Germany football icon Bastian Schweinsteiger admits he has no hard feelings over how Jose Mourinho treated him at Manchester United.
After signing for the Reds during the summer of 2015, Schweinsteiger went on to make a total of 31 appearances across all competitions in his debut season under Louis van Gaal, who brought him to Old Trafford having previously worked with him the Dutchman at Bayern Munich.
Van Gaal was sent his marching orders days after winning the FA Cup in 2016. He was replaced by Mourinho, who quickly decided it was time to freeze Schweinsteiger out of the team.
Schweinsteiger was also forced to train away from the first-team before briefly being reintroduced for four matches either side of the New Year.
The former Germany international eventually left United to sign for MLS side Chicago Fire in March 2017.
After moving on Schweinsteiger, Mourinho admitted that he could have treated him better. He said (via FourFourTwo, H/t Manchester Evening News): “He’s in the category of players that I feel sorry for something that I did to him. I don’t want to speak about him as a player, I don’t want to speak as I buy or not to buy. I want to speak about him as a professional, as a human being.
“The last thing I told him before he left: ‘I was not right with you once, I have to be right with you now.’ So when he was asking me to let him leave I had to say ‘yes’ you can leave because I did it once, I cannot do it twice. So I feel sorry for the first period with him, he knows that. I am happy that he knows because I told him. I will miss a good guy, a good professional, a good influence in training – a very good influence.”
However, Schweinsteiger has reflected on his time under Mourinho in an interview, saying: “He apologised to me later. I gave him a handshake and said ‘All good, don’t worry’. I would’ve liked to have played more, definitely, and with Paul Pogba and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, because those players I think we could have achieved much more.
“But I’m grateful to the supporters for the way they welcomed me when I had the chance to play. My dream was to play at Old Trafford again and it happened after a while, after training on my own, or with the under-19s or under-17s. Playing at Old Trafford again really meant a lot to me.”
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