[Pat Murphy]

Mourinho Asked Barça For Interview

José Mourinho approached Barcelona and offered to become the club's new coach rather than wait for the club to contact him, the Catalan outfit have revealed.

The Portuguese trainer was keen to return to Camp Nou, where he once worked as a translator for Bobby Robson, to take over at the helm and looked to open talks.

Barça's sporting vice-president Marc Ingla told Catalunya Radio that Mourinho instigated the meeting, but the club always had Pep Guardiola as their first choice to replace Frank Rijkaard.

"We always worked on the hypothesis of promoting Pep, but we know that the job of coach at Barcelona is one of the most sought-after and Mourinho was interest in explaining his plan for the club and we listened," he revealed.

Mourinho has never hidden his desire to go back to Barcelona, but there was little chance of it happening this summer with so many of the current board opposed to the idea.

Johan Cruyff, in particular, was said to not want the coach that caused so much friction between Barça and Chelsea during their meetings in the Champions League.

While Mourinho landed the Inter job after the Barça talks, the Blaugrana handed the reins to Guardiola and Ingla has no doubt that they have the right man.

"He has Blaugrana DNA," the director added.

Lucas Brown, Goal.com

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Barcelona chose Guardiola over Mourinho then and preferred Guardiola's plans.