Dennis Cirkin was watching and waiting, unsure whether his former boss at Tottenham would remember him.
He did.
“He came straight over to me and gave me a handshake, I was absolutely buzzing,” smiles Sunderland’s left-back.
Cirkin shouldn’t have been surprised, for me made quite the impact on Mourinho when the former Chelsea and Manchester United boss was in charge of Spurs, so much so he once namechecked the left-back in a press conference even though he was just 17 at the time and hadn’t played for the first team.
That brief meet-up was in the summer of 2022 during a Sunderland pre-season training camp in Portugal and ahead of a friendly with a Roma side managed by Mourinho at the time.
Cirkin had left Tottenham for Sunderland 12 months earlier and four months after Mourinho had been sacked.
“I always speak so highly of him,” says Cirkin.
“He brought me up at Tottenham. I had a very good relationship with him in terms of he had his job to do for the team but for the young players, either him or his assistant was always there for you. They’d always give you advice and in a way they wouldn’t treat you any different to the first team.
“I really enjoyed working with him and learning from him. He was a phenomenal manager and still is. I really enjoyed it.”
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And Cirkin has enjoyed his first season working under Regis Le Bris, a tenure which started in silence.
“I remember when he first came in and he gave us a week or so, it was pre-season, and he just watched and observed,” reveals Cirkin.
“It was only after that you understood he really watched and really observed.
“He didn’t say much at all in that first week, he was just learning about the team but he pretty much knew everything already.
“As time has gone on you realise he’s a very good guy.
“I’d been injured pretty much the whole season last year but when I had a conversation with him he seemed to know all about me.
“That was pretty much how the relationship started with all of the players and the gaffer. He’d speak to us all individually and just find out more about us all.”
Cirkin’s time on Wearside so far has been something of a rollercoaster. Promotion from League One in his first season, a place in the Championship’s top six in his second but then a third almost entirely wiped out by injury. Cirkin didn’t make a single Championship start after the first weekend in September last season.
He played in 36 of Sunderland’s 46 league games this term, but still had to endure a couple of setbacks – a broken wrist in November and a hamstring injury that prevented him from linking up with England’s Under-21s in March. More on that later.
But first, for Cirkin, what’s the hardest thing about being injured?
There’s a long pause.
“You see…the answer to that question has changed so much from last year to this year,” he says.
“S**t happens. I know that. So I just try to get on with it to the best of my ability and try and get back as quickly as possible and as fit as possible.”
On and off the pitch, Cirkin feels like he’s grown up and matured an awful lot since he joined Sunderland four years ago. And for the 23-year-old who was born in Ireland to Latvian parents and grew up in London, Wearside is now “home”.
“In my first season it was just game, game, game and that was all the focus was on,” he says.
“But then as years have progressed I’ve settled in, met people away from the club, good people, good friends, my mum came up and made it home. I enjoy it here, it’s where I want to be.
“It’s a lot different to London. Occasionally I go back but up here it’s much different. I wouldn’t call London home anymore, I’d call Sunderland home.”
That bodes well for the Black Cats, who hope to tie Cirkin down on a new contract, with his current deal due to expire in the summer of 2026.
“I’ve learnt a lot during my time here so far,” says the full-back.
“There’s been incredible highs but also very low lows as well.”
That pretty much sums up Cirkin’s March, when he went from the joy of receiving his first England Under-21 call-up to having to withdraw from the squad because of injury.
“That was a tough time for me,” he says.
“It was such a mix of emotions at that time. I was really high then with the injury you crash, but at the same time I just tried to stay steady.
“I was extremely grateful for the call-up, to the gaffer Lee Carsley for the call. Like I said before, things happen and hopefully the opportunity comes again.”
Cirkin is eligible to play for Ireland and Latvia, but was it always England?
“From my standpoint, last year I didn’t play and this year I have played but there have still been stuff that has affected me,” he says.
“I just wanted to get a full season, as many games as possible, as high a standard as I can and see where things are.
“I am the type of person who takes things day by day rather than looking to the distant future or looking back into the past.
“Right now, I’m thinking about what I’m doing when I leave here rather than tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. But I know that what I do today will help tomorrow.”
It might seem a bit of a leap as things stand but does Cirkin assess the senior England picture, where Thomas Tuchel isn’t blessed with too many left-back options?
“Of course. It’s one of the best things you can do to represent your country, so it’s always something you think about,” he says.
“England have got one of the best groups in the world, competition will always be really, really high. But for me I’ve always just focused on competing with myself. That’s probably my biggest thing, compete with yourself step by step and try not to compare with others.”
The only focus for Cirkin now is Sunderland and Friday’s play-off semi-final first leg against Coventry.
“This season has obviously been a really positive one for us as a club but also so much for better for me personally than last season,” he says.
“Right now, I’m just enjoying the focus of everything helping me in my football.
“I’m basing everything around the next day, the next game, the play-offs, it’s all in.”
