2024-04-19 13:39:24
His time at Manchester United wasn’t always easy. Now Bastian Schweinsteiger is talking about it. The focus: the coach at the time.
Bastian Schweinsteiger has given previously unknown insights into the time before he left the English record champions Manchester United. The 2014 world champion reported in the podcast “The Overlap” with Gary Neville that he was denied access to the dressing room and participation in training in 2016 under then team manager José Mourinho.
During his first United training after the 2016 European Championships, he trained with “Zlatan Ibrahimović and thought it was great,” said Schweinsteiger, who had started training late due to reaching the semi-finals of the European Championships: “When I the next day, On my birthday, when I arrived at Carrington (United’s training ground, editor’s note), John Murtough (then sporting director) was there and said that I wasn’t allowed to go into the dressing room – the coach said so.”
“He apologized”
As a result, long-time Bayern professional Schweinsteiger had to train with the U16 team. “I thought to myself: What’s going on here? Is this supposed to be a joke?” continued Schweinsteiger.
The 2014 world champion then only played four competitive games under Mourinho, who was signed by the “Red Devils” in the final spurt of the previous season, before moving to Chicago Fire in the USA in March 2017. For comparison: under Mourinho’s predecessor and ex-Bayern coach Louis van Gaal, Schweinsteiger played 31 competitive games in the 2015/16 season.
“I was very sad because United was the second club of my heart,” said Schweinsteiger. But going to the press with the story back then wasn’t his style. “It’s more important for me to concentrate on football and behave the way I did,” said the now 39-year-old.
“The Special One” apologized to him at the time for his actions. “The first time anyone apologized was when I decided to leave Manchester United for America,” said Schweinsteiger. “I asked José if I could do that and he apologized for the way he treated me at the beginning. He had to let me go because he couldn’t do anything against me again.”