AS Roma coach Jose Mourinho has emerged as a candidate to replace Christophe Galtier as Paris Saint-Germain coach at the end of the 2022/23 Serie A season, which would end a two-year spell in the Italian capital.
Galtier’s job with PSG has been under a cloud of doubt for some time, and he needs to turn the club’s form around to stand a chance of retaining his position. PSG were eliminated from the Coupe de France by Olympique Marseille, and they also suffered a 1-0 defeat to Bayern Munich in the first leg of their Champions League Round-of-16 tie.
Foot Mercato reports Paris Saint-Germain football advisor Luis Campos is looking beyond this season, knowing that his future at the French club could also be at risk, and he has turned to his compatriot Mourinho as his choice to coach PSG in 2023/24.
The Qatari owners of the Parisians are admirers of the Portuguese tactician, which would put the 60-year-old in a great position to secure the role, and he would be reunited with Joao Sacramento, one of his assistants at Tottenham.
Is it time for Mourinho to leave AS Roma?
This is not the first time news has circulated of a team trying to lure Mourinho away from Roma. After the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, Mourinho was tipped to replace Fernando Santos as coach of Portugal before Roberto Martinez was appointed.
The 60-year-old rarely stays for three seasons at a club, but he is contracted to the Giallorossi until June 2024 and they are in the Champions League qualification spots after defeating Hellas Verona 1-0 on Matchday 23.
Having won the Conference League in 2021/22 and now guiding the team in the Europa League, Mourinho might want to see how far he can take this Lupi squad in Europe’s premier competition. The Roman club went as far as the quarter-finals under Luciano Spalletti in the 2000s and reached the semi-finals with Eusebio Di Francesco as coach in 2017/18.
Given that Mourinho has won the competition twice before, Roma have a coach that knows what it takes to win the Champions League. Whether the Giallorossi have the depth to achieve that victory is a totally different matter.
Mourinho has the European pedigree craved by PSG
If Mourinho does leave Roma for PSG, he will have an abundance of talented players such as Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe, Neymar, Gianluigi Donnarumma, and Marco Verratti to work with.
Since Nasser Al-Khelaifi became the PSG chairman in 2011, European success has proven to be elusive and the closest the French club has come to winning the Champions League was in 2020, when they lost to Bayern Munich by a solitary goal.
Although Mourinho has not won Europe’s elite competition since he coached Inter in 2009/10, he has won European silverware elsewhere such as the 2016/17 Europa League with Manchester United and the aforementioned Conference League triumph with Roma.
Can he finally lead PSG to Champions League glory?
