“I’m sure of it”: Diogo Dalot issues confident rallying cry as he targets major success | OneFootball

Manchester United defender Diogo Dalot has outlined his burning desire to win the biggest trophies in club football.

For The Player’s Tribune, Dalot covered a wide range of subjects, including how he came to sign for United under Jose Mourinho, his formative years in football and early days at Porto, his close relationship with Cristiano Ronaldo and much more.

Jose Mourinho

Dalot reveals that he first heard from Mourinho while at a cafe in Northern Portugal. 19 at the time, he was with his friend, who informed him that the United manager wanted to speak with him.

“A little later, his phone rings, and he passes it to me. I grab it and run out to the other side of the road. When I pick up, it is him. José Mourinho.”

“And he is saying everything I want to hear. I’m talented. I’m strong. “I just needed one test,” he says. He was analysing me when Porto played Liverpool at Anfield a few weeks earlier, because I was up against Sadio Mané. ‘You stopped the best winger in the world. Now you come play for me.'”

“I hang up, and I see that my friend is looking at me through the café window, like HOW DID IT GO? I flatten my hand and raise it towards the sky, like a plane leaving the runway. We’re taking off, brother. We’re going to Manchester United.”

But the move was thrown into doubt when Dalot sustained a knee injury, which would keep him sidelined for five months.

He says that he thought the issue would make the transfer collapse but Mourinho texted him, “Diogo, I don’t care about the injury. You’ll be out for five months. I’m signing you for the next 10 years.”

Dalot joined United in June 2018, putting pen to paper on a five-year contract with an option to extend for a further year. United forked out around £19m to secure his services.

United difficulties

Mourinho was eventually sacked in December after a string of poor performances and results. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer arrived as his replacement, and this translated into reduced playing time for Dalot.

The Portugal international was subsequently loaned out to AC Milan.

“I was ashamed of sitting in the stands. We would be watching the game in the directors’ box, and the fans right next to us would ask me, ‘Why are you not playing?’ I didn’t even know what to say. I was not injured. Just not selected. I was so embarrassed that I started going down to the dressing room to watch the game on the TV alone.”

“My mother had moved over with me from Portugal, but when I got home I barely even said ‘Hello.’ I would go downstairs, fire up the PlayStation, put Paranoid on repeat, and start thinking and thinking, ‘I used to play for Porto. I used to be one of the big talents. Now I’m not even on the bench. I’m wasting my years. I’m losing time. What am I doing here?”

“Sometimes the manager just wants a different profile, but I thought it was all my fault. Since I’m not playing, I have to do more. I began training like crazy.”

“Already in preseason, I was checking the running stats after each session to make sure I was the fastest. In the gym, some of the records are still mine. You know when you’re on a plane with no Wi-Fi and you just scroll through your phone? I still have 200 clips of me training. I would watch them at home, because I had no game footage to fire me up. After one month, my body simply broke down.”

“Hip injury, six weeks out. And yes, I know what you’re thinking, ‘Diogo, why couldn’t you just chill a little?’ Honestly, I wish I could. But you have to understand how I was raised.”

According to Dalot, training became his game. He was determined to be as good as possible in every practice. He also notes that even when he went on loan to Milan, the intention was always to come back and make it at Old Trafford.

Relationship with Ronaldo

Dalot explains that he first met Ronaldo in the national team setup. Although he was nervous, the five-time Ballon d’Or winner made him feel comfortable and the two hit it off thanks to their shared desire to always improve and be in the best possible shape.

But their relationship elevated to another level when Ronaldo made a sensational return to United in the summer of 2031.

The defender writes for The Players’ Tribune, “That season with Cristiano was when I really started to grow as a player and as a person. I lost count of the number of predictions he got right, because he knows so well what it takes to go to the top. If anyone skipped a set in the gym, he would notice. We had a striker here who did really well for us in his first season, but Cristiano said, ‘He’s not gonna make it here.'”

“I said, ‘Cris, he scored two goals today!’ He said, ‘Yeah, but he didn’t have the fire to go for the third.’ When your rival is Messi, nothing is ever enough.”

Dalot added, “Even now, when I see him at the national team, he’ll go, ‘Diogo, I’m trying something new.’ A medical device. A recovery treatment. A mental model. We call them mechanisms. ‘Yo, Cris, new mechanisms. What have you got for me?'”

“To me, it’s totally crazy that anyone could even debate whether he should play at the World Cup. Is he running like he’s 22? No. Is he scoring a goal per game? Yes. Does he make us all better? Yes. The guy is 41. He doesn’t need to be there, playing with people who are young enough to be his kids, but he is.”

“Every time you meet him, you leave a little wiser. After I met Cristiano, my goal was not just to work as much as possible, but to stay in the best possible state mentally and physically. And at United, trust me, the mental game is the hardest one.”

Lofty ambitions

On what he hopes to achieve at United, Dalot explains, “A few months later, we were walking up the stairs at Wembley. I turned to look out at the red half of crazy fans singing and cheering, and I remember thinking, ‘I want this feeling, again and again.'”

“I flew right to Monaco with Claudia to watch the F1 Grand Prix. At the marina, this guy came up to us and said, ‘Thank you.’ I said, ‘I said, ‘Thank you for what?’ He said, ‘For the FA Cup. That meant the world to me.'”

“If that’s winning the FA Cup at United, imagine winning the Premier League. Imagine winning the Champions League. I think about that every single day.”

He further states, “When I sat in that café in Braga eight years ago, I could never have imagined that all of this would happen. I have played nearly 250 games for this club. The hardest periods have been very hard. There have been times here where everyone is killing the club, everyone is saying the place is ruined, the worst people are working here, the worst players are here, the club is a mess. When you hear it enough, and you know that you are a part of it, it hurts.”

“But I know that this place is better than when I arrived. I can see it behind the scenes. I can see it in the way people talk. I can see it from the progress we’ve made this season. This club will win again, 100%.”

“I cannot go into training every day without believing that. If you don’t, this is not the club for you. I’m reminded of it every time I drive into Carrington, and I see the big red letters over the car park. MANCHESTER UNITED.”

“Then I walk down the corridor, and I see all these legends lifting big trophies. One day. Soon. I’m sure of it.”

For now, Dalot’s focus is on winning the World Cup with Portugal this summer.

Feature image Justin Setterfield via Getty Images

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