Yesterday Nemanja Matic became Manchester United's third signing of the summer, with the Serbian midfielder moving to Old Trafford on a three-year contract in a £40 million move (£35 million upfront and a further £5 million due in add-ons).
As the leaked image of him in United's training kit showed, the former Benfica man will wear the No.31 shirt and will become the latest player to play for Jose Mourinho at more than one club - having been brought back to Chelsea by the Portuguese for a fee of £21 million.
Though Harry Redknapp is the manager one would associate with buying the same players wherever he goes, given that he's signed Niko Kranjcar, Jermain Defoe and Peter Crouch for just about every club he's managed, a list of 13 players, including Matic, to have played under Jose Mourinho at more than one club, has been doing the rounds on social media.
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Mourinho is inevitably widely recognised as one of the greatest managers in football history, having achieved success no matter the club or country. With the eight teams he has managed, the 54-year old has won 25 trophies - if you count Community Shields and various Super Cups.
Image: PA
And a plethora of the same players have been with Mourinho for his success. For starters, Portuguese pair Paulo Ferreira and Ricardo Carvalho were both key players for Mourinho in his game-changing stint at Porto, where he won the Champions League in 2004 and well and truly announced himself to the football world.
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So when 'The Special One' moved to Chelsea, Ferreira and Carvalho were two of his first signings at the club - with the latter going on to link up with Mourinho again and winning more silverware at Real Madrid.
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Another former Portugal international to have played under Mourinho three times is Maniche. The midfielder was at Benfica when Mourinho joined the club in 2000 in what was a short and unsuccessful tenure. Mourinho would move to Porto after impressing at União de Leiria and signed the 39-year old for a second time, before bringing him to Stamford Bridge on loan in 2006.
Image: PA
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The other stand-out names to have worked with Mourinho at more than one club include decorated strikers Hernan Crespo, Samuel Eto'o and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Crespo was already a Chelsea player when Mourinho took the post at Stamford Bridge and the two would briefly cross paths at Inter Milan in 2008/09.
Eto'o, meanwhile, just off the back of finishing a treble-winning season with Pep Guardiola's Barcelona, moved to Inter Milan as part of a swap deal that saw Zlatan Ibrahimovic head in the opposite direction plus a €46 million fee paid to Inter.
The Cameroon striker netted 16 times and became the only play to win a treble in successive seasons when Inter won the Scudetto, Champions League and Coppa Italia under Mourinho's tutelage. He then played for Mourinho in a brief stint at Chelsea in 2013/14.
Ibrahimovic was part of Mourinho's first Serie A winning side before leaving for Barcelona, and the two would go on to work together at Manchester United last season when Ibrahimovic joined on a free. The charismatic Swede netted 28 goals in all competitions as the Red Devils won the Community Shield, EFL Cup and Europa League.
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Romelu Lukaku has arrived as Ibrahimovic's successor at Old Trafford, taking on the No.9 shirt Zlatan wore with distinction last term. He was of course sold to Everton for £24 million by Mourinho, but he felt the Belgian was the perfect candidate to fill the void left by the injured Ibrahimovic.
Here is the full list of players:
Will any other players link up with Mourinho again before his managerial career is done and dusted?
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Sound off in the comments.
Featured Image Credit: PA
Topics: nemanja matic, Jose Mourinho, Chelsea, Manchester United, porto, Benfica, Real Madrid, Inter Milan