❤️🔙🇦🇷 How Lionel Scaloni convinced Leo Messi to return to the national team after 2018 World Cup:
"I called him with Aimar to tell him that we would temporarily take over coaching the national team, and he said to us: 'Are you guys crazy?'
"Then afterward, he wished us good luck. We knew he wouldn't come during that break because we were only going to lead the national team for a short period.
"And after those matches passed and our continuation was confirmed, we called him again to tell him that we wanted him to return. And he always replied: 'I don't know, I'm not entirely sure.'
"But in the end, he loves the Argentine national team with all his heart. We knew that if we could touch that emotional chord inside him, he would return, and indeed he did.
"And we tried to make him feel comfortable and happy, especially since it was a rebuilding period for the national team and there were a lot of young players who didn't know him before.
"And what he generates is something that's very hard to explain. I could talk about it here for a full hour, but this is something you have to experience, not just hear described. What he creates when he enters the locker room or walks into a hall is something exceptional.." @DiarioOle
🚨🎙️ Jose Mourinho on returning to Real Madrid and handling the egos in the dressing room:
“I hear people already speaking about egos before a single training session. They ask me, ‘Mister, how will you control Mbappe? How will you manage Vinicius? How will you deal with superstar personalities in modern football?’
My answer is very simple: if a player is bigger than the coach, then the club is already finished. And at Real Madrid, nobody can ever become bigger than the club. Nobody.
I have coached dressing rooms full of monsters before, not bad monsters, football monsters. Cristiano Ronaldo, Zlatan Ibrahimović, John Terry, Didier Drogba. Players with huge confidence, huge personalities, huge influence. The difference between successful stars and dangerous stars is discipline. The great ones understand that talent gives you headlines, but structure gives you trophies.
Kylian Mbappe is one of the best players in the world, nobody debates this. But football is not tennis. You cannot build a team where everybody stops running because one superstar must shine. If Mbappe wants freedom, then freedom must come with responsibility. When the team loses the ball, the first reaction cannot be frustration or pointing fingers. It must be sacrifice.
And Vinicius… fantastic talent, fantastic mentality when focused. But football at the highest level is not only emotion. Passion wins matches sometimes, yes, but control wins titles over an entire season. Sometimes Vinicius plays like the world is against him. At Madrid, you cannot waste energy fighting every referee, every defender, every stadium crowd. The truly untouchable players destroy opponents with football, not with arguments.
Modern football has become too soft with stars. The moment a coach demands tactical discipline, people say he is ‘old school.’ The moment a player is criticized, suddenly it becomes drama. But let me tell you something, pressure at Real Madrid is not drama. Pressure is the job description.
If Mbappe scores goals but refuses defensive responsibility, we will speak about it. If Vinicius loses focus emotionally during important moments, we will speak about it. If anybody thinks reputation guarantees a starting position, they will discover very quickly that I do not coach with social status. I coach with merit, sacrifice, and mentality.
Some fans will love this mentality. Some fans will say Mourinho creates conflict. But football history always says the same thing: when Real Madrid has strong authority, Real Madrid wins. When the dressing room starts becoming more powerful than the coach, everything becomes politics, excuses, and leaked stories to the media.
I am not afraid of superstar egos because I understand them. Big players need pressure. Big players need confrontation. Sometimes they even need someone to tell them uncomfortable truths because the football world spends too much time applauding them.
And if certain players cannot accept that? Then they are not built for Real Madrid. Simple. This club survived every legend before them and it will survive every superstar after them. The badge always remains. The coach changes. The players change. But the obligation to win never changes.”
🚨 Florentino Pérez ha aceptado las 10 condiciones innegociables de José Mourinho para convertirse en entrenador del Real Madrid para las dos próxima temporada.
1️⃣ Jose Mourinho quiere un CONTRATO de dos años. No por una temporada, tampoco por más tiempo.
2️⃣ José Mourinho acabó harto en su primera etapa en el Real Madrid ejerciendo de portavoz del club en cada rueda de Prensa, incluso en temas que no estaban relacionados directamente con el desempeño del primer equipo. Mou, ahora, no quiere representar ese papel. Se limitaría a hablar ante la Prensa como entrenador y le ha pedido al club a que para hablar de otras cuestiones se decida otro portavoz.
3️⃣ Ninguna imposición en sus alineaciones. José Mourinho se mostró absolutamente intransigente en esta petición. Si alguien no corre, si alguien no está absolutamente comprometido en tareas defensivas, no jugará, da igual cómo se llame y no piensa aceptar ninguna intromisión en este sentido porque no aceptará presiones.
4️⃣ Con su staff propio y quizás con Arbeloa. José Mourinho acudiría al Real Madrid con su cuerpo técnico.
5️⃣ Pintus, a la calle.
