5 stars who fell out with Jose Mourinho

#1 Iker Casillas

A love affair that slowly soured

Almost like a fairytale-heartbreak movie, the Casillas-Mourinho relationship was like a love story that disintegrated.

Things began going downhill for the two in 2011, when Mourinho allegedly suspected that San Iker’s girlfriend leaked Madrid’s line-up ahead of the El Clasico. The infamous feud only got worse in the following Clasico when Mourinho poked late Barcelona manager Tito Vilanova in the eye.

Iker, trying to reduce the tension between his Spain teammates made a phone call to a few Barcelona players, seeking reconciliation. Mourinho, however, did not take this too positively, and labelled Casillas for being ‘a traitor, a grass, a mole, an egotist,’ as is written in his biography ‘The Special One.’ Consequently, Iker was dropped for reserve goalkeeper Antonio Adan and Diego Lopez was made the Madrid number one.

Casillas, in 2015 made his feelings public when he said - ‘I never spoke publicly about him at the time and I don’t think I ever will. People know how it was. In the end, we just did not have a good relationship.’