The self-styled Special One was due to meet with Real Madrid president Florentino Perez on Monday to thrash out the details on what Spanish media is claiming will be a four-year deal worth 10 million euros a season.

And Mourinho will swap Milan for Madrid safe in the knowledge that he could not have done any more than he did during his brief two-year Italian sejourn.

Two Serie A titles, one Coppa Italia and the piece de resistance secured in the city he will soon be calling home as Inter beat Bayern Munich 2-0 at the Santiago Beranbeu in the Champions League final on Saturday.

That continued a remarkable run of success for Mourinho who has won six titles in three different countries over the last eight years.

Added to those league successes are two Champions League titles, the first with FC Porto in 2004, a UEFA Cup, three domestic cups and even a pair of League Cups.

In three different countries he has won everything there is to win and he has proved himself capable of securing success on the continent as well having joined Ernst Happel and Ottmar Hitzfeld as the only men to have lifted Europe's premier competition with two different teams.

"I want to be the only man to win it with three different clubs," he said following Inter's triumph as he all but admitted he is leaving Inter.

It is a logical move for a man who has just guided the club to their best ever season.

He can do no more at Inter, he can do no better, the only possible way now is downhill.

What's more he has made no secret of his dislike of the footballing authorities and culture in the country where he feels he has been victimized and treated unfairly.

"I didn't like watching many games from the stands, I like being on the bench not in the stands," he said when asked to explain what he doesn't like about Italy.

"This year for two months I watched almost all the games from the stands. I saw my team that had a 10-point lead drop to second.

"I didn't like this period or this situation."

Mourinho's suggestion was that things went on behind the scenes to try to stop Inter winning and while some might describe that as a conspiracy theory, what is fact is that Mourinho was banned for more matches this season than all the other Serie A coaches put together.

Only one team finished a Serie A match with nine players and that was Inter, and they did it twice.

Mourinho also came regularly under fire from the local press who claimed Inter were in crisis earlier in the campaign — a humorous concept given the seasons their major rivals AC Milan and Juventus have just endured while Inter have won a historic treble.

In a way, Italy has driven Mourinho away and the lure of Real's mega money has come at just the right time.

And Italy will be a very dull place to watch football now that he is gone.

Mourinho was the only true character amongst the coaching ranks in Italy and with most of the world's star players heading for Spain or England, Italy could ill afford to lose one of the world's star coaches — but they have done so.

Some will look at the money on offer at Real and say that Mourinho could hardly turn it down.

But that is to ignore that his current salary is already higher than some countries' domestic GDP.

Also, money certainly does not play a part in it as Mourinho said: "I'm not the Real Madrid coach yet, I need to see their project first."

That can be taken as a clear message to Perez that it is not his salary which will determine Mourinho's destination.

The Spanish president is well known for his Galacticos policy and making populist signings to please fans rather than delivering the players a coach wants, or needs.

Mourinho will not work under such conditions.

The project he was referring to is almost certainly a reference to control over signings and a commitment to bringing in the defensive players that Real so patently lack.

If he gets his own way, though, Mourinho will surely continue to succeed in Spain as he has done in Portugal, England and Italy.

And he is sure to provide much drama, entertainment and controversy along the way.

So don't be surprised if Italy looks on jealously and laments the good old days.