CHIESA DI TOTTI
The international break is always rife with rumors, in part because sports journalists still need to clock in from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM every day, and international matches simply don’t catch the attention in the same way a Serie A match does. Granted, the recent hullaballoo surrounding an alleged illegal betting ring among Italian players has made this international break a bit more lively than others; that’s to be expected when players of the caliber of Sandro Tonali and Nicolò Zaniolo are reportedly under investigation by the authorities and may lose several years of eligibility as footballers. Yet would you believe it, there is reportedly other news coming out of Italian football this week outside of questionable sites like Dillinger News (what a name) – this time from the rather trustworthy news source that is Sky Sports.
“Transfer guru” Gianluca Di Marzio, even though he’s been superseded by his protege Fabrizio Romano in several ways, still manages to get a scoop out every now and then, and this most recent one is a doozy. The Sky Sports man is reporting that Roma manager José Mourinho is likely to leave the club at the end of his current contract, which expires at the end of the 2023/2024 season. This shouldn’t be incredibly surprising given Mourinho’s tendency to stay at a club for three seasons before moving on to a greener pasture. However, given the fact that there have been alternating reports over the past several months suggesting everything from a new contract being in the works for The Special One to the idea that he might be sacked after one more poor performance, this kind of report has more of a sense of finality to it.
This report is supposedly directly related to interest from Saudi Arabia in making Mourinho the country’s next Ronaldo-level signing, and on some level, you can understand why the Saudis would be interested. There may be football managers who are thought of as better than Mourinho in this current moment like Pep Guardiola or Jurgen Klopp, but in terms of “vibe”, Mourinho has the high level of star power combined with a general sensation of being at the tail end of his career that the Saudi Pro League tends to pounce on. In some ways, he’s the Cristiano Ronaldo of managers — so naturally the Saudis want to shower him with enough money to support a small country.
Still, I’m hesitant to say that the end of the Mourinho Era in Rome is nigh. First of all, winning is the ultimate panacea; I’m sure that if the club pulls of a Europa League win or manages to qualify for Champions League football through Serie A that Di Marzio will have a new report suggesting that Mourinho will be signing a new contract ASAP. Second, the amount that Mourinho was worked to integrate youth players into the side over the course of the past several years and the way that he talks about Roma on the whole makes me think he wouldn’t mind staying longer in the Eternal City if he’s welcome to do so.
