Jose Mourinho will welcome former Real Madrid midfielder Sami Khedira onto his coaching staff at the club, reports Diario AS.
Mourinho returned as Real manager last week, 13 years after leaving his successful first post in Spain. It's a somewhat tumultuous time at Real, with some discontent within the squad, and Mourinho's no-nonsense attitude could straighten things out.
He has already moved swiftly to shape the squad as his own, with agreements to sign Bernardo Silva and Marc Cucurella both reported in recent days, after that of Denzel Dumfries prior.
Mourinho also wants to have his own coaching staff with him, and has put a Madrid spin on that.
Indeed, it's widely reported that former Real midfielder Khedira will be joining Mourinho's backroom staff from July.
The two joined Madrid at the same time and enjoyed a successful period. Khedira retired from playing in 2021 and is yet to take up a coaching role.
While Mourinho has been in talks to bring several of his most trusted coaches to the club, he evidently wants people with knowledge of what makes Real successful alongside him.
It has been reported that former centre-back Pepe had also been under consideration for the same role that Khedira will take.
Khedira under Mourinho
In the time that Khedira spent at Real, he played 126 matches under Mourinho, scoring eight goals and assisting 12 more. Only seven players featured more often for Real under Mourinho than the German during their three seasons together.
In that time, they won La Liga, the Copa del Rey and the Spanish Super Cup.
Mourinho will want to replicate the success he had in his previous spell at the club, having joined in a lean period for Real.
They've been knocked out in the quarter-final stage of the Champions League during the last two seasons, while second tier Albacete dumped them out of the Copa del Rey last term, and they lost to Barcelona in the final the previous year.
In La Liga, Real have finished second to rivals Barca in the last two seasons, and in this term there was a gap of eight points between the two sides, so Mourinho has some work to do to take the elite Spanish club back to their rightful position in the game.
