Mourinho agrees two-year Real Madrid return with Pérez set to announce on Monday
Real Madrid have a manager for next season. José Mourinho has agreed a two-year deal to return to the Santiago Bernabéu, sources told ESPN and Sky Sports this week, with one further year tied to a La Liga title. The formal announcement is being held back for after the club's presidential election on Sunday.
The final league match against Athletic Club on Saturday night closes Álvaro Arbeloa's interim spell. Florentino Pérez is expected to be returned on Sunday the 24th, and Mourinho's name is set to come out of the club twenty-four hours after that.
A long way back to the Bernabéu
Mourinho last sat in the Real Madrid dugout in the summer of 2013. He leaves Benfica thirteen years on, having taken charge of the Lisbon side in 2025 and having decided this month that he would not sign Rui Costa's renewal offer. The split has not been clean. Costa has been firm in public, telling reporters that "until proven otherwise, Benfica's manager is José Mourinho", while the club's internal position, according to Portuguese media, has already accepted that the Portuguese coach is leaving and is working out the size of the termination clause Mourinho's camp will pay to walk. Estimates run from three million euros to seven million.
Arbeloa has been in caretaker charge since Xabi Alonso was let go in January after seven months in the role. He was promoted from Castilla and was never billed as a long-term solution. Mourinho is the choice Pérez wanted, and the structure of the deal, two seasons with a third tied to La Liga, fits the way Pérez likes managerial hires: short enough that any failure has a clear exit, long enough that a manager can plan a window of recruitment.
What he walks into
The squad is one Mourinho will know in pieces. Trent Alexander-Arnold and Dean Huijsen both came in last summer for the new project. The forward line still has Vinícius Júnior and Jude Bellingham, with Kylian Mbappé the version of the side Mourinho's predecessors built around. The midfield questions, Camavinga and Valverde particularly, are not new for the club, but they will be the first set of decisions a Mourinho regime puts its name on.
For now everything sits behind the velvet rope of the election. Athletic Club at the Bernabéu on Saturday, Pérez confirmed on Sunday, Mourinho unveiled on Monday. That is the timeline Madrid have been working towards for a fortnight, and barring a surprise in either of the first two steps, it is the one the club intends to keep.
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