Mourinho: Roma career was ‘dead’ after Europa League final, Airport fiasco ‘wasn’t my responsibility’
MADRID, SPAIN - SEPTEMBER 08: Jose Mourinho, Head Coach of Real Madrid looks on before the UEFA Champions League 2026/27 League Phase MD1 match between Real Madrid C.F. and FC Internazionale Milano at Estadio Santiago Bernabeu on September 08, 2026 in Madrid, Spain. (Photo by Denis Doyle/Getty Images)
Jose Mourinho has spoken at length about his departure from Roma midway through the 2023-24 season, says that his career with the club was ‘dead’ after losing in the 2023 Europa League final and insists that the ugly scenes directed at referee Anthony Taylor and his family at the airport the following day were not his responsibility.
Mourinho is preparing to return to the Stadio Olimpico with Real Madrid in the Champions League on Wednesday evening (20.00 BST), and has spoken at great length about his time in the Italian capital in an interview with Ivan Zazzaroni of the Corriere dello Sport.
Mourinho: ‘I will never have a bad word to say about Roma’
‘The Special One’ still looks back on his time at Roma with great fondness. He ended a 14-year wait for a trophy and claimed the first ever edition of the Conference League in 2021-22 and then led the Giallorossi to a second European final in the Europa League in 2022-23.
That final ended in defeat on penalties against Sevilla after a 1-1 draw after extra-time, but the game was soon overshadowed by Mourinho’s post-match rant at referee Anthony Taylor in the car-park, labelling the officials’ performance a ‘disgrace’ in a vicious outburst.
The following day, Taylor and his family were harassed by disgruntled Roma supporters at the airport, some of whom threw chairs, while making their way through the airport in Budapest.
Mourinho says that he feels this was the day his Roma career came to an end, but insists that he was not responsible for the unsavoury scenes that unfolded at the airport.
“I have never had and will never have a bad word to say against Roma, I don’t have any bad words to say about the ownership,” Mourinho told the Corriere dello Sport.
“I did make a negative comment about Thiago Pinto, for which I apologised, but when I leave, I like to leave cleanly. Sometimes it might not seem that way, but in personal relationships, within the club, I am a very polite person. I came out of it well and still feel like it will always be a home to me, even if it no longer is.
“Returning to Real Madrid is also a return home, I’d been there for three years, but it feels like 30 because it was a special, special period. I returned home because of this emotional connection I had with the club.”
Mourinho: ‘I was dead on the day of the Europa League final’
Mourinho began discussing his ‘special’ relationship with the Roma supporters.
“They were special with me. I remember the first day arriving at the airport in Malpensa and there were 1,000 people there. I was thinking ‘I haven’t done anything yet, I’ve just got here, I haven’t even played a game yet, I haven’t won a single point for these people’. That had an impact, I didn’t deserve that.
“After that, I think they understood that I didn’t make a fuss about myself, my image or my relationships with the ownership or with the ‘politics’ in Italian football, not even with the press.
“They understood that for me it was only ever about Roma and the Roma fans. I fought for them and gave everything. We won a competition that perhaps for some clubs who are used to winning all the time, would have had less meaning. For a team that doesn’t win that much, it means a lot.
“A friend of mine went to Trigoria recently and sent me a picture of the entrance. The trophy is still there, and it’s just that one. It’s the cup that everyone sees on their way into the training ground.”
Mourinho went on to discuss the events that unfolded around the 2023 Europa League final and his foul-mouthed comments towards referee Taylor.
“The bond also stems from their love of the club, and that always touches you. They understood that I gave everything. I made mistakes, I lost matches, but they always understood that I fought for them. The final in Budapest is the highest point of that connection.
“The final ends, we go off on holiday, and when I came back, I was already dead. With UEFA, I was dead, and they made me pay for something that I wasn’t responsible for.
“What happened at the airport was not my responsibility. I was responsible for the insults I gave to the referee in the car park, and for that, I should have paid. I shouldn’t have had to pay for what happened at the airport because it wasn’t my fault, but I paid for that too. It cost my relationship with the owners, who had a different sort of profile and a different approach to mine after the final. I came back and I was already dead. A few months later, I was out.”
Mourinho would remain in charge of Roma until the following January, but insists that the Europa League final was the day his Giallorossi career came to an end.
He later added: “I’ve never publicly discussed my relationship with the Friedkins. If I went back to Roma now and bumped into them in the corridor after the game, I would say hello without any problem. But I feel that I was sacked on the day of the final.”
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