Gary Lineker on Benfica stalwart's silence: I still don't know why | OneFootball

Gary Lineker revealed an unusual episode involving José Mourinho, the current Benfica manager, which has remained unexplained for more than a decade. The former England international says that, despite having had a close relationship in the past, the Portuguese coach simply stopped speaking to him for no apparent reason.

"He has his ups and downs. I know that from personal experience. José is fascinating. He used to message me all the time... "I love what you say on Match of the Day". I had that kind of relationship with him. Then it stopped. It just stopped. That was it. To this day, I still don’t know what I said to upset him", he revealed in comments on the "Netflix Sports Club" podcast.

Lineker also recalled a curious episode related to presenting an award during Mourinho’s time at Chelsea, which highlighted the distance between them. "GQ asked me to present him with the Sportsman of the Year award when he was at Chelsea. I said: "Of course". This was after about six months of silence. The day before, I got a phone call saying: "José would prefer someone not connected to football to present the award". I said: "I’m still going anyway", he added.

Despite the awkwardness, the former striker - who criticised the coach over the Prestianni case - decided to confront Mourinho directly at the event, but got no explanation. "I went up to him and asked: "Do we have a problem?". He replied: "No". I pressed him: "Are you sure?". And he said: "No". To this day, I still don’t know. Maybe it was a bad joke or something like that", he said.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.