Former Inter Milan coach Jose Mourinho sits on the bench before an
Italian Serie A soccer match last season. Mourinho is currently in the
country for holiday. PHOTO/ REUTERS
- Man who signed Kenya’s McDonald Mariga at Inter on holiday at the Coast
Jose Mourinho, the enigmatic manager of Spanish
football giants Real Madrid, is in town.
Mourinho, who
signed Kenya’s McDonald Mariga at reigning European champions Inter
Milan, has been on holiday with his family for nearly two weeks.
He
arrived in Kenya aboard a private charter plane for a well deserved
rest after guiding Italy’s Inter Milan to the European Champions League
title last season by beating Bayern Munich 2-0.
Special
One
On Sunday, the self-proclaimed “Special
One” was spotted at Ukunda airstrip in the South Coast on his return
from visiting Maasai Mara National Park.
It was a
cat-and-mouse game as Nation journalists tried in vain to speak
with Mourinho, who was driven to a South Coast beach resort in a convoy
of three heavily guarded vehicles.
Mourinho could be
seen on the back seat of a lightly tinted vehicle which also carried a
woman and two children, a boy and a girl.
Clad in a
Real Madrid T-shirt and dark glasses, Mourinho, 47, avoided all attempts
to be photographed or interviewed.
One of his body
guards alighted from an escort car and joined hotel guards to guide the
coach’s vehicle into the hotel.
An irritated senior
official of the hotel ordered security guards to keep reporters away and
called the G4S private security firm to bolster security.
The
official said: “You journalists are trying to kill my business. My
visitor doesn’t want to be disturbed.”
Nevertheless, he
had an opportunity to mingle with Ukunda residents when he went
shopping at a local supermarket.
A taxi driver, Sammy
Mwendwa, recalled the golden opportunity he had to chat with Mourinho
and ask him about Macdonald Mariga’s performance.
“He
told me that Mariga is a talented player who has a bright future and
that there are many like him in Kenya who, unfortunately, fail to be
noticed by European clubs,” said Mwendwa.
The Ukunda
Jewellery Shop marketing manager, Silvana Lelesiit, said she sold a
Sh8,000 bracelet to a woman companion.
She added that
when the Real Madrid coach realised that there was a CCTV camera in the
jewellery shop, he sat down on a chair and turned his back to it to
avoid being captured on tape.
“I felt nervous to see a
man dressed in shorts and sports shoes avoiding this CCTV camera but
when I looked closely, he seemed familiar. As a soccer fan, I quickly
recognised him to be Mourinho and immediately had a chat with him. He
only said ‘I feel at home’ and left after paying for the bracelet,”
Lelesiit said.
Other sources said that last week,
Mourinho signed autographs for a group of young men who ambushed him
moments after he got out of a supermarket and before his body guards led
him to his car and sped off.
The UK’s Telegraph
newspaper online quoted Mourinho as saying that he was on holiday and
was ready to go to Spain to take up his new assignment with Real Madrid.
Mourinho,
who is Portuguese, is a brilliant football couch who understands how to
handle the media and fans. He is well known for his tactics of
diverting pressure and attention from his players.