Portuguese midfielder João Mário may not have left many big memories for West Ham United fans, but his time in London did mean a lot to him.
The 30-year-old, who now plays for Benfica, on Tuesday evening gave an interview to Portuguese outlet Sport TV.
Now quoted by Record, João Mário made a couple of mentions of West Ham. The first one was regarding the type of game played in England, claiming he didn’t want to go Inter Milan at first, as his objective had always been to play in English football.
“At the beginning, when the proposal came up, one of the reasons that led me to not be interested was because I thought that if I went to the English or German championships – because there was interest – I could take the next step on a physical level. Think faster and execute more fast.
“That’s what the Premier League forces you to do, that’s the experience I had at West Ham. If I have to think beforehand in Portugal, there I have to think two hours before, because there the game is really fast. In Italy, when I arrived and adapted like De Boer, it went well individually, but not so much collectively.”
Then when asked about regrets in his career, João Mário had no doubt about naming West Ham, saying he shouldn’t have returned to Inter Milan when he did.
“Looking back on my career, the big mistake I made was not staying at West Ham at that time. West Ham wanted to buy me, but I thought I needed to go back to Inter. Not that I wanted to stay at Inter, but how I had contract.”
The player recalls even the national team manager encouraged him to play for West Ham.
“I remember, I had a conversation with mister Fernando Santos, and he said to me ‘you have to play to go to the World Cup’. I thought it made sense to go there. I found a spectacular club, spectacular championship, I had to adapt for a month. I regret, for one reason or another, that I didn’t stay in England. Looking back on my career, it was my biggest mistake.”
It was in January 2018 that Inter Milan decided to loan João Mário to West Ham. The Hammers paid €1.2m to have him in London for six months.
João Mário had 14 appearances for the English club, with two goals and one assist, and was a starter in most games. But with no chance of a permanent deal, he returned to the Nerazzurri that summer.
