€50m shades of nonsense: Abramovich rejected Monaco 'bid' for Jose Mourinho

We've already met Italian multimillionaire businessman Alessandro Proto, the self-styled inspiration for Christian Grey's character in the Fifty Shades of Grey book and movie series, when he claimed that Monaco had made "first contact" with Mourinho about taking over at the Ligue 1 side after he gets the boot at Chelsea.

All that sounded rather silly at the time, but if that wasn't enough, here's more silliness!  To no one's particular request, Proto was back with more quotes today via a statement released by "Proto Enterprises" to Spanish news agency EFE.

"We offered 50 million euros to have the coach [Mourinho] immediately, but the request [from Abramovich] was 100 million euros and the figure seems exaggerated."

-source: EFE via AS

While Proto's statement claims that Monaco will not or cannot pay such an amount, he personally is still considering the proposal to "invest" in Mourinho himself because the coach "is worth 100 million euros" as "he is the best coach in the world."

I'm not sure what all this amounts to — PR stunt?  Something real?  Jorge Mendes having fun?  Proto's delusions of grandeur?  A bit of everything and a whole lot of nothing? — but it's quite amusing either way.