Mourinho always comes back: Ready to lead Roma to Conference League title

Jose Mourinho is beginning to smile again. Following his difficult spells at Chelsea, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur, he is starting to regain his aura at Roma.

When he took charge of the club last summer, The Special One knew that he needed to take one step back in order to take two steps forward.

On Wednesday night he will lead Roma out at the Air Albania Stadium in Tirana for the Conference League final, as he aims to become the first coach to lift the Champions League, Europa League and Conference League titles.

His aura has remained very much intact in Italy. Roma welcomed him with open arms, and he remains the last coach to win a European final with a Serie A club, lifting the Champions League with Inter in 2010.

The Conference League dream

It has been a long, often difficult season for Roma and Mourinho, and the coach broke down in tears after beating Leicester City to reach the final.

Roma have not been in a final since the Coppa Italia final in 2008, and there was a complete connection between the fans and the coach that night against Leicester at the Stadio Olimpico.

"When you work in Rome, you live in Rome, you breathe Rome and you breathe this club because this club is the real club of the city," Mourinho told BT Sport.

"I felt from day one that it's a huge club, as you could see, but no victories and not many finals."

Rome is a special city. It is a city from another age. The club is special too, as the demands are enormous despite the fact that the trophy cabinet is small.

Two greats face-to-face in Tirana

Mourinho knows that a tough challenge awaits his Roma side in the final in the form of Feyenoord.

The Dutch side have won all three of the European finals that they have played in, the last coming in 2001 against Borussia Dortmund.

History is not in favour of Roma, as they have lost both of the European finals that they have played in.

These came against Liverpool in the 1984 European Cup final, followed by defeat to Inter in the UEFA Cup in 1991.

Mourinho is ready to change that. He is the first coach to reach a European final with four different clubs (Porto, Inter, Manchester United and Roma), and has won all three of the European finals he has played in so far.