Andres Iniesta on Mourinho: The former Barcelona midfielder has blamed Jose Mourinho for tensions in Spain’s national team.
Andres Iniesta left Barcelona at the beginning of this season after 16 years at the Catalan club. During his time at Barca, Iniesta won numerous domestic, continental, inter-continental and individual honours.
Iniesta also won the World Cup with Spain in 2010, where he scored the winning goal in the final against the Netherlands. Two years later, he won the Euro with the national side as well.
However, things have never been the same with the Spanish team since. The midfielder, in an interview with La Sexta, has claimed that Mourinho played a major role in the breakout of relationships inside Spain’s squad.
Jose Mourinho was the manager of Real Madrid between 2010 and 2013.
Andres Iniesta on Mourinho:
The El Clasico games between Real Madrid and Barcelona in Jose Mourinho’s time at the Los Blancos were, perhaps the more heated than ever seen before.
Mourinho’s rivalry with Pep Guardiola often boiled things up on the field between both the sides, and things turned ugly when Mourinho once poked Guardiola’s assistant Tito Vilanova in the eye in 2011.
Andres Iniesta stated that the tensions between the players during the El Clasico reflected during the international duties, which had a disastrous impact on Spain’s squad.
“You don’t have to be for Barcelona or Real Madrid to know that the situation was unpleasant,” Iniesta said. “And the key component in that story was Mourinho. Whoever doesn’t want to see that, is radical.”
Iniesta stated that the rivalry turned to hate with the arrival of the Portuguese manager.
“You didn’t see the rivalry that always existed before, it went beyond that, you saw hate. That atmosphere developed and it was unbearable. The Barca-Madrid tension caused by Mourinho did much damage to the national team (Spain) and the teammates,” Iniesta said.
Jose Mourinho left Real Madrid in 2013 to join his former club Chelsea.
Spain, however, is yet to win a tournament since Euro 2012. The side was knocked out in the group stages of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, and crashed out in the round-of-16 of the Euro Championships to Italy two years later.
