Jose Mourinho recalls his Real Madrid happiness after being on quizzed on possible La Liga return

Jose Mourinho refused to be drawn on his future in a La Liga event on Thursday, but the Portuguese fondly recalled his time at Real Madrid on his return to the Spanish capital.

The former Manchester United manager, without a club since his Old Trafford exit last December, was strongly linked with a Real return before Zinedine Zidane returned to the job in March and is still believed to be in the thoughts of club president Florentino Perez.

Mourinho was joined by former Barcelona, Inter Milan and Chelsea striker Samuel Eto'o and La Liga president Javier Tebas in a panel to discuss speed and innovation in football, in association with Livescore.

Asked about his time in Spain, the Portuguese said: "Real Madrid was my best experience because of what I learned as a coach, as a man, from the lessons I took in my career and in my life. It was the best memory of my career. It was fantastic."

Mourinho went on to say that his best moment was winning La Liga in 2011-12, when Los Blancos denied Pep Guardiola's Barcelona a fourth title in a row.

"I came to Spain because I wanted to be the first to win the English league, the Italian league and the Spanish league," he said. "We won the league in Bilbao. Actually we won it at Camp Nou, but mathematically we won it at San Mames."

Pressed on whether he would return, and also encouraged to do so by Tebas, Mourinho added: "You’ll always have me. In six years, I’ve only spoken well of La Liga. I’ll always be proud to have won your league in a moment when it was especially difficult.”

Eto'o, who played for Mourinho at Inter and Chelsea, said the Portuguese should think about a move to Barcelona.

"It would be special," he said. "I would like to ask Jose to come to Mallorca. That would be good. It's the best city in Spain. But I would like him at Barca even more."

The Cameroonian, who retired from football just last Saturday, said the Portuguese was the first to send him a message and described him as "one of the nicest guys" in football.

"I'm sick of saying that this guy is one of the best people in the world of football," he said. "I ended my career and the first person to send me a message was this man."

And he added: "All of us players fight with him, but we'd all kill for him." To that, Mourinho quipped: "Almost all of you!"

Earlier, it was revealed that Eto'o and Mourinho are in a WhatsApp group with other former players. "He sends us scores from all over the world," the Cameroonian joked.