Mafia plot to kidnap Jose Mourinho foiled

A mobster plot to rob and possibly kidnap former Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho was foiled yesterday.

Police said four men believed to have connections to the Italian mafia were captured after an undercover operation.

Detectives seized photographs and video footage, revealing that the outspoken Inter Milan manager - known as the Special One - had been spied on for months.

Police say the images show Mourinho, 47, his wife and the couple's two children at the family home on Lake Como in northern Italy.

There was also footage of the manager at the team's training ground. Police said the Portuguese coach, who won two Premiership titles with Chelsea before leaving the club in 2007, had been followed by crooks specialising in robbing celebrities.

Major Vito Di Gioia, of the Genoa paramilitary Carabinieri, which led the investigation, said: "The gang would follow expensive cars, identify the owners through the number plates, get the addresses and stake out their properties to work out their routines and plan when to strike."

There were also unconfirmed reports that it was a plot to kidnap Mourinho.

The four Macedonians being held were named as Nikollovska Mirjana, 46, of Genoa, and Bruno Bentivoglio, 44, Zoran Bentivoglio, 20, and Luca Radosavljevic, 30, all of Milan.

Mourinho by gang Mourinho's security was also in the spotlight last year when he received death threats from Muslim radicals after blaming a player's loss of form on fasting during Ramadan.