Jose Mourinho sets sights on another European crown in remarkable managerial journey

Should Roma become the first champions of European football’s newest senior competition on Wednesday, keep an eye on any hand signals their head coach makes after the final whistle. Jose Mourinho has a history of counting up his honours on his fingers, and making sure his audience gets the message.

He did it more than once when he worked in the Premier League, reminding, with three fingers pointed skywards, that he has been not only the ‘Special One’ in English football, but the Special Two, and the Special Three - a Premier League-winning manager in 2005 and 2006 with Chelsea and, on returning there, a third time in 2015.

He won a pair of league titles each with Porto and Internazionale, too, and a Spanish Liga while in charge of Real Madrid.

But it is his record European competition that is ready for the full spread-out hand, the signal that he will have won five major Uefa trophies, if Roma live up to their billing as favourites in the inaugural Europa Conference League final against Feyenoord in Tirana.

Victory would give Mourinho another rare distinction: Only two coaches have collected a three-strong collection of different possible Uefa prizes. They were Giovanni Trappatoni and Udo Lattek, in the era when there was a European Cup-Winners Cup running alongside the Uefa Cup - now the Europa League - and the principal tournament, the European Cup, or Champions League.

ROMA RATINGS: Rui Patricio 6 – Didn’t have a save to make until the 79th minute, when he first made a comfortable stop to deny a Maddison free-kick, and then reacted to deny Iheanacho’s curling effort. Reuters

Mourinho could join them at the first opportunity within the 22-year era in which he has been a head coach. The Cup-Winners Cup was discontinued