12 May 2026 12:48 BST |<\/span> Cameron Smith Accredited sports journalist covering football since 2020 <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Jose Mourinho has reportedly reached an agreement to become the new permanent Real Madrid manager.<\/p>\n The 63-year-old has been in talks with his former club for several weeks, amid the uncertain future of Alvaro Arbeloa, and it has emerged that he is Florentino Perez\u2019s preferred candidate for the role.<\/p>\n Mourinho is currently in charge of Portuguese giants Benfica, having been appointed as Bruno Lage\u2019s successor in September, and he is still yet to lose a league game since his move to the Estadio da Luz.<\/p>\n Following his impressive revival at Benfica, after an underwhelming spell in charge of Fenerbahce, Mourinho has been earmarked as Real Madrid\u2019s primary target to replace Arbeloa, as confirmed by David Ornstein and Fabrizio Romano.<\/p>\n Negotiations have been ongoing in recent weeks and according to Sacha Tavolieri<\/b>a full agreement has now been reached, with Mourinho set to join Los Blancos for a second spell this summer.<\/p>\n The Sky Sports reporter posted on X<\/b>: \u201cDONE DEAL. Jose Mourinho is set to become the next manager of Real Madrid!<\/p>\n \u201cThe Portuguese coach has reached an agreement with the club\u2019s management. An official statement from Jose Mourinho is expected next week.\u201d<\/p>\n Mourinho won three trophies during a three-year stint at Real Madrid from 2010 to 2013, but he failed to win the Champions League at the Bernabeu and will be looking to put that right next season.<\/p>\n Benfica are currently third in the Portuguese top flight table, two points behind Sporting CP despite the fact they haven\u2019t lost a league match this season, and a 2-2 draw against Braga on Monday evening means a top-two finish, and Champions League qualification, is unlikely with one fixture remaining.<\/p>\n However, when asked about a possible move to Real Madrid by reporters after the match, Mourinho insisted that failure to qualify for the Champions League won\u2019t impact his decision on whether to stay at Benfica.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re talking about Real Madrid, I\u2019m not talking about Real Madrid,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m talking about Benfica, and the work we\u2019ve been doing won\u2019t change because we\u2019re second or third. That\u2019s not what\u2019s going to influence my future.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously, Benfica wants to play in the Champions League, and so do I as a coach, but it has no influence whatsoever.\u201d<\/p>\n Ornstein confirms ‘positive’ Chelsea talks: Xabi Alonso makes preference clear<\/b><\/p>\n The 10 superstars set to dominate the 2026 summer transfer window<\/b><\/p>\n Transfer Rumours: Chelsea favourites to sign striker as Man Utd learn Kroupi ‘concern’<\/b><\/p>\n Check out FootballTransfers’ new app for all of football’s big storylines, transfer rumours and exclusive news in one convenient place directly on your mobile device.<\/p>\n The FootballTransfers app is available on Google Play and in the Apple App Store. Download here:<\/p>\n \u2022Google Play<\/b><\/p>\n \u2022App Store<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 12 May 2026 12:48 BST | 4 min read \u00a9 IMAGO Cameron Smith | Digital…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7967,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7966","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\/7966","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=7966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7966\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n 4 min read <\/p>\n<\/source><\/source><\/picture>
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Official: Jose Mourinho responds to Real Madrid speculation<\/h2>\n
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