A longstanding friend of Jose Mourinho, Luis Campos, has emerged as a leading candidate for the prospective director of football role at Manchester United .
The pair first came up against each other as rivals on the touchline during Mourinho’s time at Porto, with then-Gil Vicente boss Campos ending Mourinho’s 27-game unbeaten run in 2004.
And it was Mourinho who took Campos to Real Madrid eight years later, hiring him as the club’s tactical and talent scout. The pair remain close, reports the Manchester Evening News.
Campos currently works as Lille’s sporting director but it’s understood he wants to leave the club and has previously held talks with Chelsea about their vacant technical director position.
But United have yet to reach out to the 53-year-old as they cast the net wide ahead of appointing a director of football for the first time in their history.
It goes without saying that Mourinho would welcome the chance to work with a figure from his past. Indeed, the United boss hired Stefano Rapetti as one of his new first-team coaches earlier this summer following a spell together at Inter Milan.
Campos, who speaks English, previously worked as Monaco’s sporting director and brought Joao Moutinho, James Rodriguez, Bernardo Silva, Dijbril Sidibe, Benjamin Mendy and Tiemoue Bakayoko to the club.
The Portuguese prefers to work with a small team of so-called super scouts but United’s scouting network across Europe, Asia and South America has trebled in size under executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward.
"This goes unseen and is not necessarily about bringing in more and more young players, but making sure that the correct due diligence is carried out before signings are made," a United source previously told MEN Sport.
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