‘The worst character I’ve ever met’

Cristiano Ronaldo’s new coach Rudi Garcia has again come under fire from former Lyon sporting director Juninho Pernambucano.

Garcia took charge of Al-Nassr in June unaware at the time that he would be later coaching one of football’s greatest players.

With the spotlight of world football placed on the Saudi Arabian side in recent days, Garcia has attracted some unwanted attention from Lyon legend Juninho.

The French coach has a wealth of experience managing in Italy and France and it was at Lyon where the pair crossed paths before Garcia left the Groupama Stadium in 2021.

Juninho was drafted in as sporting director in May 2019 and later that year Garcia was handed the reins as coach. But their relationship was far from harmonious and now the Brazilian has lifted the lid on his former colleague.

“My experience with Rudi García was terrible. He is the worst character I have ever met in my entire football career,” he told Portuguese outlet MaisFutebol via Marca.

“He doesn’t know how to lead anything. He leads because of the fear that he imposes on others. He only respects people who have power or who can be taken advantage of in the relationship.”

Despite his claims, Juninho believes Garcia will make life easy for Ronaldo and do everything possible to ensure the blockbuster move is a success.

The Brazilian added: “He won’t dare to do anything that gets in the way, on the contrary, he will even serve Cristiano breakfast if necessary. He will try to be Cristiano’s friend, to be close and he will do everything possible for it. It will be a dream for him to be Cristiano Ronaldo’s friend.”

Following Garcia’s Lyon exit in 2021, the Frenchman had a few parting shots of his own for Juninho saying: “I discovered that when the Brazilian signings didn’t play, he wasn’t happy. That created a problem.”

In retaliation, Juninho declared that Garcia “didn’t care about the team’s success or the atmosphere in the dressing room, instead preferring to be centre of attention.”