An emotional Jose Mourinho celebrated historic success after becoming the second manager after Giovanni Trapattoni to win five major European titles as his AS Roma lifted the UEFA Europa Conference League on Wednesday.
Mourinho, who had previously won the Champions League, Europa League and UEFA Cup, completed a unique European trophy case when Roma defeated Feyenoord 1-0 in Tirana to ensure he could add the first conference league to his collection.
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That’s five European finals in Porto, Internazionale, Manchester United and Roma since 2003 that Mourinho has coached and five times he’s taken home the trophy. The win also makes him the only manager in European history to have won the Champions League, Europa League, UEFA Super Cup and now the Conference League.
“The great thing about my career is that in addition to the Europa League with Manchester United, it’s also very, very, very special to do it with Porto, Inter and Roma,” said Mourinho.
“It’s one thing to win when everyone is expecting it when you’ve made the investments to win, but it’s quite another thing to win when something feels immortal that feels really special.
“That stays in the history of the Roma, but also in mine. I was only told Sir Alex [Ferguson] and Giovanni Trapattoni won trophies in three different decades. I feel a bit old, but it’s nice for my career.”
It was a happy end to Mourinho’s first season in the Italian capital after leading his side to sixth place in Serie A that season.
The Portuguese has no plans to seek new challenges as he is already looking forward to next season with the club.
“Now I’m staying, there’s no doubt about that,” Mourinho added. “Even though some rumors pop up, I just want to stay with Roma.
“We need to understand what our owners, who are fantastic people, want to do next season because that’s history, but we can build a really strong project with honest professionals.
“Of course I feel like a Romanista but that could be my way of working. I’m a Porto fan, an Inter fan, a Chelsea fan, I’m crazy about Real Madrid, I’m a Roma fan now. I belong to all.” those clubs because we had those moments together.”
On the losing side of the final, Feyenoord captain Justin Bijlow said they missed a chance to put the club back on the map after their first appearance in a European final in 20 years ended in deep disappointment.
“It’s terrible. We really wanted to take the trophy, say thank you to the fans and put Feyenoord back on the map. Unfortunately, that didn’t work out,” said goalkeeper Bijlow.
Bijlow said Feyenoord put a lot of pressure and caused problems for Roma.
“You could see they had trouble dealing with us. But unfortunately it wasn’t good enough. It’s a bit of a cliché, but it’s been 20 years since we last played in a European final. That sounds nice , but it’s true. But at the moment it’s particularly bad that we can’t take the trophy to Rotterdam.”
Coach Arne Slot tried to soften the blow for his players after the game.
“I told them I couldn’t take away their disappointment, but I also said it was a privilege to work with this team every day this season,” he said.
“There wasn’t a day that we didn’t enjoy being on the training ground together.”