During a recent extended article, Jesse Lingard offered some insight into the relationship he still has with manager Jose Mourinho.
Jesse Lingard’s darkest personal moment came when he was playing under Jose Mourinho at Manchester United. The Portuguese manager is many things, but he is not heartless. Whenever one of his players is going through a rough personal experience, he makes a deep connection they never forget. In Lingard’s case, he suffered a loss in his family that made him spin out of control for a while.
We must not forget that Lingard was very important in Manchester United’s Europa League victory under Mourinho. But winning titles became secondary after all the tough moments the player experienced. His former manager keeps finding time to speak directly to him about life in general and they’ve developed a beautiful friendship. Jesse wrote a piece on The Players’ Tribune about his experience with the Portuguese manager.
Mourinho still facetimes Lingard.
Here’s the excerpt from Lingard’s column: “Me and Jose had a good relationship generally, though, I have to say. He was good to me. Before all the injury stuff, he trusted me, put me in for important games. We won trophies and he made me a winner. He could just bring out that side in you. He also liked to have a personal connection with his players.
“Sometimes I’d look at my phone and I’d be getting a random FaceTime from him. Just out of nowhere – just to check in. “I used to find it so strange at first. He’d call and be like, ‘Hey Jesse, what are you doing?’ And I’d be like, ‘Erm, just chilling, watching TV … (awkward silence) … what are you doing?’ I found it funny. And, to be fair, it showed how much he cared about us. But in terms of injuries, yeah, it was tough, because he didn’t want to hear it.”
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