Former Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has had no contact with England's Football Association about replacing fired national team coach Steve McClaren.
Hopes that the colorful coach might be the next man to take one of the toughest jobs in soccer rose on Wednesday when he was quoted as saying he was interested in the role.
However, he said he'd heard nothing from the FA when approached on Wednesday by Sky News in Portugal.
"I know nothing. I know nothing about it," Mourinho said. "I cannot answer you. My job at the moment is to take care of my family, my things in Portugal, enjoying my life -- not 100 percent because no football -- but enjoying my life."
Mourinho, who led Chelsea to back-to-back league titles as well as two domestic cups, knows English soccer well and would be an ideal candidate for a team which failed to reach next year's European Championship after losing to Croatia last week.
"There are lots of good managers around the world," Mourinho said. "The only thing I say it's a pity England is not in Euro 2008 but for sure they will be back for the World Cup in South Africa. They have to choose the right person for that."
Mourinho has been out of soccer since leaving Chelsea on Sept. 20 after falling out with Russian owner Roman Abramovich.
The Portuguese coach worked with England players John Terry, Ashley Cole, Frank Lampard, Joe Cole, Wayne Bridge and Shaun Wright-Phillips at Chelsea.
FA chief executive Brian Barwick, who is assigned with finding a coach and getting his choice approved by the board, has said he's in no rush to make an appointment. England will play only friendlies until qualifying for the 2010 World Cup begins in September.
Former AC Milan, AS Roma and Real Madrid coach Fabio Capello, Aston Villa manager Martin O'Neill, Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp and former England striker Alan Shearer are among potential contenders for the England job.
But Mourinho is clearly the fans' favorite. A Web site -- www.mourinhoforengland.co.uk -- is hoping to gather 100,000 signatures urging the FA to give him the job. The site has already collected 10,000 signatures in 48 hours, the Sun newspaper said.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later