Roma have enjoyed a fairly solid start to the new season, winning four of their opening Serie A matches to put them sixth in the table – above Inter Milan and Juventus. The arrival of Paulo Dybala has certainly sparked an improvement at the Stadio Olimpico, and the Argentina international has revealed how Mourinho persuaded him to join him at Roma after his contract at Juventus expired.
He told ESPN: “I have an anecdote with him: when we played Roma vs Juventus last season, my team won 4-3 and the coach took me off. Mourinho came to the bench to greet me and said ‘You’re a phenomenon’.
“This episode left a mark on me, but at the time we didn’t know anything that could happen. I was supposed to sign a contract renewal, but there was nothing. When he called me, he asked me if I remembered that moment and I said ‘Of course, how could I forget that? It was an honour’. Then he said ‘Well, now what you were doing against me I want you to do with me’. He called me several days in a row and it was a matter of minutes before I made the decision to go and work with him.”