Como MOURINHO viene con su cuerpo técnico, es innegociable que Antonio Pintus abandone el Real Madrid. José Mourinho le dejó claro a Florentino Pérez que los problemas físicos que arrastra el Real Madrid en estas dos últimas temporadas son intolerables en un equipo de élite y sólo quiere rodearse de personal de su máxima confianza.
6️⃣ Médicos: protocolo de segunda opinión.
José Mourinho quiere tener hilo directo con los servicios médicos del club e imponer el protocolo de segunda opinión en todos los casos en que el jugador lo proponga, para evitar que estos episodios se repitan.
7️⃣ Siete jugadores tienen que abandonar el Real Madrid este verano. Mourinho consideran que o bien no tienen nivel para el Real Madrid o no se ajustan a su hipotético proyecto en el banquillo madridista.
8️⃣ José Mourinho ha exigido tener como interlocutor único al presidente, evitando tener que hacerlo con José Ángel Sánchez, Anas Laghrari o cualquier otro.
9️⃣ José Mourinho está convencido de que las eternas giras veraniegas por Estados Unidos y Asia de los grandes equipos europeos acaban pasando factura física y mental. Y no quiere que se repita. Si es entrenador, en verano habrá unos pocos, muy pocos, amistosos puntuales, supervisados por él.
🔟 Todas estas condiciones son un pack y son innegociables. Si una falla, la respuesta es NO. Así que el Real Madrid deberá aceptarlas todas para que Mourinho se convierta en su entrenador.
El Real Madrid tiene previsto anunciar la llegada de José Mourinho cuando finalice su último partido de Liga.
{ @ESdiario_com }
🚨🎙️| Tony kroos on how Real Madrid’s downfall started.
It isn’t just about tactics. It started the moment the club decided to bring in Kylian Mbappé, who wasn’t needed. After signing him, the club abandoned its identity and tried to force everything around Mbappé instead of building around Vinícius Júnior, who was already the team’s most decisive player.
Madrid already had a system that worked. Vinicius was the face of the attack, the dressing room was balanced, the chemistry was natural, and the team played with intensity and clarity. Then Mbappé arrived and suddenly everything had to change to accommodate him.
Instead of playing like a pure striker, Mbappé constantly drifted wide, demanded freedom everywhere, slowed attacks down trying to play like a playmaker, and disrupted the balance of the frontline. Madrid went from direct, dangerous football to an attack where players constantly looked confused about positioning.
The biggest mistake was trying to reduce Vinicius’ role just to protect Mbappé’s status. You cannot take the keys away from the player who carried Madrid for years and expect the dressing room chemistry to remain the same. Vinicius was the one terrifying defenses, creating chaos, deciding big games and carrying the club in difficult moments.
Mbappé is elite when attacking space and finishing chances, but he started forcing himself into roles that don’t suit him dropping deep, over-dribbling, trying to dictate play like Neymar or Messi instead of keeping things simple and effective by staying in the box. That completely killed the fluidity of the attack.
And internally, the ego balance became obvious. Too many privileges, too much authority, too much protection. Once a dressing room feels one player is above the system, problems begin. Madrid’s greatest eras were built on competition, sacrifice and collective discipline, not superstar politics.
People will blame managers, injuries or tactics, but the reality is that Madrid lost its football identity the moment the club stopped prioritizing balance and started forcing everything around Mbappé’s arrival. From there, the attack became disconnected, tensions grew, and the project slowly started collapsing from within.
📣🎙️Marcelo on Real Madrid’s Current Crisis:
"Look, when Xabi Alonso came, we believed he was the right man for the job. But he was sacked mainly because some players refused to cooperate with him.
For me, the biggest issue is not the coach - it’s the dressing room. There’s no unity, no respect. Some players don’t even speak to the coach.
We’re seeing fights and arguments between players - even Rüdiger hitting on Carreras, and issues between Chouaméni and Valverde. This never happened in our time.
Take a look at yesterday, Dembélé was substituted and accepted it quietly. But now we see Vinicius, Mbappé and Bellingham complaining when they’re taken off.
There’s no humility and respect. Everyone wants to be the star. Look at the results - zero trophies. And now over 30 million petitions signed against Mpape, that is not a good look for Real Madrid.
The dressing room is a mess, and it’s killing the team’s performance. Something has to change."
🎙️ Thierry Henry on PSG vs Bayern:
“Rest in peace to anyone who missed this game. This is football at its absolute peak. Pure cinema. End to end, no breaks, no breathing space… you blink and you miss something.
You watch Nuno Mendes, who’s been locking up wingers all season, suddenly struggling with Michael Olise… that boy is special.
On the other side, Luis Diaz just doesn’t stop running… I don’t think Hakimi caught his breath once. Then Kvara… everything he touches looks dangerous.
Dembele playing free, doing whatever he wants… it’s ridiculous. And in the middle, Vitinha controlling everything like it’s his own playground.
This game had everything. Honestly… this should’ve been the Champions League final. Because right now, these are the most exciting teams in Europe.”