Benfica Demands 15m Euros From Real Madrid to Sign Mourinho -

Portuguese giants Benfica confirmed on Thursday that Real Madrid would have to pay 15 million euros to prise away their coach Jose Mourinho.

Real president Florentino Perez has vowed to bring back Mourinho to the Bernabeu, 13 years after he left the club in 2013, as he seeks re-election this weekend.

Benfica released a statement saying that Perez had told them of his “firm intention to recruit” Mourinho, while stipulating that the Portuguese boss’s release clause was worth 15 million euros ($17.4m).

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Previous media reports had suggested that it could cost the Spanish giants as little as three million euros.

Mourinho has already appeared in a video on Perez’s Instagram account affirming that he was ready to return to the club he first joined in 2010.

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During his tenure, he won one La Liga title, a Copa del Rey and a Spanish Super Cup.

Appointing the divisive Mourinho would be a gamble on the part of Perez after Los Blancos finished without a major trophy for a second consecutive season.

But Perez sees Mourinho as the man to bring some discipline to a divided dressing room in which player power is rumoured to have got out of control.

Mourinho joined Benfica in September 2025 and led them to an unbeaten league season, although they only finished third.

He has one year left on his contract.

About Benfica club

Sport Lisboa e Benfica, commonly known as Benfica, is a professional football club based in Lisbon, Portugal, that competes in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese football.

Founded on 28 February 1904, as Sport Lisboa, Benfica is one of the “Big Three” clubs in Portugal that have never been relegated from Primeira Liga, along with rivals Sporting CP and FC Porto.

They are nicknamed As Águias (The Eagles), for the symbol atop the club’s crest, and Os Encarnados (The Reds), for the shirt colour.

Since 2003, their home ground has been the Estádio da Luz, which replaced the larger, original one, built in 1954. Benfica is the most supported Portuguese club and the European club with the highest percentage of supporters in its own country.

In 2006, Benfica had an estimated 14 million supporters worldwide, and in February 2025 it reached 400,000 club members, making them the largest sports club in the world by membership at the time.

The club’s anthem, “Ser Benfiquista”, refers to Benfica supporters, who are called benfiquistas. “E pluribus unum” (“Out of many, one”) is the club’s motto; Águia Vitória, the mascot.