Pre-season is generally a low-key time of fitness drills, worldwide tours and friendlies played at a gentle pace – but sometimes they contain drama too.
Back in the summer of 2013, there was plenty of drama to go around. The setting was the International Champions Cup final at the Sun Life Stadium in Miami. Chelsea were taking on Real Madrid to be crowned champions of the pre-season tournament, but the match was really all about the subtext.
Jose Mourinho was the manager of Chelsea, having left Real after what he called "the worst of my career" in the 2012/13 campaign. With a final against the club he spent the previous three years at, there was bound to be plenty of personal feeling involved in the match.
That was especially true when it came to Cristiano Ronaldo. In general, the two Portuguese egos got on very well in general during their time together in Madrid – Ronaldo scored an absurd total of 168 goals in 164 games after all. Mourinho won La Liga and the Copa del Rey on the back of Ronaldo’s goals, but the final stages of their working relationship was defined by strain.
That atmosphere is best told in Guillem Balague's book Cristiano Ronaldo: The Biography, which details plenty of eyebrow-raising arguments. One of those came in 2013 and took place in the Real dressing room after a win over Valencia and centred around something as innocuous as Ronaldo taking a throw-in hurriedly so Mesut Ozil couldn’t control it.
As Balague tells it, Mourinho took issue with Ronaldo in front of the other players, which prompted the forward to erupt: "After everything I've done for you, this is how you treat me? How dare you say that to me!" The dressing room fell silent, prompting Mourinho to respond: "I was saying it for the team, because the team needed you to track back.”
After Ronaldo stormed off, Mourinho added for good measure: "Just so you know,” he shouted for everybody to hear, “Many think like me here, but don't dare say it, they don't have the balls to tell you."
Mourinho’s move to Chelsea saw the fiery duo part ways soon after, but, as luck would have it, the International Champions Cup brought them together just months later. Mourinho being Mourinho, he decided to up the ante by aiming a not-so-subtle dig at Ronaldo in the build-up.
“I was manager for the first time in the 2000 year but, before that, I was assistant in big clubs and with big managers and coaching the best players in the world, so I was 30 and I was coaching Ronaldo, not this one [Cristiano], the real one, the Brazilian Ronaldo,” he told ESPN.
HAVE YOUR SAY! Who is more combustible: Jose Mourinho or Cristiano Ronaldo? Comment below.
As it turned out, that wasn’t the best idea. Ronaldo hardly needed any extra motivation during the height of his career, but Mourinho had given him plenty. Needless to say, it was Ronaldo who had the last laugh, scoring twice in a 3-1 win for Real over Chelsea that day.
After Marcelo and Ramires had traded goals, the stage was set for Ronaldo. He opened up with a stunning free-kick before adding a trademark thumping header for good measure.
Ronaldo has won countless trophies during his illustrious career, so the International Champions Cup probably barely even registers for him. But the way he got his own back on Mourinho no doubt made it all the sweeter than day nine years ago.
