Jose Mourinho is more comfortable working with ready made stars than grooming a young raw talent and refining him into a world class player. However, the Portuguese can take great credit for the part he played in the development of Real Madrid defender Raphael Varane. Mourinho signed him from French club Lens in 2011 when he was only 17 years old.
The Chelsea boss was so impressed with his talent that he drafted him into the first team straightaway in expense of experienced defender Pepe.
In his second season for Los Blancos, Varane made 33 appearances for the club in all competitions. The France international has revealed in an interview how Mourinho pushed him to become a better player.
“During my second year (2012-2013), Mourinho gave me a kick up in the a**. I wasn’t playing well, wasn’t able to do what he wanted on the pitch. He asked me ‘Why don’t you run in practice?’.
“My first reaction was to shut down his criticism ‘Come on, that’s enough’. But I knew he was right, I could give a lot more.” “He doesn’t have to give long speeches. He’s direct and precise. What he told me, he did it for my own good. I’m very hyperactive, which is very contrasting to the calm I show on the pitch now. I was too ‘weary’ and they had to make me calm down.”
Varane, 22, is into his fifth season at Madrid, and he is already an established international star for France.
According to reports in the English media, Manchester United could be looking to sign him in the next transfer window. Varane has a market value of €25m, though Real Madrid probably won’t be willing to sell their prized asset anything below €50m, if not more.
Varane is a cool headed defender with an exceptional positional awareness. New manager Rafael Benitez seems to be pretty impressed with him, with Varane starting both the league matches for Madrid in the brand new 2015-16 La Liga campaign.
In other news, Serie A club Fiorentina have kicked off talks about taking Kurt Zouma from Chelsea. According to La Nazione, if Chelsea sign a solid centre back in January, Zouma could become surplus to requirements at the club.
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