13 May 2026 08:34 BST |<\/span> Robin Bairner Accredited football journalist and editor covering the game since 2006 <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Jose Mourinho is poised to accept an offer to become Real Madrid\u2019s next head coach as the Spanish club rush to push the deal through before 26 May.<\/p>\n Alvaro Arbeloa will be sacked as Los Blancos\u2019 boss at the end of the season, with everything falling neatly for Benfica boss Mourinho to replace him.<\/p>\n The former Chelsea, Manchester United and Tottenham manager may not have the universal support of those associated with the club, but his strong disciplinarian attitude appears to have won the favour of those in charge at the Bernabeu, and it appears a matter of time before he completes his shock return to the Spanish capital.<\/p>\n Real Madrid face a deadline to sign Mourinho. He has a \u20ac3 million release clause in his contract at Benfica, AS<\/i><\/b> reports, and in order to secure his services easily, this must be triggered before it expires on 26 May.<\/p>\n Mourinho has rejected the offer of a new contract from Benfica and, according to the Spanish source, \u201cwill accept Real Madrid\u2019s offer\u201d.<\/p>\n The 63-year-old has already been given assurances that his two conditions for returning to the club will be met: that he has a say in transfer policy and that the structure of the club is respected in order to avoid the situation that saw Vinicius Junior publicly clash with Xabi Alonso in El Clasico earlier this season.<\/p>\n Mourinho denied any talks with Real Madrid<\/b> when he spoke to the Portuguese media on Sunday.<\/p>\n \u201cThey keep talking about Real Madrid, and I keep avoiding it, but avoiding it with complete honesty,\u201d Mourinho said<\/b>.<\/p>\n \u201cI haven’t had any contact, not with the president nor with any of the important people in the club.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s my own decision – a decision similar to others I’ve made during my career – especially now in the final stages of the season, I don’t talk to anyone.<\/p>\n \u201cI haven’t had any contact with Real Madrid, I haven’t, and I won’t until the last league game against Estoril either.<\/p>\n \u201cThen, there’s a window of about a week where I’ll have the freedom to talk to whomever I think I should talk to, but all the stories that have come out about demands, meetings… it’s all speculation.\u201d<\/p>\n The latest information is that Mourinho\u2019s physical signing with Real Madrid is not imminent, but a deal has fallen into place.<\/p>\n Real Madrid president Florentino Perez, meanwhile, is working behind the scenes to strengthen his position.<\/p>\n Amid speculation that he could call an election in the next couple of days, it is expected he would retain the post unchallenged. This could be confirmed as soon as 24 May \u2013 two days before Mourinho\u2019s release clause expires.<\/p>\n There is also the unlikely situation for him to be challenged and lose the election, yet if an agreement without the Portuguese manager had already been made by that point, Real Madrid\u2019s statutes state that the contract would still be valid.<\/p>\n Mourinho\u2019s Real Madrid return, therefore, looks only a matter of time.<\/p>\n Jose Mourinho closing in on Real Madrid return: \u2018He\u2019s already in the dressing room\u2019<\/b><\/p>\n Real Madrid\u2019s 10 biggest transfer sale mistakes<\/b><\/p>\n Transfer Rumours: Valverde pushed to Man Utd as \u20ac115m battle explodes into life<\/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":" 13 May 2026 08:34 BST | 5 min read \u00a9 IMAGO Robin Bairner | Chief…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8346,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8345","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\/8345","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=8345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8345\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\n Chief Editor<\/span>\n <\/div>\nMourinho\u2019s \u20ac3m Benfica release clause<\/h2>\n
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Mou denies Real Madrid talks<\/h2>\n
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Perez\u2019s Mourinho plan coming together<\/h2>\n
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The FootballTransfers app<\/h2>\n