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An emotional Jose Mourinho celebrated what he called an historic achievement having become the second manager to win five major European titles – after Giovanni Trapattoni – as his AS Roma side clinched the Europa Conference League.
Mourinho, who had previously won the Champions League, Europa League and the UEFA Cup, completed a unique European trophy haul as Roma beat Feyenoord 1-0 in Tirana to ensure he could add the inaugural Conference League to his collection.
That is five European finals he has won during his spells at Porto, Inter Milan, Manchester United and now Roma since 2003.
“The great thing about my career is that, aside from the Europa League with Manchester United, doing it with Porto, Inter and Roma is very, very, very special,” Mourinho said.
“It is one thing to win when everyone expects it, when you made the investments to win, but it’s quite another to win when something feels immortal, that feels truly special.
“This remains in the history of Roma, but also mine. I was told only I, Sir Alex (Ferguson) and Giovanni Trapattoni won trophies in three different decades. It makes me feel a little old, but it’s nice for my career.”
Roma are the first Italian side to win a major European competition since Inter Milan in 2010
It represented a fine end to his first season in the Italian capital for Mourinho, having steered his side to a sixth-placed finish in Serie A this term.
The Portuguese has no plans to seek new challenges, as he is already looking to next season with the club.
“Now I am staying, there are no doubts,” Mourinho added. “Even if some rumours emerge, I only want to remain at Roma.
“We must understand what our owners, who are fantastic people, want to do next season, because this is history, but we can build a really strong project with honest professionals.
“Of course I feel like a Romanista, but that might be my way of working. I am a Porto fan, an Inter fan, a Chelsea fan, I am crazy about Real Madrid, I am now a Roma fan, I belong to all those clubs because we had these moments together.”
Feyenoord coach Arne Slot said: “It’s always interesting to see how the first 15 minutes go. In that phase we had good control of the match. But a half is 45 minutes long, and our problems were to do with the choices our players made, with and without the ball.
“I told the players during the break what they had to do better. In the second half we were sharp from the first moment, but you need a bit of luck and we didn’t get it. We had the time and opportunity to score, and we didn’t. Maybe that’s to do with the quality of the opponent.
“In a final you don’t get tens of chances, you get a couple. In a final against an Italian team it’s especially difficult to create chances, and even more so when it’s an Italian team coached by Mourinho.”
Opta stats: More Mourinho magic
- Mourinho is the second manager to win five major European titles after Giovanni Trapattoni, with the Portuguese now winning the UEFA Europa Conference League, the UEFA Champions League twice and also the UEFA Cup/Europa League twice.
- Teams coached by Mourinho have now gone 423 minutes since last conceding in a major European final, with Henrik Larsson the last the player to score against one of his sides in such a match (57th minute for Celtic in the UEFA Cup against Porto in 2003). Mourinho-led sides have kept four consecutive clean sheets since.
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