Mourinho hungry for more silverware rather than Spanish silver

Real Madrid agree a compensation package with Inter Milan for Jose Mourinho, leaving the Portuguese coach free to sign for the Spanish side.

Brendan Rodgers, centre, talks to players during his time as a coach at Chelsea.

Real Madrid last night agreed a compensation package with Inter Milan for Jose Mourinho, leaving the Portuguese coach free to sign for the Spanish side on Monday. Although the amount was not revealed it, Mourinho's decision to move to the Bernabeu is not money-motivated, insists his close friend Brendan Rodgers.

Mourinho, already the world's highest paid coach, worked together with Rodgers at Chelsea, where the Portuguese hand-picked the then-31-year-old from his role as academy coach at Reading and gifted him the reins of the Chelsea youth squad. Within two years Rodgers was promoted to reserve team coach and when Mourinho accepted Massimo Moratti's offer to manage Inter Milan in 2008, the Northern Irishman is believed to have been invited to follow his mentor to the San Siro.

Rodgers, 37 years old and fluent in Spanish and Italian, declined, opting instead for a full managerial position at Watford, the English second tier club. The two men, however, have kept in close contact. Just hours after Mourinho lifted the Champions League trophy seven days ago, he was talking of next season and the possibility of coaching Real Madrid. By Wednesday, Manuel Pellegrini, the Galacticos manager, was sacked, costing Madrid president Florentino Perez in the region of ?8m (Dh36.4m).

Yesterday, Jorge Valdano, the Madrid director general, confirmed he hopes Mourinho will be presented to the fans next week now that a compensation package has reportedly been agreed with Inter. Mourinho is expected to sign a four-year contract in the Spanish capital that will see him pocket ?10m per year, while his assistants will split ?5m per annum. But Rodgers, who left Reading in December and says he is in talks with several clubs, including Manchester City, about possible coaching roles, is adamant it is silverware not money that is tempting his friend across the Mediterranean.

"Madrid need to win things and Jose's record is proven that he wins," said Rodgers. "His motivation is always to win trophies. Coming off of a domestic and European treble he's obviously highly sought after. "He's undoubtedly one of the leading managers in the world and everyone knows Real Madrid is a fantastic and massive job. Considering that, it's a big honour for him I'm sure and while he's not the manager there yet, if he goes, it'll be a great challenge and that's what he likes.

"But the move is one where, he's achieved the treble in Italy and there's not much else for him to achieve there. I also know he's very keen to become the first man in history to win three [Champions League] titles in three different countries, so if he can do that by going into a club that already has an outstanding squad and put his stamp on it over the next year or two then he has every chance of achieving that."

Mourinho's relationship with Italian football was notoriously prickly, but Rodgers added the outspoken Portuguese coach's adoration for Inter was genuine. "It was obviously difficult for him," he said. "The football life, he loved it at Inter, but there are other aspects of it he maybe never enjoyed. "But I know he loved working with his players and, as he does at all of his clubs, he got close to them there and built a strong spirit, which is difficult to break.

"His focus is always on the job he is doing, he never strays from the club that he's at and you can't argue with his professionalism. Whichever thoughts are on his mind he's always focused on the task at hand and, at Inter Milan, he's obviously got the job done. His focus was firmly on the Champions League final and that what he's achieved for the club." [e-mail]