Jose Mourinho turned down a mouth-watering €100 million (£89.6m) offer to manage Chinese Super League team Guangzhou Evergrande because he still wants to manage at the top level of the game.
The former Manchester United, Chelsea and Real Madrid head coach was offered a three-year contract worth €30m (£26.9m) yearly with another £9m in bonuses.
Jose Mourinho met with Xu Jiayin, the billionaire chairman of Evergrande, in London in April, when they discussed the possibility of him taking over the team.
But the Portuguese coach decided it was not the right move for him on professional grounds and turned down the offer to manage in China.
Mourinho, 56, believes he still has much to offer at the top level of football and is willing to take his time until the right job offer comes up after his dismissal as United boss last December.
He was recently endorsed for the Juventus job by Cristiano Ronaldo but was out of the club’s price range and didn’t feel it would have been the right move anyway.
Rafa Benitez recently left Newcastle to join Dalian Yifang claiming the project was just as attractive as the huge salary but Mourinho does not feel the same way.
He has also declined an offer to be manager of the China national side after Marcelo Lippi left the role.
Lippi was replaced briefly as China head coach by Guangzhou manager Fabio Cannavaro before Cannavaro returned to the club, and it was in this period that the offer was made.
However, Guangzhou Evergrande have yet to comment on this.
