Benatia exposes the power of dressing rooms: and reveals exciting secrets about Ronaldo
Mehdi Benatia, the Moroccan former sporting director of Olympique de Marseille, launched a scathing attack on the growing influence and power of players in modern football, citing the incident of Spanish coach Xabi Alonso's dismissal from managing Real Madrid last season before he took charge of Chelsea.
The former Morocco star, who played alongside Alonso at Bayern Munich, made no secret of his anger during an appearance on "Canal+" at the treatment handed to the former Bayer Leverkusen coach, as reported by "Foot Mercato": "Players have excessive power now. It is easier to change a coach than to change 15 players".
"When I see an institution the size of Real Madrid getting rid of Xabi Alonso, I remember that I had the chance to play with him," he continued. "There are not many teams that have crushed Bayern Munich the way he did with Leverkusen. It is unbelievable. He was dismissed from Real Madrid in a very humiliating way, and no one cared about it, only for him to end up at Chelsea".
Benatia then turned his fire on rebellious dressing rooms: "Xabi tried to apply some principles, saying: I won everything as a player, so this is what you have to do. It lasted only three months, and the dressing room turned against him, so he found himself dismissed".
The former Morocco defender also lifted the lid on the influence of Cristiano Ronaldo, his old team-mate at Juventus. Benatia hailed the Portuguese star's sheer professionalism: "He was completely different from the rest of the players in his age group. Even after training ended".
"He would make us swim for 40 minutes, then spend 30 minutes in the ice bath, which was already extremely cold," he went on. "I would say to him: how do you do this, man? Your bath is extremely cold, I only put my legs in it. Some players did not care much about training in the gym, but as soon as Cris arrived, you would see everyone there".
Ronaldo had little love for pre-match training camps, a habit the five-time Ballon d'Or winner was not used to before joining Juventus.
"I was at Juventus in 2018 when Cristiano joined," he said. "He did not much like the pre-match camps, as he was not used to them. Before every match we played at our stadium, we would enter a camp on the day before the match".
"Cris said to me: Bena, is there a way to speak a little with the Italians and the coach?" he continued. "So I replied: yes, of course, we will try, but this matter is part of the system here. Then I said to Giorgio Chiellini: there is a team-mate of ours (Cristiano) who does not much like the pre-match camps".
"After that we went to speak with the coach and said to him: there are 3 or 4 players, most of them key players, who would prefer, if it is possible, so the coach replied: whoever wants to go to the camp, let him go, and whoever wants to sleep at his home, let him do so," he concluded.
