Angel Di Maria says Louis van Gaal was ‘the worst manager of my career’, they meet tomorrow
Argentina’s Angel Di Maria has never shied away from speaking about working under Louis van Gaal, a manager he once labelled “the worst of my career”.
The pair are set to reunite during Friday night’s highly-anticipated World Cup quarter-final clash between Argentina and the Netherlands, a team Van Gaal has transformed in the past 12 months.
But former Manchester United forward Di Maria, who was signed by the Dutch manager during his forgettable spell at Old Trafford, isn’t exactly the biggest fan.
In fact, when speaking to Argentine publication TYC Sports, the Argentine ripped into Van Gaal.
“My problem at Manchester was the coach.” he said. “Van Gaal was the worst of my career. I would score, assist, and the next day he would show me my misplaced passes.
“He displaced me from one day to the other, he didn’t like players being more than him.”
The Argentine forward signed for Manchester United from Real Madrid in the summer of 2014 for a then-British record £59.7 million.
He penned a five-year deal at Old Trafford and was handed the number 7 shirt, previously worn by the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, George Best, Eric Cantona and David Beckham.
He arrived on the back of an impressive display at the World Cup with Argentina; as well as a Man of the Match performance in the Champions League final win against Atletico Madrid.
But it never worked out in Manchester, despite a promising start. In fact, he was sold 11 months later as Van Gaal and United cut their losses with a £44 million sale to PSG.
So what went wrong?
Shortly after joining Paris Saint-Germain in the summer of 2015, Di Maria admitted he and his family struggled to adapt to life in Manchester, while his relationship with Louis van Gaal also played a factor.
“Honestly, we were not happy,” Di Maria told Le Parisien. “At the beginning, we were a little. But then things became complicated.
“Life in England was a bit difficult. It is not easy for a South American. Some people get on fine, and for others it is harder to adapt.
“I didn’t have a great relationship with the coach, so I think the decision to join Paris was the best solution.”
Di Maria’s wife, Jorgelina Cardoso, has since expanded on the above comments in an interview with Argentinian TV show LAM via The Daily Mail – and she didn’t hold back.
She began: “Angel came to me one day and said: ‘Look at this proposal from Manchester United’. I didn’t want to go, I told him to go alone. ‘Let’s go both of us’, he replied. It was a lot of money, more than the Spaniards had offered.
“So, we went. If you work in a company and someone offers you double the salary, you go running.
“We were friends with Gianinna Maradona, Sergio Aguero’s wife, and we travelled to Manchester on vacation for a year. It was always horrible! We came home and I said: ‘If you’re ever transferred, make sure it’s anywhere in the world but England.'”
Cardoso added: “‘I didn’t like it at all… I can tell you. People are all weird. You walk around and you don’t know if they’re going to kill you. The food is disgusting. The women look like porcelain. Angel and I were in Madrid, at the best team in the world, perfect food, perfect weather, everything was perfect. And then came United’s proposal…
“I told him ‘no way, no way’, but he kept saying we will be a little more financially secure and we have to go.
“We fought about it. We try to be closer when things go wrong. I don’t blame him for going there. It was horrible, so horrible. I just told him, ‘Darling, I want to kill myself, it’s nighttime at two o’clock.'”
Di Maria’s Argentina will come up against the Netherlands at the Lusail Stadium on Friday evening.
