😱 Text abuse and insults: How Mourinho brutally bullied his player

That José Mourinho has always been a polarizing figure is nothing new. But the story Henrikh Mkhitaryan tells in his autobiography published in October shows just how intense things can get behind the scenes.

The former BVB star revealed that things really exploded between him and the star coach at Manchester United.

Mourinho had brought Mkhitaryan from Dortmund to Old Trafford at the time. A hefty transfer fee of 42 million euros was paid. But their time together in the Premier League was anything but smooth.

Criticism from the coach was basically nonstop. "The Special One" even bombarded his player with very special messages at night.

📸 Alex Grimm - 2017 Getty Images

At some point, the Armenian didn’t want to put up with it anymore. "I told him: 'You’ve been criticizing me for a year and a half, ever since I came to Manchester United.' Mourinho then said I was a piece of shit. I replied that he was a piece of shit. A huge one," Mkhitaryan recounts openly.

Interesting: Despite the United disaster, the two met again at AS Roma in 2021. And suddenly, the past didn’t matter anymore. "On the first day, we immediately hugged," Mkhitaryan wrote. So apparently, respect is there after all—even if it took a few years’ distance.

It seems he managed to cope pretty well with the nightly SMS harassment and insults from his former coach.

In 2022, Mkhitaryan moved to Serie A, where, even at 36, he’s still playing at a high level.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.

📸 AFP Contributor