Jose Mourinho's feud with Iker Casillas took another twist after he revealed that the former Real Madrid goalkeeper was "very bad" - but it was a reaction that left the Spaniard in stitches.
The pair clashed during the Portuguese manager's final year at Los Blancos, where he first dropped Casillas for Real's clash with Malaga in December 2012. Casillas, at the time, took it well, telling La Sexta television : "The coach decides which team he thinks is best for each match and you need to accept the decision."
Casillas was Los Blancos' poster boy having played for them for over a decade after coming through the youth ranks, making 725 appearances for the club in all competitions. He won five La Liga titles and three Champions League winners' medals and is known as a club legend for what he achieved at the Bernabau.
However, Mourinho and Casillas didn't see eye-to-eye and the now-Roma boss appeared in a video of the Kings League on Saturday, and joked: "If I sat him [Casillas] on the bench, for some reason it will be: he is very bad".
Faced with the statement, and with the rest of the panel making fun of the former Porto stopper, including Gerard Pique, Casillas couldn't help himself and rolled on the floor laughing. Casillas looked a little embarrassed by Mourinho's comments but it also seemed like he took the interview lightly.
Back in 2020, Casillas opened up on his relationship with Mourinho and admitted that he was being seen as "mole" in the press as the two reportedly fell out. "He accused me of being a friend of the press," Casillas said in a Movistar + documentary. "I know people in the press, how could I not know them? But, it's another thing to filter information.
"People were talking about me, but I kept quiet, I didn't respond and I accepted that I was being seen as the mole."
Mourinho's final year at Los Blancos was filled with controversy off the pitch. His clash with Casillas saw the goalkeeper dropped while some of the other antics caused a divide in the changing room. Certain players took issue with his touchline conduct, specifically his incident with Tito Vilanova, which they felt was not in keeping with the club's way of working.
Casillas added: "As the captain, I spoke to my team-mates and we decided that we weren't going to play which meant the opening games of the season wouldn't go ahead. We said a couple of things that neither of us liked and took badly but it was left there. Then came the Super Cup
"We gave a terrible impression. There were scraps, battles, giving your heart and soul… but the other things [poking Vilanova’s eye] - that was the kind of thing you might see at other clubs - tacky clubs, who need to resort to that sort of thing, and that is not for us."
