Mourinho: "For Me, Fenerbahçe Means Ambition"
José Mourinho, nicknamed “The Special One” for his long record of achievements and acclaimed by Turkish fans upon signing with Fenerbahçe, explained that his main motivation for coaching the second most successful club in Turkey is "ambition."
"Ambition is playing to win. It's feeling the impact, feeling the pressure that you have to win every match if you want to be champion. This is the reality of Fenerbahçe; for me, Fenerbahçe means ambition," emphasized the Portuguese coach at a press conference in Istanbul.
"My home is in London. Having a London club, fighting to be sixth, seventh, eighth, or ninth, and trying to work a miracle to qualify for the Europa League, is that ambition?" asked the former Real Madrid coach.
"Everyone knows I love Italy. Having a team in Italy where you have to work miracles to win a European competition and you’re always between fifth and seventh, is that ambition, simply because I love Italy? Being in Portugal, visiting my mother every day, is that ambition?" he continued.
Fenerbahçe, however, motivates him so much that he would start coaching "tomorrow, to play on the weekend," declared Mourinho, who dismissed the idea of asking for patience from the club's fans.
"The president, the director, and the board must be patient. Not the fans. They have to be crazy. They have to demand, they have to put pressure. If the players can't handle that pressure, they're not good enough to play for Fenerbahçe," summarized the new coach.
"I want that passion, but I want them to believe in everything, and if we're in the 85th minute and we're losing, I want them to keep believing, until the 90th minute and beyond, that we can still win," he concluded.
