that the competition may be regarded differently by clubs accustomed to regular silverware, but for Roma the trophy held a particular importance.
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The Europa League final against Sevilla in Budapest became, in Mourinho’s view, the peak of his connection with Roma supporters. It was also the point from which his relationship with the ownership began to deteriorate.
“The Budapest final was the highest point of that connection,” he said.
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Mourinho addressed the disciplinary fallout from that final, saying his responsibility related only to what occurred with the referee in the tunnel, not to the later incident at the airport.
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He believes the episode further exposed the different outlooks between himself and Roma’s ownership. Mourinho said he paid for the final through a relationship with the club’s hierarchy whose profile and approach no longer matched his own.
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He described the separation in stark terms, saying that on the day of the Budapest final he was effectively dismissed already. By the time he returned from his holidays, he felt his Roma spell had ended.
More than an ordinary reunion
Roma and Mourinho will meet again with the Portuguese coach now leading Real Madrid, but the occasion will not erase what came before. For Mourinho, the Conference League triumph, the defeat in Budapest and the support he received from Romanisti are all parts of the same story.
His message before returning to the Olimpico was clear: the disagreements surrounding the end of his tenure have not changed his affection for Roma or his respect for the people who made his arrival in 2021 feel exceptional.
