Jose Mourinho honoured at Football Extravaganza

Jose Mourinho confirmed his desire to return to England after being honoured at the 16th Football Extravaganza.

The former Chelsea manager picked up his award at a dinner at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London, with the event raising £401,000 in aid of the Nordoff Robbins charity, writes Stewart Coggin.

The Premier League supports the Football Extravaganza event each year, and several managers including Mick McCarthy and David Moyes were present as Mourinho became the latest to be recognised for his contribution to the game in England.

The Nordoff Robbins charity specialises in transforming the lives of children and adults constrained by illness, disability, trauma or isolation through the power of music.


The Football Extravaganza had raised over £5m by its 15th anniversary last year, with the Premier League playing a key role in its ongoing success.

In 2010 the Premier League donated a leather-bound book of over 40 player and manager self-portraits which was auctioned at the Football Extravaganza in aid of Nordoff Robbins and its help continues to be invaluable to the charity.

COME HOME

Mourinho revealed to premierleague.com his pride at being able to contribute to what is the longest running annual charity football event.

"If I can do little things to help people in need, especially the kids, I am ready. I have come home to London, I like to come and see friends and people that I admire," he said.

"Some great people from English football and also some friends have won this award, but the most important thing is what you can do for the kids and of course I am proud that I will go home with a really beautiful award to remember my time in England but more important than that is to go with the notion that I did something for the kids."

Manchester United legend Eric Cantona won the award last year, while the League of Legends also includes Sir Bobby Robson, Sir Alex Ferguson and Alan Shearer, who was at the event and presented Mourinho with his award.

Real Madrid coach Mourinho also confirmed that he will one day return to the Premier League, where he enjoyed such success with Chelsea, winning the title in 2005 and 2006.

GREAT TIME

"It was a great time for me in football and also in my private life, it was good for me and also my family," he said. "I have a house in London and I want to be back one day. The football world looks big but it is not so big. You go around and around and sometimes you go back to places where you were before and I hope one day to be back to English football because I was so happy here."

Mourinho confirmed that he plans to return to the Premier League once he has fulfilled his commitments at Real Madrid, where he has a contract until 2014.

The Portuguese tactician will be returning to London again on 13th April as Real Madrid face Tottenham Hotspur in the second-leg of the Champions League quarter-finals.

Spurs manager Harry Redknapp is a personal friend of Mourinho, who has been impressed with his achievements since taking over at White Hart Lane in October 2008.

He said: "When I left England, Tottenham were not playing in the Champions League, they were fighting to play European football at Uefa Cup level. At this moment they are in the quarter-finals of the Champions League. They beat Milan who have the second most European Cups and they beat Inter who are European champions so they have a good team, people with quality and experience."

SEVEN YEARS

Mourinho is confident that his expensively assembled Real side will progress past Spurs, but knows they will have to be on their mettle against one of the surprise packages of this season's competition.

"I think they have a reason to dream of beating us, but at the same time we have reached a quarter-final for the first time in seven years which was important for our tranquillity and we think we can beat them," he continued. "We are going into these matches with that ambition, but we respect them."

Mourinho has been watching with interest as the Barclays Premier League title race continues to unfold. Manchester United hold a five-point lead over Arsenal, but while Mourinho believes the Gunners have the advantage of no longer being in the Champions League, he thinks Chelsea will emerge as the Red Devils' closest challengers.

LOSE POINTS

He added: "It is open. Arsenal have an advantage because they are not involved in the Champions League any more. Chelsea are, Manchester United are and the two matches between these clubs (Chelsea face United in the Champions League quarter-finals) will demand a lot from the players.

"Arsenal are just playing Premier League matches. This season could be their season but sometimes they lose points in an unexpected way.

"I think it will be between Manchester United and Chelsea again and the match at Old Trafford will decide everything because Chelsea need to win. If they do it (win the match) they can do it (win the league) again but if they don't I think Manchester United will win the title."