Chelsea defender Ricardo Carvalho says it would be "a dream" to join Jose Mourinho, who was his coach at the English club and at Porto, at Real Madrid.

"If there was a possibility to sign with Real Madrid, I would go there right now swimming or running," he said in an interview published yesterday in Spanish sports daily AS.

"It would be a dream to be able to play for Madrid, which I consider to be the best club in the world, and follow the orders of the best coach in the history of football," the 32-year-old Portuguese international added.

"With Mourinho I experienced two marvellous stages at Porto and Chelsea. To have the opportunity to win another Champions League with him at Real Madrid would be tremendous."

Carvalho won the Champions League with Porto in 2004 when Mourinho coached the club.

He joined Mourinho at Chelsea that year for a fee of around €20 million but last year he fell down the pecking order at the west London club.

A regular for most of his time at Chelsea, he made just 18 appearances last season - which he has called "the worst year of my football life" - as injuries caused him to fall out of the starting line-up.

Mourinho has arrived in a blaze of glory after leading Inter last season to the treble of domestic league and cup in Italy as well as the Champions League.

He has been given a four-year contract and the brief of winning the Champions League within the next two years.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.