Mourinho fired by Fenerbahce: His many antics, controversies in Turkey

Posted by Chris Wright | 6 hours ago | Sport | Views: 12


José Mourinho’s stint in charge at Fenerbahce has come to an abrupt end with the club announcing on Friday that they had parted company with their manager just two games into the Turkish Super Lig season.

The former Chelsea, Real Madrid and Manchester United boss was first appointed by Fenerbahce last summer, and finished second in the league in his first year in Istanbul, 11 points behind champions and bitter city rivals Galatasaray. But a failure to qualify for the Champions League following a playoff elimination at the hands of Benfica has led to the 62-year-old leaving his post at the Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium with immediate effect.

The infamously pugnacious Portuguese coach spent just over 450 days in the job. Yet still he managed to pack plenty of thrills, spills and controversy into his brief tenure, regularly finding himself in hot water with the Turkish footballing authorities.

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An antagonistic presence from the start, Mourinho was making headlines mere minutes into his first game as Fenerbahce coach and things snowballed from there: disciplinary issues, continued protests against match officials, expert pantomime villainy and even legal action brought about by rival clubs.

With the fleeting and suitably hectic Mourinho era now over at Fener, perhaps now is a good time to look back on the impressive litany of capers and consternation he was responsible for during his 14-month stint in the Turkish Süper Lig.

Editor’s note: this article has been updated since it was first published on April 3, 2025

Aug. 11, 2024: Booked mere minutes into his first game

It took Mourinho roughly 20 minutes to find himself on the wrong side of the disciplinary line in Turkish football after he was shown a yellow card during his first league game as Fenerbahce boss. It was for arguing with the match officials, in case you were wondering.

Sep. 23, 2024: Called ‘crying one’ by Galatasaray

Mourinho was offered a swift introduction to the bitter rivalry between Fenerbahce and Galatasaray when his new side lost in his first Istanbul derby. Fener were beaten 3-1 at home — the Super Lig leaders handing their rivals their first league defeat of the season — and then rubbed it in even further by mocking Mou on social media in the aftermath by labelling him “The Crying One” in reference to his self-appointed “Special One” nickname.

Sep. 30, 2024: Places laptop in front of TV cameras to protest refereeing decision

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Laurens loved Jose Mourinho’s offside protest with a laptop

Gab Marcotti and Julien Laurens react to Jose Mourinho protesting against an offside call against his Fenerbahce team by showing the broadcast cameras the call on his laptop.

Unperturbed, Mourinho was soon up to his old tricks during Fenerbahce’s 2-0 win at Antalyaspor when he took umbrage with the referee’s decision to disallow Edin Džeko’s 76th-minute effort and mounted a wry protest from the bench. The Portuguese coach placed a laptop in front of the TV cameras displaying a still image of the build-up, thus presenting his evidence as to why the decision was incorrect. A booking soon followed.

Oct. 24, 2024: Red card vs. Manchester United

Manchester United fans were reacquainted with Mourinho when they travelled to face Fenerbahce in the Europa League, a competition they’d previously won with the Portuguese coach at the helm. He was shown a straight red card on the hour mark for quarrelling with the referee after his new team were denied a penalty.

Skirting perilously close to an extended suspension, Mou later sarcastically applauded the match official for his “incredible” ability of being able to watch both the match and his behaviour on the touchline at the same time.

Nov. 8, 2024: Banned for saying he is fighting ‘the system’

Mourinho’s familiar siege mentality stance was evident in November when he picked up a one-game ban for insinuating that both the Turkish football authorities and Süper Lig match officials were conspiring against him.

“I blame the Fenerbahce people that brought me here. They told me only half of the truth. They didn’t tell me the whole truth because if they told me the whole truth, I wouldn’t come. But, with half of the truth and my boys, we fight opponents and the system.”

The rant came as part of a post-match diatribe following Fenerbahce’s 3-2 victory over Trabzonspor, which climaxed with a winning goal in the 12th minute of stoppage time and a brilliantly botched knee-slide celebration from the man of the moment.

