ANKARA 

Roma head coach Jose Mourinho is on the verge of being the first football manager to bag all the UEFA club trophies.

Portuguese national Mourinho, 59, previously won the top-tier UEFA Champions League with Porto and Inter Milan, and UEFA Europa League with Porto and Manchester United.

On Wednesday Roma will play against Dutch club Feyenoord in the first-ever UEFA Europa Conference League final in the Albanian capital Tirana.

The Europa Conference League is the third-tier UEFA competition after the Champions League and the Europa League.

Meanwhile Roma, who recently came sixth in the 2021-22 Italian Serie A season, are seeking their first major UEFA trophy.

Roma boss Mourinho, currently the eighth-most title-winning manager in history with impressive 25 trophies, eyes his 26th cup of his career.

From interpretation to coaching

Mourinho, who was named "the Special One" by the English media, has had a different coaching career than his colleagues from the very beginning.

He began his football staff days by studying sports science at the Technical University of Lisbon.

His proneness to foreign languages opened the way for him to be an interpreter for famous English manager Sir Bobby Robson at Sporting in 1993. Jose later joined him as an assistant coach at Porto in 1994.

After winning two Portuguese league titles in 1994 and 1996, Robson was offered a job by Spain's Barcelona, and Mourinho did not leave his side.

The duo parted ways as Robson left the club after bagging the Spanish Cup and UEFA Cup Winners Cup in 1997.

The Cup Winners Cup was abolished in 1999.

But Mourinho stayed at Barca to become an interpreter and assistant to famous Dutch manager Louis van Gaal. Barcelona lived a short term of success with van Gaal, until his departure in 2000. Mourinho and van Gaal won two Spanish La Liga titles (1998, 1999), the UEFA Super Cup in 1998, and the Spanish Cup in the same year.

Mourinho also left the Spanish club to try his hands in full club management, returned to his home country to join Benfica in 2000.

Making a name for himself

After some good results with Benfica, including a 3-0 win against the reigning champions Sporting, he left the club after just nine games because his famous non-bending character quarreled with the club board.

After a short era with Leiria, he joined Porto in 2002.

He joined the Dragons in the mid-season but the team won 11 of 15 games left in the fixture and made their way to UEFA Cup.

The second-tier UEFA Cup was rebranded the Europa League before the 2009-10 season.

Jose left his first historic mark in the 2002-03 season, as his team Porto managed to clinch a "Famous Treble" – winning a domestic title, domestic cup, and European cup in the same season – as they sealed the Portuguese League, Portuguese Cup, and the UEFA Cup in a single season.

Despite losing an important player like Helder Postiga, Porto raised the bar next season as they won the Champions League this time, along with the Portuguese league and Portugal Super Cup.

In the 2004 final, Porto beat Monaco 3-0 as Mourinho's men stunned the football authorities with a Champions League fairy tale.

The Portuguese head coach left his post as a Porto legend.

Flying over Europe: Chelsea, Inter Milan, Real Madrid days

Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich purchased England's Chelsea reportedly for £140 million ($187 million) in 2003 and laid eyes on major trophies.

In the Abramovich era, the club had big signings to create a powerful team for both the English Premier League and European campaign.

After taking the second spot in the 2003-04 season of the Premier League with Claudio Ranieri, Chelsea hired Mourinho as manager in July 2004.

Mourinho signed several important players, including Ivorian forward Didier Drogba, Dutch winger Arjen Robben, and Czech goalkeeper Petr Cech.

Chelsea won their first title in 50 years with a Premier League record of 95 points in the 2004-05 campaign and won the League Cup. But Chelsea were eliminated by Liverpool in the Champions League semifinals.

The Blues clinched their second consecutive title the following season and bagged the Community Shield.

Mourinho's Chelsea lost the 2006-07 Premier League title to Sir Alex Ferguson's Manchester United but won the FA Cup and the League Cup. He left Chelsea in 2007, without any defeats in 60 home games, and joined the Italian club Inter Milan in July 2008.

In his first season at Inter, he guided the Nerazzurri to the Serie A and Italian Super Cup championships.

Mourinho marked another historic season of his career in the 2009-10 campaign as he won the 2010 Champions League title.

Inter clinched a 'treble' after winning the Champions League against Germany's Bayern Munich.

In the Champions League semis, Inter eliminated the 2009 champions Barcelona as Mourinho faced his former mentor van Gaal in the final in Madrid.

Inter claimed the 2010 Champions League title, beating Bayern Munich 2-0 at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium.

Following this triumph, Mourinho left Inter to join Spanish powerhouse Real Madrid.

Mourinho extended his unbeaten home run record to 135 games over the nine seasons.

He would later be written down in history as the "manager with the longest football unbeaten home run" after extending his run to 150 games, from March 16, 2002 to Real Madrid's 0-1 Sporting Gijon defeat at Madrid's Santiago Bernabeu Stadium on April 2, 2011.

His first season with the Whites was below-par as they only clinched a Copa Del Rey title.

Guardiola's Barcelona -- the best Barcelona of history as Mourinho calls them -- won the La Liga and the 2011 Champions League, after eliminating them in the semis.

But Mourinho's so-called "second-season-charm" worked again in the 2011-12 season and Real Madrid grabbed a historic La Liga championship with 100 points, by breaking both point and goal records of the league, but could not win any other title.

He left Real Madrid in 2013.

Back to Premier League

Struggling Chelsea wanted to return to good old successful days so they knocked on Mourinho's door once again and the second 'Special One' era at Chelsea began in the 2013 summer.

His first season with Chelsea finished without any titles but he built up his squad for the following season, making new signings, including future star Mohamed Salah from Egypt.

As expected, Mourinho won the Premier League title and the League Cup the following season but his third season was somewhat disastrous for both him and the Blues, as Chelsea placed 10th in the league and finished the 2015-16 season without any titles, so Mourinho left the club without waiting for the season to end.

In the 2016-17 season, he was appointed the Manchester United manager.

The Red Devils finished the Premier League in the sixth place but won the Europa League, League Cup, and the Community Shield.

After two more seasons without any success, Mourinho took his leave from Man Utd in December 2018.

He signed with Roma in July 2021, after trying his luck in the Premier League again. He previously coached Tottenham Hotspur between 2019 and 2021.