Manchester United appoints José Mourinho as new manager

Friday, May 27, 2016

Today, association football club Manchester United F.C. announced they appointed Portuguese José Mourinho as their new manager for the next three seasons with an option to stay at the club until 2020. Mourinho's predecessor Louis van Gaal was fired on Monday after two-years of service at Old Trafford.

File photo of Mourinho
Image: Aleksandr Osipov.
Jose is quite simply the best manager in the game today. He has won trophies and inspired players in countries across Europe

—Ed Woodward, Manchester United Vice-Chairman

Manchester United finished in fifth position in the Premier League this season under Dutchman Louis van Gaal and missed out on UEFA Champions League qualification, but won the FA Cup 2–1 against Crystal Palace.

Mourinho previously served London-based club Chelsea in two spells and won the Premier League with them three times, lastly in the 2014–15 season. He also worked with Spain's capital club Real Madrid winning one La Liga title with Los Blancos, Champions League and domestic league titles with Portuguese club FC Porto and Italian club Internazionale.

Mourinho has a 66% win record and 2.19 points-per-match ratio in the Premier League, the best in the league. In his first season (2004-05) at Chelsea, The Blues won the title with a record high 95 points.

Ed Woodward, Manchester United's executive vice-chairman, praised Mourinho saying "Jose is quite simply the best manager in the game today. He has won trophies and inspired players in countries across Europe and, of course, he knows the Premier League very well, having won three titles here". Mourinho said, "It is a club known and admired throughout the world. There is a mystique and a romance about it which no other club can match".

Mourinho has won trophies in four different countries. His team is to face German side Borussia Dortmund and local rivals Manchester City in club friendlies during July.

Sources