Jose Mourinho believes the task of leading Real Madrid for the next four years represents "the perfect challenge" for the next stage of his coaching career after he signed a new deal with the club.
The Spanish champions announced they had agreed a contract extension that will tie Mourinho, who signed an initial four-year deal when he joined the club in 2010, to the Bernabeu until June 2016.
Mourinho, who became the first coach to win the league in Spain, England (Chelsea) and Italy (Inter Milan), thinks the Real squad is only going to get better, and he said on www.realmadrid.com: "I've always said this squad is young and that its best years are yet to come."
He continued: "It isn't a squad with players on the verge of extinction or playing their final years of top tier football. The club, with its incredible social reach and structure, can adapt to the times and to what we're trying to do.
"As a manager, I always try to grow and improve. I've loved the professional experience I've had of working for different clubs in different countries and cultures, and to learn from that while giving my best. I've loved that process.
"It's different for me now because I'm thinking about a club long term, and that club is Real Madrid, which has been more demanding and has forced me to do my absolute best due to its difficulties.
"I've had to improve as a coach and a professional. I think it is the perfect challenge for the next four years because you always have to do more when things are hardest. I need these great challenges in the maturity of my career; I need things to force me to be better."
News of Mourinho's decision should end speculation about his future, with recent reports linking him with the vacant managerial position at former club Chelsea.
"I feel happy," he said. "I wouldn't have signed this contract extension otherwise. I would like Madridistas to be happy, not just myself, the president [Florentino Perez], [general director] Jose Angel Sanchez and the board. They've had faith in me and believe I am the ideal coach for the project we have until 2016.
"I would want Madridismo to be happy about this. I think most of them will be happy with the decision I and the board have reached. I've been talking to the players in the last few months analysing this situation and I profoundly feel the squad in general is happy with this decision. My wife and children, who are key in my decisions, are as well."
Source: PA
