Samuel Eto’o snubs Guardiola, Mourinho, reveals his best coach ever

African legend, Samuel Eto’o, has named the late Mallorca manager, Luis Aragonés, as his best coach ever ahead of Manchester City boss, Pep Guardiola and former Manchester United manager, Jose Mourinho.

Eto’o, who recently announced his retirement from football, played under Aragonés at Mallorca, Guardiola at Barcelona and Mourinho at Inter Milan.

Speaking at the fifth edition of the Aspire Academy Global Summit on Football Performance and Science currently taking place in Doha between October 7 and 9, the 38-year-old was quoted by Marca as saying: “The best coach I had? Each one is special. It is not easy to choose one, but if I have to choose one, it’s Luis Aragonés, who now rests in peace. While I was a player at Mallorca, I had a talk in his office that changed my life.

“He said that I had done everything at Mallorca and told me to go to another club to see what my real level was. At that moment I thought: “But what is this old man saying?’,” recalled Eto’o.

“Luis had a lot of personality, but I knew how to play with that personality… He was like a father. It would be a great honour to be a coach like him.”

Eto’o added: “I love Guardiola as a coach, but not as a person. I learned to play football with him. I interpreted him better than anyone.”

“Mourinho left me on the bench for a month and made me warm up in injury time. In his head, he was pricking me to make me his own. I talked to him in his office. It was what he wanted from me, to recover my best level. And I did. We won everything. We had a team of eleven warriors, we won differently.”