Ali Koç Reveals Fenerbahçe’s Transfer Strategy and Mourinho’s Impact

Ali Koç’s statements are as follows:

“The Mourinho bombshell was nice. Timing was very important in convincing Mourinho. Sometimes we are criticized for making decisions slowly. Our sports director was working on the planning for the next season. In case the topic of a coach change arose, he worked on what options were available. One of them was Mr. Mourinho. When you look at his career, he has never been out of work for more than six months. It was obvious that he would immediately sign a new contract. He did well in Europe with Roma, but not in the league, and it was an unpleasant separation there. We determined that he wanted to work at a club. Mario Branco did the initial work. He first explained Fenerbahçe, what Fenerbahçe is, its history, and that it is much more than a sports club. He explained what Fenerbahçe means in Turkey and what football means here.

“WE WILL END IT THIS YEAR”

Mourinho values fans, interest, and big clubs. Fenerbahçe is going through a crisis period in football. Is there stability? Yes. When you look at the total picture over the last 10 years, Galatasaray has 718 points, Fenerbahçe has 717, it goes like that. Fenerbahçe is the only team in the top 5 without a championship. That was also a motivation for him. Other clubs have experienced similar periods. One for 13 years, another for 15 years, another for 38 years. We are going through a similar period, and we will end it next year.

“MARIO BRANCO PRESENTED A 100-PAGE REPORT TO MOURINHO”

We shared our dreams. After explaining Fenerbahçe, he explained Fenerbahçe’s football operations, the structure we set up, the processes, and our capabilities. Mario Branco presented a 100-page report. He was impressed by this. At that time, he didn’t say he would go here or there. We didn’t have any intention to sign a contract with any coach. We were just researching the market. We were heading towards the championship under Coach İsmail, we achieved good things. We started the negotiations in case of a possible change, if we couldn’t become champions. We did it just like the potential transfers we make in squad engineering. Mario provided him with information about the current team. According to our analysis, he gave profiles that we needed, and the lists that fit the profiles. According to us, we need these positions, and we can acquire these within our means.

“I TOLD MOURINHO ‘FOR THE FIRST TIME IN YOUR LIFE, YOU WILL COME TO SUCH A STRUCTURE'”

I told Mourinho; look, I said, none of the clubs you’ve worked for have less purchasing power than Fenerbahçe. All of them are much wealthier, with deep pockets, clubs that can buy any player they want. You will come to such a structure for the first time in your life. You will come knowing this. Our team is very strong, we will strengthen it even more, but we need to be much more creative and innovative.

“WE AGREED WITH MOURINHO AND HIS ENTIRE TEAM FOR 12 MILLION EUROS ANNUALLY”

Yesterday, Mr. Aziz Yıldırım said, ‘I offered 15, is the man a fool, why would he agree to less. They must have paid agents under the table.’ This is a crime! A very serious accusation! It’s a troubling situation for someone who has been the president of Fenerbahçe for 20 years to accuse us of paying under the table in such a transfer. He did the same thing with İrfan Can Kahveci. Instead of congratulating the club, he threatened to report us to the Capital Markets Board (SPK). You’re not complaining about me, you’re complaining about Fenerbahçe. 3 million euros less. Aziz Yıldırım says I offered 15, we gave 12 to the entire team including himself. I don’t know if the 15 Mr. Aziz Bey paid was for himself or his team.

“MOURINHO REJECTED AN EXTRAORDINARY OFFER FROM SAUDI ARABIA”

Both as a club and as a management, we appealed to him. What happened then? Other clubs got interested. He talked to Beşiktaş from Turkey. He met with Mr. Saadettin Saran and Mr. Aziz Yıldırım. We talked to him before all of them. Mario handled all the meetings. While others were making offers, we couldn’t. We had a coach, we were heading for the championship, we could have become champions in the last match. They told us others made offers, weren’t you serious? If you were our coach, we wouldn’t make an offer while you were there. He waited for us. After the league ended, we got in touch again. We talked. We clicked with each other. He accepted terms much more favorable than those offered by Mr. Aziz Bey. There was an extraordinary offer from Saudi Arabia, but he didn’t want it.

“MOURINHO LAUGHED AND STRONGLY DENIED IT”

I’m not so interested in what they did. When it was revealed that we had agreed, Mr. Aziz Yıldırım said something like ‘The other side agreed, Mourinho asked me, and I said sign.’ I wanted to confirm, I was surprised too. It could be, why not. The coach laughed and strongly denied it. At the press conference, he said I don’t get permission from anyone. He created the impression that he chose Fenerbahçe for us. Unfortunately, this doesn’t reflect the truth.

The Fenerbahçe we took over in 2018 couldn’t even think about Mourinho, it couldn’t even cross its mind. The Fenerbahçe we took over in 2018 couldn’t think about giving these amounts to Szymanski, Cengiz, Dzeko, Tadic. In 6 years, we didn’t solve the financial problems, but we brought them to a point where we can breathe. We have a way to go to the point we want. At least we can see our way ahead. You can see how much our team has strengthened in parallel with the improvement of our financial structure with the moves made in the last 2 years.

“THE PLAYERS WE WILL SIGN ARE CLEAR”

The players we will sign are clear. Some of our executives even say let’s announce it, to get a few extra votes, an unfinished business. I absolutely say no. They go to a country, you are a very important player, they take a photo, they serve it as if we are transferring. However, they are far from the transfer. They put out news in the media to create excitement. We don’t want to do that. We want to promise something we can keep.

“WE ASKED MOURINHO ‘WHO DO YOU WANT?'”

Our coach has preferences. If he has any, he will add them too. We asked who do you want. Is there anyone you definitely want to bring here? He said I can give profiles, not names. He also said that similar positions are needed, we agreed. There were profiles, there were names on our list that matched and didn’t match.”