Jose said this afternoon that: "After deep and serious thinking, I decided to exclude myself from being England manager,
"I'm sure the FA will hire a great manager, one able to place the team back where it belongs," he added.
It's an embarssment for the FA's Brian Barwick who had hoped to get the best man for the job and who had spoken last week with Mourinho about replacing hapless Steve McClaren.
It's believed that Jose has been offered the job of manager at another club and England's call came at the same time.
But it was not enough to tempt the self-styled 'special One' who won league championships with Porto and Chelsea (twice) before falling foul of Roman Abramovich in September.