5 times Jose Mourinho used the media to publicly criticise his players

#3 Cristiano Ronaldo – Real Madrid

Even Cristiano Ronaldo was not spared by Mourinho

Mourinho’s reigns at various clubs usually come to a bitter end and even his final season with Real Madrid saw the manager estranged from half his squad after his treatment of Casillas. He had lost the dressing room and Mourinho had retaliated like a lone man fighting a losing battle with nothing to lose.

And even their star player Cristiano Ronaldo was not spared. Even though Ronaldo was having one of his finest seasons on an individual level, scoring 55 goals in all competitions, Mourinho tore into his compatriot for not sticking to his plan.

“I had only one problem with him, very simple, very basic,” Mourinho explained. “When a coach criticises a player from a tactical viewpoint trying to improve what in my view could have been improved and at that moment he didn't take it very well because he thinks he knows everything and the coach cannot help him to develop more.”

Mourinho wasn’t done, though. He even compared Cristiano to the Brazilian Ronaldo, who Mourinho had coached when he was an assistant coach.

“I was [a] manager for the first time in 2000 but, before that, I was assistant in big clubs and with big managers and coaching the best players in the world. I was 30 and I was coaching Ronaldo.

“Not this one, the real one – the Brazilian Ronaldo!”