Former Porto player Carlos Alberto has gave a very emotional interview about Manchester United manager José Mourinho on Sunday. Talking to Resenha ESPN, a Brazilian TV Show on which players tell funny and interesting stories, he got really serious when speaking about the manager.
“I’m out of words to talk about him. This grouchy he appears to be to the world, he’s not. He’s a man of a huge heart. The person who most understood me in this football life. Which is a short life.
“This guy, he did so much to my life. He changed my life so much, he even educated me on some other things off the pitch and in my head. Few people understand my head. This guy knows my life a lot. I’m not talking only about my character. I’m talking about my head. So this guy is a master.
“I respect [Vanderlei] Luxemburgo, Muricy [Ramalho], Ricardo Gomes, Dorival [Júnior], Joel Santana, all those managers with whom I worked with and contributed a lot to my life. But all of them, with all respect of the world… they are here. He’s far ahead. He is above the normals. I talked to him for the last time two years ago. I can’t cry because my children are watching.”
ESPN recovered an interview from 2008, when Mourinho was in Brazil and the reporters asked him if he liked any Brazilian players. The manager said: “Carlos Alberto, I’d like to meet him again. I ‘d like to meet him and pull that ear well. Because it hurts me. It hurts me that a player who at 18 won the Champions League. At 18 he played against Manchester [United], played a Champions [League] final, played at the highest level. It hurts me that at this point he’s not where he should be with the potential he has. I’d like to see him again one day.”
Carlos Alberto played for Porto for only one year in 2004. He’s frequently changed clubs since then and now plays for Figueirense, one of the smaller clubs from the Brazilian first division.
He’s still only 31 years of age, with a few years of career left, Mourinho will no doubt believe it should have been at a higher level.
