José Mourinho returns to the Stadio Olimpico with Roma and worries

José Mourinho returns to the Stadio Olimpico in Rome—his home between 2021 and January 2024—to face a former club with a not-so-good record. Against teams he has coached in the past, his overall balance stands at 26 wins, 15 draws and 27 defeats.

Numbers that don’t match

With Roma, Mourinho won the first ever UEFA Europa Conference League in 2022 and reached the Europa League final in 2023. In his second spell at Real Madrid, he has already added a recent positive result: a 2-1 win over Inter, a team he led from 2008 to 2010, on the first matchday of the Champions League league phase.

Early edge, later trouble

Earlier in his career, his clashes with old teams often went better: at Porto, by June 2004 he had nine wins over Benfica and Leiria across Portuguese national competitions, with just one defeat. But later, those results worsened—Tottenham (1-3-5), Roma (2-1-5), Fenerbahçe (1-2-2) and Benfica (1-2-4) all show it.

It’s also reflected in the January-February 2026 run: against Real Madrid, Mourinho started by winning in Lisbon, but lost the two legs that followed—0-1 in Lisbon and 2-1 in Madrid. Mundo Deportivo highlights the emotional weight of this return to the Olimpico.