José Mourinho has seen and experienced almost everything in football.

He was at the top after triumphs in the Champions League with Porto and Inter, but has also been thrown out of clubs for lack of success: in Manchester and Tottenham.

The trainer loved and lived the extremes, it's not for nothing that he gave himself the nickname "Special One".

One might think that a final of the – third-rate – Conference League shouldn’t particularly affect the now 59-year-old.

And yet it does!

When his AS Roma celebrated their place in the final against Leicester City in the semi-finals (1-0), all emotions broke out of the veteran.

Mourinho howled uncontrollably to the ecstatic cheers of almost 64,000 spectators.

On Wednesday (9 p.m./in the FAZ live ticker for the Conference League and on Nitro) in the Albanian capital of Tirana, Feyenoord Rotterdam will be battling for the title in the inaugural season of this competition.

Rome did something to the often arrogant Mourinho, both the club and the city.

"People here haven't experienced a moment like this for ages," the coach explained his emotional outburst at home in the Olympic Stadium.

"I thought about the fans here, about my players, less about myself."

The capital club with the she-wolf in their crest does not have a bulging trophy cabinet like most of Mourinho's earlier clubs: A victory in the 1961 Fairs Cup is the only international success so far.

After that, the Roma were still in the finals in 1983 in the national championship and in 1991 in the UEFA Cup, but lost both duels.

Roma became national champions three times.

For comparison: Mourinho won four international club titles and eight league successes.

So much for "tired gladiator"

Accordingly, he was received in the summer of 2021 as a savior in the Eternal City, and he introduced himself almost like an emperor.

But the season did not go as planned, the trade journal "Gazzetta dello Sport" even observed that the general "acts like a tired gladiator, a veteran who has won a lot", but can no longer do it.

Roma were left behind by the top teams in Serie A, Mourinho's team didn't play nice football.

The club missed the leap into the European premier class as sixth in the table behind the hated city rivals Lazio.

So has the Mourinho project failed in Rome, well before the end of the contract in 2024?

Not at all.

"I'm not even thinking of leaving before these three years," the coach recently clarified.

He enjoys the passion in the city and especially at AS Roma, a club that can still worship its football heroes like Francesco Totti or Daniele De Rossi.

Of course, Mourinho still has a long way to go to achieve the status of these club icons, especially since the expectations of fans and club owners from the USA were huge.

Last week, Mourinho endured the UEFA press day specially arranged for the final, clearly annoyed.

The fire that the international evenings awakened in him was still evident - the Portuguese is far from having enough.

"The Conference League is our Champions League," the coach clarified.

A journalist asked him about the satisfaction that he and Carlo Ancelotti felt from Champions League finalists Real Madrid, who had already been labeled by many experts as early retirees compared to up-and-coming young coaches like Julian Nagelsmann.

"Age doesn't count for coaches," said Mourinho.

"The only things that count are quality, motivation, passion." Mourinho emphasized that nobody had to tell him when to stop.

"If someone waits for me to say basta, then they can wait a long time."