Italian 2006 World Cup winner Marco Materazzi recalls perfectly well what he told Jose Mourinho back in 2010 when the Portuguese coach left Inter to join Real Madrid.
Jose Mourinho managed quite an achievement that season. He won a famous treble that season meaning at the San Siro, winning the league, Coppa Italia and Champions League.
Materazzi was a key part of that Inter squad. And shortly after that 2010 Champions League final won, Materazzi joined Mourinho outside of the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium for a tender moment. Both were very emotional about the coach's departure. They had a farewell hug while they were crying.
In an interview given to an Italian football TV podcast this week, the Italian defender remembers exactly what he told Mourinho during that emotional moment:
I told him 'fuck you' because he was leaving me with [Rafael] Benitez.
😂 Marco Materazzi to Jose Mourinho when he left Inter:
"F*ck you, you've left me with Benitez".pic.twitter.com/AHzr6wCyWz— The Sportsman (@TheSportsman) April 7, 2023
Jose Mourinho, Marco Materazzi's special manager
Materazzi has always admired Mourinho as a football coach and as a person. There was just something unique that the Portuguese coach offered, as Materazzi explained.
Mourinho was special, he knew the names of all our children and our wives. Nobody else had ever done that for me. For me it was not a big surprise, but for my wife, when he met her and said 'hello Daniela', it was.
Jose Mourinho never went back to Italy with the team after winning the Champions League in Madrid. In 2020 Mourinho told The Athletic that he 'ran away' from his players after winning the trophy as it was to hard for him to say his last goodbyes:
I was on the pitch with them in the celebrations, in the medals, in the cup. I was with them but then I didn’t go back to the dressing room because I didn’t want to say goodbye.
Once Mourinho left for the Spanish league, it was Argentinian manager Rafa Benitez who was named Inter Milan coach. Materazzi didn't have to work with him for too long as he was fired six months after being appointed.
SEE ALSO: Andrea Pirlo "Thought About Quitting" After Liverpool Comeback In Istanbul
