Former Manchester United manager and current Sky Sports pundit Jose Mourinho has strings in Kenya.
In 2010, he travelled to the country’s coast and met Silvana Lelesit, a beautiful lady-whom they clicked immediately. It was love at first sight.
Their first meeting happened in Diani Beach, at Silvana’s jewellery shop when Mourinho and his family; wife and children, went out for shopping, from the prestigious Almanara Luxury Villas-where he had been booked for a vacation.
It was one of the days in his two-week secret holiday in Kenya, which was literarily missed by the media. But Silvana was lucky to have a one-on-one chat with her idol-turned sweetheart, being a football fan too.
It is fascinating that Mourinho bought an expensive gold bracelet from Silvana, and trusted her to ship it to him in Poland, once he left Kenya. And that happened, probably strengthening their hanky-panky.
Silvana says the ‘Special One’ is a calm guy who is never swayed by pressure. That he is a performer of all times with every football record. That he has won everything on the planet, save for the World Cup gong.
And she gets irritated when people scold the former Chelsea manager. “He (Mourinho) is a laid back guy. He is a good coach, I think the only thing he didn’t win in his career is the World Cup, so people shouldn’t be so hard on him now,” Silvana said.
Of interest to note is that, by 2017, Silvana’s life had completely changed and word spread like a bushfire that Mou was the financier. She had bought a posh home in Nyali and always flew abroad for holidays.
One incident saw her lose her Kenyan-Somali boyfriend. She had sneaked out of Kenya to Switzerland, where she was staying at a lavish hotel-one that the boyfriend was not paying for. And he could not take it anymore.
It was then reported that the affair was eating on Mourinho’s marriage too. His wife Matilde Faria was already contemplating divorce – a thing allegedly forced the ‘Special One’ to end his relationship with the Kenyan lady.
While choosing not to comment on their current love relationship with the football manager-cum pundit, and in a hurry to catch a flight, Silvana said their first meeting was awesome, and that everyone in the shop at that time was happy to meet the ‘Special One’.
“It was a good opportunity for everyone who was in the shopping centre to also see him in person,” she said.
She says her relationship with Mourinho has forced her to hide from the public because everyone wants to get a piece of the story. That she had to close down his Diani business, so as to have some peace of mind.
“I’m a business lady. I do a lot of different things in terms of business but I no longer have any in Diani because it became scary, people popping in every time and asking questions, especially journalists. It worsened when others came to my house and place of work. I was scared!” she said.
That time, 2010, when he also visited Kenya’s Maasai Mara National Park, Mourinho was holidaying after being appointed the new Real Madrid manager. And he just won the European Champions League with Inter Millan.