José Mourinho remembered his collaboration with Cristiano Ronaldo at Real Madrid.
More than a decade ago, José Mourinho and Cristiano Ronaldo, references on the circuit, embodied the opposition to the great hegemony of Barça of Pep Guardiola and Lionel Messi. Strong characters, the two Portuguese have sometimes clashed, but they have mutual and eternal respect.
Even today, the Special One has stars in his eyes when he looks back on this era on Rio Ferdinand’s microphone, for the English consultant’s YouTube channel, Five. “In Madrid he became more of the goalscorer he was for the rest of his career. In fact, the first time he played as a striker in a big match was between Real Madrid and Barcelona in the Copa del Rey final, where he scored an incredible goal, a header in extra time . That’s probably when people got the feeling that the animal could be a goalscorer and not just a pure winger. »
“I didn’t need to teach him much.”
Mourinho says it: you don’t teach a player of Cristiano Ronaldo’s caliber. “You don’t need to give him motivation. Ambition, responsibilities, you can’t give him any. And you can’t give him any technique.”
“It’s just a matter of giving him some tactical adjustments and letting him be happycontinued the Portuguese. In fact, I don’t think we’re training him. I didn’t need to teach him much. “It’s just enough for him to be happy, and to create an environment from a tactical point of view, from the idea of football, in which the player can show his best face,” concluded José Mourinho.
