Thursday, July 29, 2021 at 11:07• Rian Rosendaal • Last update: 11:15

Rafael da Silva thinks he knows why he had such a difficult relationship with Louis van Gaal during his stint as a Manchester United player. The right back, now active for Istanbul Basaksehir, claims in an extensive interview with The Athletic that the former manager of the Red Devils hates Brazilian players. Van Gaal himself emphasizes that this is not the case at all.

Van Gaal informed Da Silva shortly after his entrance at Old Trafford in 2014 that he did not fit into his plans at Manchester United. “I never got an explanation about that. Van Gaal only said to me: ‘you leave’. He seemed to have a clear idea about the players he wanted and the players who were allowed to leave. However, there was never a clear idea about that statement, although I did hear certain things from other people. Before Van Gaal came to Manchester United, everyone told me that he hates Brazilians,” said the fullback who left England in 2015.

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“I don’t know if that’s true or not, but I know those stories started when he teamed up with Rivaldo at Barcelona,” Da Silva continues, looking back. “He then put Rivaldo on the bench and Rivaldo was immediately finished with Van Gaal. He spoke badly about him and tried to get Van Gaal to be fired. Apparently that’s where his dislike for Brazilian players started. chasing trainers away’, it was like that.” Van Gaal wanted to post Rivaldo on the left wing at the time, while the player himself much preferred to act as the deepest striker. The national coach of the Dutch left in 2000, to return to Barcelona in 2002. Rivaldo then immediately had his contract terminated. AC Milan picked up the attacker from Spain.

According to Van Gaal, Da Silva’s claims are not correct, as appears from his response to The Athletic. “It is inconceivable that a person or a coach thinks in such a way about a whole nation if he only questions the professionalism of a Brazilian player. It was just that Da Silva had lost the competition to Antonio Valencia “That’s the whole story, Antonio was turned by me from a winger to a right back. And after my dismissal, Valencia played under Jose Mourinho in that position too. So my choice wasn’t that bad, was it?” out loud.