Updated: 16 May 2026 16:37 BST |<\/span> Robin Bairner Accredited football journalist and editor covering the game since 2006 <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Jose Mourinho will become the next manager of Real Madrid and will be the man charged with picking the Bernabeu side off its knees after a turbulent campaign.<\/p>\n Mourinho will take over from Alvaro Arbeloa at the end of the season, with his return to the Spanish capital now \u201cjust a matter of time\u201d, according to Mark<\/i><\/b>.<\/p>\n The Madrid-based source, which has hailed the 63-year-old as \u2018the Chosen One\u2019, states that the Portuguese is now the only contender for the post, with president Florentino Perez of the belief that he is the only one capable of restoring order to a fractured dressing room.<\/p>\n Similarly, Fabrizio Romano has confirmed that a deal is all but done.<\/p>\n \u201cReal Madrid have Jose Mourinho\u2019s full green light since last week and the deal is expected to be completed very soon,\u201d Romano reports<\/b>.<\/p>\n \u201cMou never had any doubts, also never created issues in initial discussions about next steps.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s super excited by this second Real Madrid chapter.\u201d<\/p>\n Before Mourinho is officially unveiled as the next Real Madrid manager, there are still some details that need to be completed. For example, Los Blancos will have to trigger the coach\u2019s release fee<\/b> in his Benfica contract, which is worth \u20ac3 million.<\/p>\n These hurdles are, however, expected to be relatively minor in the scheme of things.<\/p>\n Both Real Madrid and Mourinho are eager to resolve the situation rapidly. This will be key for the summer transfer window and the inevitable rebuild of the squad.<\/p>\n Mourinho arrives having demanded a big say in the club\u2019s transfer policy. Juventus winger Kenan Yildiz<\/b> is one of the players he is thought to be chasing, according to reports from Italy.<\/p>\n Before he adds to the squad, though, sales are likely. Dani Ceballos and Gonzalo Garcia are two players who look likely to depart<\/b>.<\/p>\n Mourinho has continued to deny any negotiations with Real Madrid had taken place<\/b>insisting his focus remains on Benfica, who still have one match to play in their season.<\/p>\n The reality, however, appears to be very different, with the Portuguese speeding towards a return to the Bernabeu, where he previously won the 2011\/12 La Liga title.<\/p>\n Since his previous stint from 2010-13, Mourinho has coached Chelsea, Manchester United, Tottenham, Roma, Fenerbahce and now Benfica, yet his star has fallen in recent years and Perez\u2019s decision to welcome him back to Real Madrid is widely seen as a sign of desperation in reaction to the current crisis.<\/p>\n The president, though, is bullish. “He was here before and he raised our level,” he claimed<\/b> on Wednesday.<\/p>\n Mourinho has built his career on proving his critics wrong and silencing his doubts, yet this last dance at the Bernabeu may just be his biggest challenge yet.<\/p>\n Build The FIFA World Cup 2026\u2122: LEGO\u00a9 releases stunning football-inspired collection<\/b><\/p>\n Booed at the Bernabeu and sniping at Arbeloa: What comes next for Kylian Mbappe?<\/b><\/p>\n Transfer Rumours: Man Utd and Chelsea set to battle to sign breakout La Liga forward<\/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":" Updated: 16 May 2026 16:37 BST | 5 min read \u00a9 IMAGO Robin Bairner |…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6425,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9238","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\/9238","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=9238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9238\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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Mourinho to Real Madrid: What comes next?<\/h2>\n
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Mourinho\u2019s biggest challenge<\/h2>\n
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