by Perhaps the story should have ended in Budapest. There was speculation before the Europa League final last May that it could be José Mourinho’s final week in charge of Roma. There were echoes of his previous time working for an Italian club, in 2010, when he led Internazionale to the treble in his second season and then left to join Real Madrid immediately after winning the Champions League .
It didn’t quite reach those same heights at Roma, but this was a different context. By claiming a first Europa League in his first season at the club, Mourinho had already ended a 14-year wait for silverware. It was a great achievement to continue in season two by winning the Europa League with a team whose previous greatest continental success was winning the 1961 Inter-City Fairs Cup.
But it was not to be. In the final last spring, Roma faced Paulo Dybala but conceded an own goal and ended up losing a football match against Sevilla. Both the game and its result were ugly, marked by relentless protests over refereeing decisions that culminated in Mourinho calling Anthony Taylor a “fucking disgrace” in the car park. A day later, Roma fans threw a chair at him at the airport at the official.
But there was another action after the game that got as much attention back in Rome: Mourinho pointing to the ground as he looked at supporters in the stands, letting them know he intended to stay. To say they loved him was an understatement. Mourinho has been the main factor in Roma selling out more than 40 home games over the past two-and-a-half seasons, including a run of 36 games in a row.
When news of his sacking broke on Tuesday morning, fans rushed to the club’s Trigoria training ground to say goodbye. To understand why he is so loved may require an awareness of the football culture of Rome, a city that has long felt itself as an underdog fighting against the wealth and political influence of the clubs in the north.
Mourinho often reminded Roma fans how lucky they were to have him – noting that he had 10 more trophies in his personal collection than their club had earned in almost a century. Winning the Europa Conference Championship was meant to promise success. More than that, he let them know he cared as much as they did, getting the trophy on his shoulder.
Signatures may be present that were not there before. Dybala joined on a free transfer in the summer of 2022 and Romelu Lukaku on loan from Chelsea last year – two former Serie A MVPs in consecutive summers. Ten thousand fans turned out to see the Argentinian in action at Rome’s Colosseo Quadrato.
But 18 months later the club is left wondering if those highlights were worth the cost. Mourinho has often defended his record in Rome by pointing out that the team has spent nothing on player transfers in the past two years, while generating significant profits from player sales. All true, but missing the necessary context that Roma spent more than €100m, net, to strengthen the squad in his first year, and continues to have Serie A’s third highest wage bill .
The club recorded a loss of €102.8m on last season’s accounts – half what it was three years earlier but still hardly sustainable. When Roma’s American owner Dan Friedkin flew his private jet to Portugal on a mission to land Mourinho in 2021, he bet the manager could steer his team into the Champions League – and the revenue streams extra that comes with it to ensure.
A win against Sevilla in May would have them there. But due to the more common path of the home performance, Roma did not come close. The IS Giallorossi finished sixth in successive seasons under Mourinho and are now ninth, with just one win in their last six Serie A games. Overall, he averaged 1.61 points per game – the worst return of any Roma manager which lasted his 50+ game streak in a three point win streak.
That still may not explain the decision to fire him now. Mourinho was never far from a war with officials – by one journalist’s count, he was 29 red cards members of the Roma bench have been shown over the last two and a half seasons – but the incident with Taylor felt like a tidy point.
Far from apologising, Mourinho accused his employers of abandoning him during an interview last summer, insisting that the incident at the airport had nothing to do with him and that someone from the club should have spoken up on his defense. Despite recent public claims that he was ready to sign a new contract, there was a growing sense of a breakdown in his relationship with the club.
To replace him, Roma have turned to former captain Daniele De Rossi. It’s a familiar face and a step into the unknown: a man who has played more than 600 games for the club but has managed 17 games in charge of Spal in Serie B so far in his managerial career – only three of which have ended in victory .
By appointing another fan-loved figure, the club may hope to avoid the hostility that would otherwise greet Mourinho’s news. “Everyone knows what Roma mean to me,” De Rossi said in a statement. And he will know, as well as anyone, how much the supporters loved the man who replaced him.
