Jose Mourinho on Lionel Messi: “He has never needed a coach, Messi knows everything” | OneFootball

Former Roma, Real Madrid, Tottenham and Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho has high praise for Lionel Messi, while stating that he wanted to coach Daniele de Rossi and Francesco Totti in his career.

Mourinho was recently sacked by Roma and has been replaced by De Rossi himself. In an interview with Youtuber Ohm, the Portuguese spoke candidly about multiple topics and he was asked about players that he wish he had signed and he made it clear that he wanted to coach both De Rossi and Totti during his stint at Inter or Real Madrid.

He said: “I would have liked De Rossi at Inter and Real Madrid, but it wasn’t possible. I would have liked Totti at Inter even at a very high age but it wasn’t possible. There are always players you would like to coach but cannot.”

Mourinho went on to speak about Messi, when talking about one player that he wishes that he could have coached during his long and storied career.

He stated: “One in particular? I don’t have a player I can tell you. Messi has never needed a coach. Who tells you ‘I coached Messi’?. It’s absurd. Messi knows everything, he was born with everything. You can only say that I had the honor of having trained him.”

The interview also saw him speak about his time at Roma, where he won the Conference League and reached the final of the Europa League as well, as they lost the final to Sevilla.

He spoke about the Europa League final loss to Sevilla and stated: “There are also many bad memories. I lost two Champions League semi-finals on penalties. I lost a Europa League final on penalties because a referee decided we couldn’t win. There are so many.”

Mourinho has been linked with a move to Saudi Arabia but it seems as if he would not be joining a club in the Middle East at this point. Napoli were linked with the manager, but CEO Aurelio de Laurentiis has denied any interest in him.

Kaustubh Pandey | GIFN