Raphaël Varane, the ex-Real Madrid defender, recently shared that during his time at the Santiago Bernabéu, football manager José Mourinho once criticized him as being ‘useless’.
Varane came to Real Madrid from Lens in 2011, just as Mourinho was beginning his second season as the manager of the club.
Speaking about Mourinho, Varane told The Bridge: “When I arrived, he [Mourinho] told me: ‘I only want one thing—that for an hour and a half every day, you give everything. The rest, don’t worry, you will progress, I will take care of it, relax.’
“In my first season, I must have played about fifteen matches in total, but only in games where we had already qualified or in cup matches. He made me progress little by little and didn’t throw me in at the deep end. I had a good first season, but now more was expected of me. So I overplayed a bit, and I was not comfortable—I wasn’t feeling well.
“He’s someone I really respect. He is charismatic, and he said to me straight out,‘But why are you useless?’ I looked at him, stunned, because he had actually just stung me. I told him it wasn’t easy because I wasn’t playing much and that it had been a complicated start to the season.”
Varane won 18 trophies during his 10 seasons at Real Madrid before his £42 million move to Manchester United in 2021.
