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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Sport

Jose Mourinho rejects retirement after Man Utd sacking: 'I belong in top football'

Jose Mourinho says he "belongs to top football" amid suggestions he could retire following his sacking by Manchester United.

The Portuguese was sacked as manager during December, with the team going on to since win six straight matches under caretaker boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

Mourinho, though, has no intentions of letting United be his final job.

While acting as a pundit during BeIN SPORTS' coverage of the Asian Games, Mourinho said: "I want to coach.

"I am too young, I am in football for a long, long time but I will be 56 in a couple of weeks and am really too young.

"Where I am going to stay is where I belong, I belong to top football. I belong to top-level football and (that) is where I am going to be."

Mourinho rejected criticism of his time at Old Trafford, amid reports of player unrest and a fall-out with French midfielder Paul Pogba.

He said on beIN SPORTS: "Sometimes we comment on what we see, but we don't know what is behind the scenes and influences what we see. I think that is a fundamental thing.

"If I tell you for example that I consider one of the best jobs of my career (was) to finish second with Manchester United in the Premier League, you say 'this guy is crazy - he won 25 titles...'

"But I keep saying this because people don't know what is going on behind the scenes. Sometimes we, on this side of the camera, analyse things with a different perspective."

Additional reporting by Press Association.

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