Fenerbahce coach Jose Mourinho said Wednesday that he did not attend the postgame news conference after Saturday’s 3-1 Istanbul derby loss to Galatasaray because he “felt disrespected” being made to wait more than an hour to speak to journalists.
The loss was Fenerbahce’s first Super Lig defeat of the season and left the side trailing Galatasaray by five points. However, Mourinho insisted that his absence had nothing to do with the result.
“In 24 years of football, I never in my life escaped from a press conference, especially after a defeat,” Mourinho, who took charge of Fenerbahce in June, said.
“I never had fear of any journalist, any question or any press conference. So [it] wouldn’t be with you that I was going to change my way of being.”
Mourinho said he shook Galatasaray coach Okan Buruk’s hand after the match and proceeded to do the flash interview conducted shortly after.
However, he said it “doesn’t have any logic” for waiting so long to take his turn at the postgame conference, and added that he even waited by the door but was not allowed to go in.
“It has nothing to do with the result, it has nothing to do with anything. It has only to do with something that is correct or is not correct,” Mourinho said. “You finish the game, you go to the flash. And then you wait 15 minutes, 20 minutes, half an hour. And the away coach goes.
“Seventy minutes, I’m sorry, but it’s a lack of respect. So if anybody felt disrespected, I am the one that felt disrespected.”
After the result, Galatasaray posted on their official X account a Photoshopped image of a book titled “The Crying One,” with an image of Mourinho — who famously described himself as a “Special One” during his first spell at Chelsea — looking sad on the cover with the caption: “On sale in stores around Kadıköy.”