Month: December 2012

The Barcelona defender Gerard Pique has come out in support of the fellow teammate Lionel Messi by saying that the comments made by the Real Madrid manager José Mourinho is unwarranted. The Portuguese manager recently commented that he is extremely suppressed to see Lionel Messi being carried away in a stretcher in one game, but has been able to return to playing in the first-team after just two days. Pique has said that Mourinho should never comment about the professionalism of Lionel Messi. He has also aimed a mind game at the former Chelsea and Inter Milan manager by saying that he does not understand the life of a footballer because he has never played.

José Mourinho is one of the most successful managers in the world having won more than 20 trophies in the last 10 years of his career. However, he has never been very successful as a player and became a coach at a very early stage. The 25-year-old Lionel Messi was on the cusp of breaking numerous goalscoring records. As a result, the Barcelona manager Tito Vilanova used him in the meaningless match against Benfica, but Messi suffered an injury in the match that led to him being stretchered off. However, he returned to the starting line-up to break the record after just two days, which warranted the comment from the Real Madrid manager.

“I did not like at all what he said. It bothers me that in Madrid they doubt [Messi’s] professionalism. Mourinho messes with Messi because he has never been a player and he doesn’t understand them. Mourinho is destroying our game. The tension that there was between us and Real Madrid last year has passed. Mourinho has realized that there is no need to look at Barcelona because you will not find any problems,” said Pique.