The former French defender Jeremy Mathieu admitted today that he never wanted to leave the Valencia and sign for Barcelona, But explained that he left his old team because he did not receive a satisfactory counter-offer.
Mathieu recounts the hard time he lived in Barcelona
” I didn’t want to go to Barça. When the club called me (in 2014), I was a captain in Valencia, I liked my life there and I asked myself: Am I going to warm up on the bench in Barcelona? ”, He revealed in a dialogue with the newspaper L’Équipe.
When he received his Barça contract, he wrote a new one, with a salary halfway between what he had at the time and what the Catalans offered him.
” I showed this fake contract to Valencia’s sporting director and I said, ‘If you give me this, I’ll stay.’ Francisco Joaquín Pérez Rufete told me there was no problem with that, but when we told President Amadeo Salvo together, he refused, ” the Gaul adds.
Mathieu, 37, said he knew they didn’t have him and left. Barcelona, Where he played until 2017, before leaving for Sports of Portugal and retire.
Mathieu says that Neymr left Barcelona for Messi
His most embarrassing sporting moment, he says, is the goal he scored in his own goal with Barça in a match against Villarreal on March 20, 2016, which ended in a two-way tie.
” In a corner, I didn’t see the ball coming, which bounced over my chest and went into our goal. Then, all the Spanish journalists crushed me, as if I had done it on purpose ”, he maintains.
His best teammates and the toughest rival
Mathieu emphasizes that Messi, David Silva, Juan Mata and Xavi, who impressed him with his “technical ease and simplicity off the field”, have been the best players with whom he has shared a dressing room.
During the interview, he was asked about who has been the toughest rival and did not hesitate to point to the Spanish ram. Diego Costa.
” It gives you little ‘dog’ blows to get you out of the game. He steps on you, apologizes and does it again right after. Even if you know, it ends up bothering you, you answer it and you get a card ”, explains the Frenchman.