{"id":1896,"date":"2026-04-28T21:16:45","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T21:16:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=1896"},"modified":"2026-04-28T21:16:45","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T21:16:45","slug":"jose-mourinho-in-line-for-sensational-real-madrid-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=1896","title":{"rendered":"Jose Mourinho in line for sensational Real Madrid return"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_65\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<p><strong>Jose Mourinho is reportedly the favourite to land the Real Madrid job and make an unexpected return to the Bernabeu at the end of the season. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Los Blancos are currently searching for their next manager as Alvaro Arbeloa is expected to vacate the role in the summer.<\/p>\n<p>The former Liverpool right-back replaced Xabi Alonso in the dugout after he was sacked in January.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Jose Mourinho in line for sensational Real Madrid return<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>According to The Athletic, Mourinho is Real Madrid president Florentino Perez\u2019s \u201cfavoured candidate\u201d to lead the team as head coach next season.<\/p>\n<p>Perez is driving the search for their next manager and is the \u201cmain supporter\u201d of bringing back the Portuguese tactician, but \u201csome other voices\u201d within the club are against appointing the former Chelsea, Manchester United and Tottenham boss.<\/p>\n<p>Mourinho previously managed Real between 2010 and 2013, winning the La Liga title over Pep Guardiola\u2019s Barcelona with a record points total in 2012.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Read \u2013\u00a0Five who played for both Bayern Munich and Real Madrid<\/strong><\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<p>The 63-year-old is currently managing Benfica, with whom he signed a two-year contract in September last year. His side completed a shock 4-2 victory over Real in the UEFA Champions League league phase in January to reach the knockout stage of the competition.<\/p>\n<p>When the two sides met again in the play-off round, Mourinho was widely criticised for comments he made about Vinicius Junior after the first leg. The Brazilian winger alleged he was racially abused by Benfica player Gianluca Prestianni, but Mourinho suggested Vinicius incited the incident with his goal celebration.<\/p>\n<p>Prestianni denied the allegation and was given a six-match ban by UEFA for homophobic conduct instead.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Read \u2013\u00a0Premier League Awards: Five-star Forest, Kinksy\u2019s comeback<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>See Also \u2013 Premier League Team of the Week \u2013 Kinsky, Bowen, Jesus<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><strong>Follow the Football Faithful on Social Media:<\/strong><\/em><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Facebook\u00a0|\u00a0Instagram\u00a0| <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FootyFaithful_\">Twitter<\/a> | YouTube | TikTok<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.tiktok.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jose Mourinho is reportedly the favourite to land the Real Madrid job and make an&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1897,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1896\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}