Gary Lineker asked Jose Mourinho if ‘we have a problem’ after years of silent treatment

Gary Lineker has revealed he once confronted Jose Mourinho to get to the bottom of their frosty relationship.

But the ex-Match of the Day host remains in the dark as to what he did to offend The Special One in a feud that has rumbled on for over a decade.

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Lineker first opened up on his secret conflict with the ex-Chelsea and Manchester United boss in 2024.

Having often been praised by Mourinho for his post-match analysis in text messages, interaction with the 63-year-old ultimately went cold.

And it reached boiling point when the former Tottenham manager requested Lineker to not present him with an award.

Mourinho was set to receive the Editor’s Special Award at the 2015 GQ Men of the Year Awards – but refused to be handed the honour by the ex-Barcelona striker.

Gar blimey

It led to Lineker to ask the now-Benfica boss whether he had a problem with him.

The 48-goal England icon was asked about his beef with Mourinho at Netflix’s Sports Club, following his £14million deal to present his Rest Is Football podcast at the World Cup.

To which he said: “He’s up and down, I know that from my experience.

“Jose is fascinating, he used to text me all the time, ‘I love what you say on Match of the Day,’ I had this relationship with him.

“Then it stopped. It stopped. That was it. To this day I don’t know what I said to upset him.

“GQ asked me to present him with the Sportsperson of the Year award [Editor’s Special Award] when he was at Chelsea.

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“I said, ‘Of course I will’ – this was after about six months of the silence.

“The day before I got a phone call saying, ‘Jose actually would prefer it if it’s a non-football person that presents it,’ I said, ‘I’m still coming.’

‘So I went up to him and I asked him, I said, ‘Have we got a problem.’

“He said, ‘No,’ I said, ‘You sure?’, he went, ‘No.’

“To this day I still don’t know. Maybe it was a bad joke or something.”

Mourinho remains a major talking point in the media amid speculation he could be in line for a stunning return to Real Madrid – 13 years after his departure.

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The two-time Champions League winner guided Los Blancos to LaLiga, Copa del Rey and Spanish Super Cup glory during his three-year stint between 2010-2013.

And he could now replace the man he coached at the Bernabeu – Alvaro Arbeloa – who is under pressure with Real set to endure a second successive season with no major silverware.

Key to Madrid’s mooted pursuit of Mourinho is the existence of a €3million (£2.6m) break clause in his Benfica contract.

For Lineker, he believes a move back to Madrid makes perfect sense due to Mourinho’s relationship with club president Florentino Perez.

He remarked: “I think there’s every chance he might end up being the next Real Madrid manager.

“I think there’s a really good chance, I know the president really loves him.”