Former Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has turned down an offer to coach Portuguese club Benfica. Super Eagles player Tyronne Ebuehi features for the Primeira Liga side.
According to Sky Sports, which also quoted a report by the Daily Record of UK, Mourinho, sacked at Old Trafford last month, rejected Benfica, who sacked their coach Rui Vitoria last Thursday, because he does not intend to return to his native country at this point of his career.
Vitoria spent three and a half years at Benfica and was asked to go because of the club’s poor performance this season.
Mourinho had been among the coaches listed by Benfica and the Primeira Liga side, a long admirer of the ‘Special One’, Tribunesport gathered, had planned to sign Mourinho on a short time basis.
The club, having identified their defence as a major problem and wanted Mourinho to shore up that department as soon as possible. Ebuehi plays both on the right and left back.
In a meeting at the club’s training ground last Friday, Ebuehi, who started only two matches for the club in 2018, and his co defenders were asked to brace up for the remaining matches of the season.
Before the latest development, Benfica’s chairman, Luis Filipe Vieira, said the club could not afford to pay Mounrinho’s 15 million pounds wage, hence the plan to give him a short term contract.