Mourinho Ferguson Bombshell: The Man United Deal He Turned Down
The Mourinho Ferguson connection just gained a remarkable new chapter. José Mourinho — now back in the Real Madrid dugout for a second spell — has revealed that he once signed a contract to succeed Sir Alex Ferguson as Manchester United manager in 2013, only to change his mind and return to Chelsea, as first reported by The Guardian.
The admission, made in a new Netflix documentary about his career simply titled Mourinho, rewrites one of football’s great what-ifs. When Ferguson retired in 2013 after guiding United to a 13th Premier League title, the football world was rocked, and the assumption was that his successor had been chosen from scratch. In fact, Los Blancos’ current boss says the job had already been his — quietly agreed and signed before he ever set foot back at Stamford Bridge.
What the Mourinho Ferguson revelation tells us
“When I left Real Madrid, I signed with Manchester United to go to Manchester United after Sir Alex,” Mourinho said in the film, referring to the end of his first spell in charge at the Bernabéu. Rather than take up the deal, the Portuguese returned to Chelsea that summer, and United instead handed the reins to David Moyes — a choice that unravelled quickly, with the Scot sacked after only 10 months.
The counterfactual is tantalising. United have never truly returned to the summit of the English game since Ferguson stepped away, cycling through managers in search of the old certainty. Whether a young, hungry Mourinho arriving in 2013 rather than 2016 would have changed that trajectory is one of the sport’s great unanswerables.
For Madridistas, there is a familiar note of pride buried in it all. Even while describing the pull of Old Trafford, Mourinho left no doubt about the standing of the club he once managed and now leads again.
I was, of course, very flattered, because Manchester United has an incredible appeal. When I say Real Madrid is the biggest club in the world, I have to say that Manchester United is very, very close.
A road that eventually led back to Madrid
Mourinho did finally take the United job in 2016, spending two and a half years at Old Trafford before a long and winding career carried him back to Spain. That the story stayed buried for more than a decade only adds to its intrigue; Ferguson himself confirms the 2013 episode in the documentary, lending firm weight to a tale that had never previously been told in full.
It is a timely reminder of the aura the 63-year-old still commands, landing just as he settles into Mourinho’s second spell at the Bernabéu. Appointed in June to restore Real Madrid to the top of the European game, he arrives with the same ambition — and the same appetite for the biggest stage — that once had England’s grandest club queuing for his signature.
The man who briefly turned down the chance to follow Ferguson is now charged with writing a new winning chapter of his own in the white of Real Madrid. And, as this latest revelation proves, he is never short of a story to tell along the way.
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