Jose Mourinho has claimed that Chelsea’s assistant coach Rui Faria is the finest of his "disciples" and could take over from the Portuguese tactician at Stamford Bridge in the future.
While taking part in a new documentary based on his career called ‘Jose Mourinho – Portrait of a Champion’ on BT Sport, the broadcaster's ambassador waxed lyrical about his loyal No 2 - stating that his countryman could become a coach at the highest level tomorrow if it suited him.
Mourinho and Faria have forged a successful working relationship spanning more than 15 years and the Chelsea coach, who has bred through managers like Brendan Rodgers, Andre Villas-Boas and Aitor Karanka, believes his current right hand man tops the lot.
"I don’t want to put them all in the same dimension and when I, if one day I have to speak about disciples, the real one is the one that is with me since 2000," Mourinho said.
"The one that has more potential than any other one, the one that if he wants to become a manager tomorrow he is more than ready to do it at the highest level but is the one that simply is enjoying so much to be where he is that doesn’t have that feeling."
Since initially joining Mourinho on the coaching staff at Uniao de Leiria in 2000, their partnership has proved to be fruitful wherever they have gone and has produced an abundance of silverware domestically in a number of countries and in Europe.
And Mourinho has no doubt that if Faria were to leave Chelsea one day, he would have no problem in returning to Stamford Bridge and succeeding him in the future.
Mourinho added: "But if one day I have to choose my successor, if you want to use that, the one that I really feel thinks like me, is adapted to my way of lead, he’s adapted to my way of coaching, he’s the one with more similarities with me even in some traces of personality, is my assistant, Rui Faria."
Watch ‘Jose Mourinho – Portrait of a Champion’ on Tuesday 18th August at 10.15pm on BT Sport 1.
