Jose Mourinho, dubbed The Special One by football fans, a self-described “special man”, is savouring his fame as just the second coach to have won five major European titles, having guided Jose Mourinho’s AS Roma team to victory in Wednesday’s UEFA Europa Conference League. Jose Mourinho won yet another European Cup final following his Roma team, defeating Feyenoord in the first-ever Europa Conference Cup final in 2022, becoming the first coach to win all three European competitions. Jose Mourinho became the first football manager to win four European trophies at four different clubs when Italian club Roma defeated Feyenoord 1-0 in the final of Wednesday night’s Europa Conference League. First-half striker Nicolo Zaniolo gave Roma their first central European crown in over 60 years with a 1-0 victory against Feyenoord in the Europa Conference League final in Albania on Wednesday, capping off an impressive European trophy haul for Jose Mourinho.
Jose Mourinho, the Champions League Cup, Europa League, is now able to add the Europa Conference League to his trophy tally. Jose Mourinho has also won the 2003 UEFA Cup and the 2004 Champions League finals with FC Porto, the 2010 Champions League final with Internazionale, and the 2017 Europa League final with Manchester United, the first manager to guide four different clubs to European titles. The silverware is Jose Mourinho’s 26th trophy and his first since winning the Europa League with United in 2017, following a barren five-year spell which included his dismissal from Tottenham Hotspur the week before last year’s EFL Cup final. Nicolo Zaniolos’s goal earned Roma victory, becoming the first Italian to score in a European final since Filippo Inzaghi scored against Liverpool in the 2007 Champions League final.
The victory guaranteed that Jose Mourinho became just the third manager in history to win European silverware in three different decades (Porto 2004, Red Devils 2017, Italian club Roma 2022) behind Giovanni Trapattoni and Sir Alex Ferguson. Roma, whose only previous continental crown was the Old Fairs Cup way back in 1961, held off a furious second-half comeback from Feyenoord to keep their wooden work intact, ensuring Jose Mourinho became the first manager to win the European trophy with four different clubs. The victory ended Romas’s 14-year wait for the award. At the same time, it also allowed the Portuguese coach to strengthen his name in the history books as the first coach to win a Champions League, a Europa League, and a Confederations Cup. That is five European finals since 2003 involving FC Porto, Inter, Manchester United, and Roma in which the passionate Jose Mourinho has managed, and five times in which he has taken home a trophy.
