Jose Mourinho claims the racism accusations against him by Galatasaray have backfired on Fenerbahce’s arch-rivals, saying: “They didn’t know my connections with Africa.”
Mourinho has broken his silence about the Turkish champions’ threat to launch criminal proceedings against him after he accused their bench of “jumping like monkeys” during last Monday’s Istanbul derby against his side.
The Fenerbahce manager, whose club announced on Friday he had responded to the threat by suing Galatasaray for “moral damages”, said of the allegation against him: “I just felt, how could they go so low?”
Mourinho, who has coached numerous black and African players during his career, told Sky Sports News: “They were not clever in the way they attacked me, because they didn’t know my past. They didn’t know my connections with Africa, with African people and African players and African charities. So instead of going against me, I think it boomeranged and went against them.
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“Everyone knows who I am as a person. Everybody knows my bad qualities, but that is not one of my bad qualities. Exactly the opposite! The most important thing is I know who I am, and the attack accusing racism was a bad choice.”
Former Chelsea stars Didier Drogba – who also played for Galatasaray – and Michael Essien both leapt to the defence of Mourinho following the accusation against him.
Fans of the Turkish champions responded by burning Drogba shirts in the street.
Mourinho said: “Probably, even from people who don’t like me, the support was there. I thank the people who didn’t have a problem to speak, especially my boys, my former players. They were a very important voice.”
Mourinho said he did not regret his “monkeys” comment, which he stressed had been directed mainly at Galatasaray’s Turkish manager Okan Buruk.
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“I cannot drop to his level,” he said. “Sometimes I do, and I ask myself, ‘Why did you do it, Jose? Why did you drop to that level?’”
Last Monday’s goal-less draw did result in a touchline ban for Mourinho. That was after he said the game had been better for being refereed by Slavko Vincic, a Slovenian – both clubs requested a foreign appointment – adding that he told the fourth official, a Turk, that the match would have been a “disaster” with him in charge. A four-match suspension was later halved by the Turkish Football Federation (TFF).
"I told the fourth official, who is Turkish, that if a Turkish ref had refereed this match, it would have been a disaster" ????
Jose Mourinho criticises the standard of Turkish refereeing after Fenerbahce's draw with Galatasaray ???????? pic.twitter.com/Sc68D1Jp5G
— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) February 24, 2025
Mourinho said: “On the day my [four-match] ban was decided, it comes to public eyes that the chief of the disciplinary committee is celebrating among friends with a Galatasaray shirt on. Only here you can understand the dimension of it.”
Telegraph Sport has contacted the TFF for comment.
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Mourinho also spoke about the struggles of former club Manchester United under his fellow Portuguese Ruben Amorim, who he helped tutor as a young coach.
He said: “He’s a good kid. Always very respectful to me. We had a good relationship for a few years. He knows I wish him well.”
Asked about United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe and the job losses that have been announced at United, Mourinho said: “To be honest, I don’t know much about what’s happening. I know Sir Jim Ratcliffe. I’m not saying we are big friends but we have a good relationship. I know him well. He invited me to his house a couple of times. I see him as a good person and a great businessman. Of course, I feel for some of the people that I know [losing their jobs], but hopefully it goes in the right direction.”
Drogba defends Mourinho as coach’s chaotic spell continues
Didier Drogba has come to Jose Mourinho’s defence after the Fenerbahce manager was accused of racism by Galatasaray. Drogba, who was signed by Mourinho during his first spell at Chelsea, spent a year playing for Galatasaray but stated that his former manager has been unfairly targeted by his old club.
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“Trust me when I tell you I have known Jose for 25 years and he is not a racist and history (past and recent) is there to prove it,” said Drogba via X. “How can my “Dad” be a racist? Come on guys.”
The Ivorian striker said he was proud to have worn the yellow and red of Galatasaray, but the club should concentrate instead on their quest for a 25th league title, which would earn them a fifth star above their emblem. “We all know how passionate and heated rivalries can be, and I’ve been lucky enough to experience it... Let’s focus on our games, support our brilliant Lions and let’s win the league to get close to our 5.”
