Four-time Champions League winner was stunned when Jose Mourinho told him he was useless
Jose Mourinho created some minor miracles at Real Madrid, but his unnoticed heroics with Raphael Varane have now been revealed by the player. The legendary 2010 European treble-winning manager left Inter Milan for the Bernabeu after his success and went head-to-head with Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona for one of football’s great rivalries. Mourinho placed plenty of faith into Varane as a teenager, but not before a big lessonGetty There, he replaced Manuel Pellegrini, and transformed Los Blancos’ defence, turning Sergio Ramos from a right-back to a centre back, and teaching a castigated Marcelo how to defend. But it was with Varane where he possibly made the biggest jump, transforming him from a terrified teenager to a four-time Champions League winner, even if he used some brutal methods. The centre-back chose to move to Real Madrid in 2011, despite Sir Alex Ferguson getting the Eurostar to Lens to convince him to join Manchester United. There, his path to the starting XI was blocked by Sergio Ramos and Pepe, playing just 15 times in his debut campaign as a back-up. Recalling his first meetings with Mourinho on Aurelien Tchouameni’s podcast ‘The Bridge’, Varane said: “When I arrived, he told me: ‘I only want one thing, that for an hour and a half every day, you give everything. The rest, don’t worry, you’ll progress, I’ll take care of it. Relax.’ “The first season, I must have played fifteen matches in total. But I played the matches where we had already qualified, the cup matches… He made me progress little by little and didn’t throw me in at the deep end right away.” With a season under his belt and Pepe aging, it was time for Varane to step up, and Mourinho motivated him the only way he knew how. “I had a good first season, but now more was expected of me. So I overplayed a bit and I wasn’t comfortable. I wasn’t feeling well,” Varane explained about the 2012/13 campaign. “And one day, at the start of the season, he called me, even though the team’s start to the season wasn’t great. I remember well, it was in the gym, he called me [over]. “He’s someone I really respect, he’s charismatic, and he said to me straight out: ‘But why are you useless?’ Varane remade his stunned expression when he was told he was uselessThe Bridge Former France teammate Tchouameni loved the storyThe Bridge “I looked at him like (surprised) because he had actually just stung me. I looked at him and said that it wasn’t easy because I wasn’t playing and that it was a complicated start to the season. “He had nagged me then and then he asked me if I was ready to play the following Wednesday.” That match was a big one against Manchester City in the Champions League, but there was no way Varane could say no. “A bit of a bluff, I said yes even though I wasn’t ready,” he continued. “I wasn’t physically ready, mentally I wasn’t confident, but I said yes, I was ready and that was it. “He told me ‘OK’ and he left. In training, I gave it my all and the next day, the day before the match, I saw that I was in the team and that Sergio Ramos was on the bench. “I was 19 years old and I told myself that I was in Spain at 19 and not well while there I was starting in the Champions League… if I messed up it was over and it was dead. “Everything that was going to happen after that no longer existed, I would have been sent out on loan.” However, Varane, who also won the World Cup with France in 2018, unsurprisingly rose to the pressure as an elite player would. “I played the match, I had cramps everywhere, but I had a good performance,” he remembered. “After that, I got back into it, and the season started off as planned. In the second half of the season, I had the best half of my career. “He got me back into the swing of things; he’s the kind of coach who pushed me to get the best out of myself.”
Jose Mourinho created some minor miracles at Real Madrid, but his unnoticed heroics with Raphael Varane have now been revealed by the player.
The legendary 2010 European treble-winning manager left Inter Milan for the Bernabeu after his success and went head-to-head with Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona for one of football’s great rivalries.
There, he replaced Manuel Pellegrini, and transformed Los Blancos’ defence, turning Sergio Ramos from a right-back to a centre back, and teaching a castigated Marcelo how to defend.
But it was with Varane where he possibly made the biggest jump, transforming him from a terrified teenager to a four-time Champions League winner, even if he used some brutal methods.
The centre-back chose to move to Real Madrid in 2011, despite Sir Alex Ferguson getting the Eurostar to Lens to convince him to join Manchester United.
There, his path to the starting XI was blocked by Sergio Ramos and Pepe, playing just 15 times in his debut campaign as a back-up.
Recalling his first meetings with Mourinho on Aurelien Tchouameni’s podcast ‘The Bridge’, Varane said: “When I arrived, he told me: ‘I only want one thing, that for an hour and a half every day, you give everything. The rest, don’t worry, you’ll progress, I’ll take care of it. Relax.’
“The first season, I must have played fifteen matches in total. But I played the matches where we had already qualified, the cup matches… He made me progress little by little and didn’t throw me in at the deep end right away.”
With a season under his belt and Pepe aging, it was time for Varane to step up, and Mourinho motivated him the only way he knew how.
“I had a good first season, but now more was expected of me. So I overplayed a bit and I wasn’t comfortable. I wasn’t feeling well,” Varane explained about the 2012/13 campaign.
“And one day, at the start of the season, he called me, even though the team’s start to the season wasn’t great. I remember well, it was in the gym, he called me [over].
“He’s someone I really respect, he’s charismatic, and he said to me straight out: ‘But why are you useless?’
“I looked at him like (surprised) because he had actually just stung me. I looked at him and said that it wasn’t easy because I wasn’t playing and that it was a complicated start to the season.
“He had nagged me then and then he asked me if I was ready to play the following Wednesday.”
That match was a big one against Manchester City in the Champions League, but there was no way Varane could say no.
“A bit of a bluff, I said yes even though I wasn’t ready,” he continued. “I wasn’t physically ready, mentally I wasn’t confident, but I said yes, I was ready and that was it.
“He told me ‘OK’ and he left. In training, I gave it my all and the next day, the day before the match, I saw that I was in the team and that Sergio Ramos was on the bench.
“I was 19 years old and I told myself that I was in Spain at 19 and not well while there I was starting in the Champions League… if I messed up it was over and it was dead.
“Everything that was going to happen after that no longer existed, I would have been sent out on loan.”
However, Varane, who also won the World Cup with France in 2018, unsurprisingly rose to the pressure as an elite player would.
“I played the match, I had cramps everywhere, but I had a good performance,” he remembered.
“After that, I got back into it, and the season started off as planned. In the second half of the season, I had the best half of my career.
“He got me back into the swing of things; he’s the kind of coach who pushed me to get the best out of myself.”
