Gary Lineker has revealed his secret feud with Jose Mourinho that dates back to 2015.
Portuguese Mourinho has often been labelled as one of the best managers of his generation.
Over the years, the 60-year-old has won trophies with some of the biggest clubs in world football including the likes of Real Madrid, Inter Milan, Chelsea and Manchester United.
Speaking in a recent episode of The Rest Is Football podcast, former England striker Lineker revealed his feud with Mourinho.
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The feud started in 2015 when it was claimed that Mourinho did not want to receive a GQ award from Lineker.
He said: “I remember when he first came, he was this incredible personality, really engaging and I thought he was witty and he was funny. I think the game has beaten him up a little over the years.
“I did a little documentary with him, he used to text me all the time, he used to text me after Match of the Day, saying ‘you guys understand it, this is great’.
“We had been going along like that for two years and then something changed. I was asked to present him with the Man of the Year award at the GQ Awards that they do every year. They asked me to present the trophy and I said ‘yes, I'll do that for Jose, of course’.”
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Lineker continued: “Then about four days before the event, they got in touch and said ‘Jose has got in touch and he doesn't want you to present the trophy to him, he wants someone that's not in football’.
“I thought ‘hmmm, that's a bit odd’ but I thought I'll go along to the event anyway and I went up to Jose and he kind of blanked me. I went ‘are we ok, are we ok Jose?’
“He went "Yeah, yeah, yeah." But he wasn't ok and he's never been OK since.”
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When asked by fellow presenters Alan Shearer and Micah Richards on what potentially caused the breakdown in the relationship, Lineker said: “I do not know to this day whether it was something I said on Match of the Day, I genuinely have no idea. I interviewed him subsequently and he was very cold.
“I remember doing a Champions League game which they didn't do very well in. I went up to the director's bit at Manchester United and I was having a drink with Ed Woodward, he's a neighbour of mine so I know him really well.”
He added: “I'm stood there having a drink and Jose comes up but then he just wandered off. He sent a text to Ed Woodward, why are you talking to him?’
“To this day, I don't know what I did! It is a long time ago this happened but I don't know what happened.”
Topics: Jose Mourinho, Gary Lineker, Football
Marcus Chan