Feb. 21, 2025: Requests a foreign referee (and gets one)

After weeks spent repeatedly complaining about the standard of Turkish match officials, Mourinho openly requested that a top foreign referee take charge of the Istanbul derby against Galatasaray in a bid to alleviate the controversies that had marred several league games already this season. Sure enough, both Gala and the Süper Lig agreed to indulge Mou, allowing Slovenian referee Slavko Vincic to officiate the game, which ended in a goalless draw.

Feb. 27, 2025: Four-game ban for remarks on Turkish refs

It wasn’t long before Mourinho was banging a familiar drum when his sly comments about domestic referees made in the wake of the Gala derby were noticed by the Turkish Football Federation, who hit the Fener coach with a fine and a four-game ban. Mourinho insinuated that a Turkish ref might have been fooled into awarding an early freekick against Fener for what he called a “big dive” against 19-year-old defender Yusuf Akçiçek.

“Again, I have to thank the referee because with a Turkish referee after the big dive and the first minute and their [Gala’s] bench jumping like monkeys on top of the kids. A Turkish referee would have given [Akçiçek] a yellow card after one minute, and after five minutes I would have to [substitute] him.”

Naturally, the comments did not go down well with Galatasaray, who swiftly announced that they would be initiating criminal proceedings against Mourinho and reporting him to FIFA and UEFA for what they referred to as “racist statements.”

Feb. 28, 2025: Sues Galatasaray over racism accusation

The very next day, Mourinho and Fenerbahce responded to Galatasaray’s threats by filing a lawsuit against the club for what they said was an “attack on the personal rights” of their coach. Fener rejected Gala’s claim that Mourinho had used racist language and asserted that the club had “deliberately taken entirely out of context and distorted in a misleading manner.”

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Mourinho pretends to fall asleep during a journalist’s long question

Jose Mourinho pretends to fall asleep in his press conference after Fenerbahce’s defeat to Rangers as a journalist takes over a minute to ask a question.

March 7, 2025: Pretends to fall asleep

We were treated to more classic Mourinho hijinks last month when the Portuguese pretended to fall asleep during a news conference following Fenerbahce’s 3-1 home loss against Rangers in the Europa League round-of-16 first leg.

While fielding a lengthy question from a journalist that lasted over 50 seconds, Mourinho lost concentration and pretended to drift off, even making snoring noises while the reporter continued to talk.

Apr. 2, 2025: Banned for tweaking rival coach’s nose

In what will likely go down as the most memorable misdemeanour of his rollercoaster stint with Fenerbahce, Mourinho ended up getting himself suspended for grabbing the face of Galatasaray coach Okan Buruk in the aftermath of a particularly feisty Istanbul derby between the two sides.

Galatasaray won 2-1 at the Şükrü Saracoğlu in a tense encounter that culminated in a skirmish between the two benches, leading to four red cards being shown in injury time. Mourinho then escalated things further when he marched over and tweaked the nose of his opposite number while Buruk was remonstrating with the match officials.

Gala subsequently accused Mourinho of “first verbally and then physically attacking” their coach, who tumbled dramatically to the ground as a result, before the club began taunting Mourinho via a series of pointed social media posts shared after the game. One such post featured a cartoon of the Fenerbahce coach embarking on a news conference rant along with the caption “Galatasaray drives you crazy.”

Mourinho was hit with a three-game ban from the Turkish Football Federation as punishment and was forced out of the dugout during a patchy run-in that saw Fener finish a way behind Gala in the title race.

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Mourinho: My teams always beat Benfica

Fenerbahçe boss Mourinho takes a swipe at Benfica ahead of their Champions League qualifier.

Aug. 20, 2025: Bragging that his teams “always beat Benfica”

No stranger to hubris, Mourinho took the bait ahead of Fenerbahce’s crucial Champions League qualification playoff against Benfica when it was pointed out to him at a news conference that he had a superior record over the Lisbon club as a coach.

He had won six and lost only one of nine previous matches against them — one for Uniao Leiria, six for FC Porto and two for Manchester United. Although Mourinho did move to downplay the significance of that record, he allowed himself to say: “I always beat Benfica because my FC Porto was much better than Benfica.”

Unfortunately, that record did not help him as Benfica won 1-0 over two legs to send Fener out of the competition. Mourinho admitted that his team were put out by a “much better” side in what proved to be his final postmatch news conference as Fenerbahce coach.





ESPN

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