The 2025/26 season still has a few games left, but for Real Madrid, their season is practically over after a 2-0 loss to Barcelona at the Camp Nou that officially sealed the La Liga title for their bitter rivals - not that things were ever really in doubt for the Blaugrana to begin wtih.
Real Madrid have been beyond embarrassing this season - trophy less for a second straight year and thoroughly outclassed by Hansi Flick. Los Blancos have been running through managers, mired in controversy with news of locker room fights, insubordinate backups, mutiny, and moles galore.
It sounds like the kind of environment that is almost perfect for world football's greatest spartan, Jose Mourinho. The Portuguese manager is by far and away the leading candidate to take over for young Alvaro Arbeloa, his former player in the early 2010s, and it is to a point where there is not even a distant No. 2 to contend with the current Benfica coach.
Jose Mourinho will be more expensive than expected
Although there is nothing official between Mourinho and Real Madrid, that could change in a week's time. Because according to Turkish journalist Yagiz Sabuncuoglu, who covered Mou closely in the Super Lig, Benfica have set May 17 as the date they would allow Mourinho to leave for Real Madrid.
The Portuguese league giants reportedly do not want their star manager to exit the club before then, but they have approved his departure and have picked May 17 as the date they would allow. Furthermore, if Jose Mourinho does indeed finalize an official agreement with Real Madrid, the club would want six million euros from the Spanish side to make the deal done, which is double the three million euros that Spanish outlets were reporting.
Still, six million euros compared to three million is reasonable, and while Florentino Perez hates paying clubs to buy managers out on principle, six million euros is little enough that he would likely still do it, especially for a blockbuster hire he loves and used to work with at Mourinho in a time of great crisis for Real Madrid.
As each day passes by and more drama unfolds and more reports from around European football circulate, Mourinho to Real Madrid becomes a more and more likely move. Real Madrid need a strong character to right the ship with this dysfunctional locker room, and there is no manager stronger than the Special One.
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