Madferret
9-20-05, 1:00 PM
Mourinho considers coaching England
LONDON (AP) - Jose Mourinho wants to be Portugal's national team coach one day. How about England's? Although the Chelsea coach's allegiance will always be with Portugal first, he didn't discount the possibility of coaching for England some day.
Mourinho, who guided Chelsea to the Premier League title last season in his first year in England, made headlines Tuesday by suggesting in a magazine interview that he could apply for British citizenship in the future to become England coach.
"It's true that part of me feels like an Englishman now," the Portuguese coach said in Time Out. "And if I stay here for the next five years - up to the end of my contract - I will feel even more English.
"Of course, if players spend that amount of time in another country they can change their passport and play for that country. So with six years of loving London and England, I will have something of England and its people in my heart. So I could do it in a professional way and also with my heart."
Sweden's Sven-Goran Eriksson, is England's current coach. He's under fire after England's 4-1 defeat to Denmark in a friendly and a 1-0 World Cup qualifying loss to Northern Ireland. But Mourinho said he wasn't after Eriksson's job, adding that he thought the England post was "really for an English person."
"I feel that national teams are for national people," Mourinho said. "To do it for your own country must make it feel so different. I would like to go with the Portuguese national team with the Portuguese flag, leading my country."
LINK (http://www.sportsnet.ca/soccer/article.jsp?content=20050920_121625_5568)
LONDON (AP) - Jose Mourinho wants to be Portugal's national team coach one day. How about England's? Although the Chelsea coach's allegiance will always be with Portugal first, he didn't discount the possibility of coaching for England some day.
Mourinho, who guided Chelsea to the Premier League title last season in his first year in England, made headlines Tuesday by suggesting in a magazine interview that he could apply for British citizenship in the future to become England coach.
"It's true that part of me feels like an Englishman now," the Portuguese coach said in Time Out. "And if I stay here for the next five years - up to the end of my contract - I will feel even more English.
"Of course, if players spend that amount of time in another country they can change their passport and play for that country. So with six years of loving London and England, I will have something of England and its people in my heart. So I could do it in a professional way and also with my heart."
Sweden's Sven-Goran Eriksson, is England's current coach. He's under fire after England's 4-1 defeat to Denmark in a friendly and a 1-0 World Cup qualifying loss to Northern Ireland. But Mourinho said he wasn't after Eriksson's job, adding that he thought the England post was "really for an English person."
"I feel that national teams are for national people," Mourinho said. "To do it for your own country must make it feel so different. I would like to go with the Portuguese national team with the Portuguese flag, leading my country."
LINK (http://www.sportsnet.ca/soccer/article.jsp?content=20050920_121625_5568)