Real Madrid's José Mourinho Rejected €25 Million Salary From Russian Side Anzhi

In one of the weirder stories of the day, Real Madrid's enigmatic coach José Mourinho reportedly rejected a €25 million salary from Russian club Anzhi (current home of Samuel Eto'o and ex-Madrid star Roberto Carlos) that would have made him the highest paid coach ever. According to various reports, the offer arrived half way through last year, when it was rumored that the Portuguese coach would not be brought back for this season.

Apparently, Mourinho had no intention of leaving Madrid: he refused to even sit down with the multi-billionaire owner of Anzhi, Suleyman Kerimov, despite the fact that the Russian was prepared to offer him carte blanche to build a team (just like he had at Chelsea).

The report also indicated that during the same period, Mourinho was approached by another multi-billionaire, Sheikh Mansour, the owner of Manchester City. Allegedly, Mansour offered Mourinho a similar deal: €20 million per season, and a blank check to create his own team. The Sheikh received the same treatment as his Russian counterpart: a curt refusal.

You can't say the guy's not loyal--or at least determined to succeed at Madrid. (More after the jump).

Finally, the report also alleges that Mourinho had an equally tempting offer from Turkish side Besiktas: not only would the club agree to whatever salary Mourinho wanted (a literal blank check), they would also give him an essentially unlimited transfer war chest as well.

This report should come as welcome news to madridistas who--like myself--are fans of the Portuguese (well, most of the time anyways). It'll also come as a relative disappointment to anti-Mourinho fans all over the spectrum: unfortunately (for them), it doesn't look like he'll be leaving the Spanish capital any time soon.

And that's something I'm particularly happy about.