No football lifer escapes the sport without getting weird in the end. For some it is a slow burn. Think Roy Hodgson’s occasional anger at softly probing questions or when, as Liverpool manager, he described Northampton Town as a “formidable challenge”. In fairness Liverpool went on to lose that match, possibly because of players frightened by Hodgson’s assessment.
Others become more eccentric the longer they spend in the game. Joe Kinnear, Arsène Wenger, and most obviously Mourinho. Once so well turned out, easy on the eye and adept with a pithy quote that people with no interest in football were charmed, he is now some kind of self-memeing Basil Fawlty experiment, a version of himself gone wrong – like the final act of The Substance. And it had all started so well.️..
How Mourinho’s tenure has unfolded
Hero’s welcome
Thousands flock to Sukru Saracoglu stadium to watch Mourinho sign a two-year-contract, in the most inexplicably large audience for an outdoor event since the last Coldplay tour. Mourinho admires the inevitable flares, takes some selfies and says “I promise you from this moment, I belong to your family. This shirt is my skin.” Which is objectively quite weird. Could this be a marriage made in social-media content heaven?
Failed knee slide
The early signs are good, although less so for the tibiofemoral joints of a 62-year-old. Mourinho marks a stirring 3-2 win over Trabzonspor with the mandated football celebration, a knee slide across the turf. Clearly he was expecting something like the smooth and frictionless surfaces of Serie A, judging by the face-plant which followed. Despite the win, Mourinho’s post-match approach was to say something inflammatory about officials. “The man of the match was [VAR] Karaoglan. The invisible man. The referee on the field is just a child.”
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Mixed-zone death stare
After defeat by Galatasaray a journalist asks for Mourinho’s reaction to a social media post showing his face with Photoshopped tears and the title “The Crying One”. Astonishingly, Mourinho fails to see the funny side, choosing not to engage with the picture on the reporter’s phone and asking “are you serious or are you joking?” while unblinkingly staring at the man, who had made the unwise decision to attempt lightheartedness in the aftermath of a football match.
Laptop protest
The rules are quite clear about who can look at important incidents on a screen during a match. The manager, his army of analysts and the referee, when his friend in his ear says he is allowed. Important never to show anything too provocative to people in the stadium, nor even at home, but Mourinho does not care for such boundaries. To protest an Edin Dzeko goal being incorrectly disallowed, in his eyes, Mourinho placed a screen showing the incident directly in front of a TV camera. He is booked, becoming the first manager in history to receive a yellow card for forbidden use of an item from Curry’s.
United red card
A reunion for Mourinho with his former team ends in a 1-1 draw between Fenerbahce and Manchester United. Mourinho marks the occasion by reacting with such anger to a non-awarded penalty that he is sent to the stands by French referee Clément Turpin. Afterwards, with sarcasm any GCSE student would be proud of, Mourinho says: “He told me something incredible. He told me that at the same time he could see the action in the box and my reaction on the touchline. He had one eye on the penalty situation and one eye on the bench and my behaviour. That’s why he is the best referee in the world.”
Offering himself to the Championship
Still seething after the United game, Mourinho concedes it might be better for everyone if he manages a team which does not play in European competition and also seemingly sets his own Fenerbahce departure date. “The best thing I have to do, when I leave Fenerbahce, I go to a club that doesn’t play Uefa competitions. So if anybody from England from the bottom of the table needs a coach in two years, I am ready to go.” Form an orderly queue.
Guardiola drive-by
Come to Turkey, they said. Forget all your troubles on a terrace overlooking the Bosphorus strait with some baklava and a very strong coffee. Or reignite an old feud with a former enemy who probably has not thought about you for several years. “He won six trophies and I won three, but I won fairly and cleanly,” said Mourinho about Pep Guardiola. “If I lost, I want to congratulate my opponent because he was better than me. I don’t want to win by dealing with 150 lawsuits.” OK, thanks Jose… Any new knocks ahead of the Besiktas game?
