“I know that one day I will come back because English football means a lot to myself,’’ said the former Chelsea manager.
Mourinho guided Real Madrid to the La Liga title last year but has encountered problems this season, including disagreements with senior players such as Iker Casillas, and he is now expected to leave the Bernabeu in the summer. Paris St-Germain may offer a new challenge or Mourinho could consider what is available in the Premier League.
His love affair with English football is well known. He was back in England on Sunday, checking on Real’s Champions League opponents, Manchester United, and being surrounded by autograph-hunters.
Mourinho attended a League Managers Association coaching conference at St George’s Park. He has also delivered an impassioned tribute to English football in a message of congratulations to the Football Association on its 150th anniversary.
“To say congratulations to the English FA is to say congratulations to football,’’ said Mourinho. “It’s to say congratulations to everybody that loves football around the world.
“For me, the English FA means not just the passion of football in England, but also the passion of football around the world.
"I think they are most responsible for why football is what it is around the world. So I feel also that I should congratulate myself about your 150 years, because as everybody knows I am completely in love with the game and a person in love with the game must be in love with the English FA.”
Having steered Porto to the 2004 Champions League, Mourinho arrived in England and guided Chelsea to two Premier League titles, two League Cups and an FA Cup.
“My memories from English football could not be better. It was my first experience outside of Portugal – I was still a very young coach when I left Portugal to go to England.
“But there couldn’t be a better place to go. In England you feel the real passion for the game. You also don’t feel what we feel in almost every other country, which is the passion for clubs. In England, it’s not just about passion for clubs, it’s mainly about passion for football – and you feel it.
“My memories are great. I loved it from the first to the last day. I don’t regret my last day because after that I was lucky enough to enjoy Italy and to have and enjoy some success there [with Inter Milan] and also in Spain, so I don’t regret the day I left. But I know that one day I will come back because English football means a lot to myself.
“I know the history of football. I know what the English FA means to the world of football. I know that the FA Cup was the first competition organised in the world of football in the 1870s. I know what I felt when I had to go up the Wembley stairs to get the FA Cup.
“For me, the FA Cup represents the passion of football. It represents clean football. It represents the good smell of football. If you are in England and you play in England, you feel it.
"You feel everything. You feel the passion. You feel that it’s clean, you feel proud to be in football – even in the worst moments. That’s pure football. That’s the football you play as a kid in the street transported through time and space into organised competition and into the real world of football.
“Of course, it’s impossible, but I feel everybody involved in the game should experience English football because it’s a special feeling. You really enjoy being a football professional there.”
Real’s involvement in the Copa del Rey tonight precludes Mourinho’s involvement in the FA’s launch of its 150th birthday tomorrow at the Grand Connaught Rooms in London, the site of the old Freemasons’ Tavern where the FA was founded. “From the bottom of my heart, if somebody who is not English is in love with the English game, I am the first to be, so congratulations to everybody,’’ concluded Mourinho in his missive to the FA.
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