{"id":2430,"date":"2026-06-10T11:52:53","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T11:52:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/?p=2430"},"modified":"2026-06-10T11:52:53","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T11:52:53","slug":"an-honour-and-a-privilege-jose-mourinho-pens-emotional-benfica-farewell-message-ahead-of-real-madrid-homecoming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/?p=2430","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;An honour and a privilege&#8217; &#8211; Jose Mourinho pens emotional Benfica farewell message ahead of Real Madrid homecoming"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"article-body\" data-affiliate-button-variant=\"D\">\n<div>\n<p style=\"text-align:start\"><span>Mourinho has expressed his deep gratitude to Benfica through a poignant social media post just hours after his departure was confirmed. Taking to Instagram, the 63-year-old reflected on his brief but impactful second stint in Lisbon, which saw him lead the club to an unbeaten league domestic campaign and a third-place finish in the Primeira Liga, alongside a victory in Supertaca Candido de Oliveira.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:start\"><span>In his address, the former Chelsea and Manchester United boss thanked the club&#8217;s leadership and staff. &#8220;I would like to thank president Rui Costa for the opportunity he gave me to work for Sport Lisboa e Benfica. Representing this club has been an honour and a privilege. I would also like to extend my gratitude to all the staff at Benfica Campus, whose professionalism, dedication and competence have been exemplary,&#8221;\u00a0Mourinho said\u00a0via his <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DZZixeEIXe1\/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;ig_rid=dd6baccf-ecc8-4f29-895a-764a58aec965\" target=\"_blank\" data-affiliate-type=\"NONE\"><span>official Instagram account<\/span><\/a><span>.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mourinho has expressed his deep gratitude to Benfica through a poignant social media post just hours after his departure was&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1019,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2430\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}