In June 2020, Manchester United youth youngster Angel Gomez left Old Trafford to say goodbye to the Red Devils shirt he had worn for 14 years.
At the time, United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer wanted to keep the player, and the club offered an improvement contract for that. However, this does not stop the players from leaving.
Angel Gomez left Manchester United and arrived at Ligue 1 Lille. In the just-concluded season, the 21-year-old offensive midfielder contributed one goal and one assist.
In a recent interview, the former Manchester United youth player said he does not regret leaving Manchester United and hopes to play for Mourinho again.
It was during Mourinho's time at Manchester United that the young Gomez was promoted to play in the United first team.
In his days at the helm of Manchester United, six Oftle's youth players made their first-team debuts for the Red Devils, and Gomez was one of them.
It's been about two years since Gomez left Manchester United, and now the 21-year-old has a mature mindset, recalling what happened between him and Mourinho when he was in charge.
Gomez is grateful to Mourinho for his promotion and attention, which has allowed him to now secure a place in Lille. The player believes that in his career, Mourinho has played an important role.
Gomez said: "No one has ever asked me about Mourinho before, so I never had a chance to talk about him. Now, as I get older and mature, I realize that he is very important to me. He gave me the opportunity to make my debut, for which I couldn't be more grateful.
Gomez also recalled the story of Mourinho's criticism of him, the player said that he could not understand it at the time, but now he fully understood that Mourinho was all for his own good.
Gomez said: "I've never told this story before. Once, after I played with the U21 team, Mourinho took me to see the first team game. We were at the dinner table, and he came over and talked to everyone. Then he looked at me and said, 'I've been tricked by you!' ’。
Gomez went on to recall the scene when he said Mourinho criticized him for believing that there was a clear gap between his performances in the two games. The player said: He was talking and laughing with everyone, so I thought he was joking with me. I asked him why and he mentioned how I had performed the day before and he thought I was playing poorly. Because he's the big boss, if he thinks I'm not playing well, I'm just not playing well.
The player went on to say: He said, you shouldn't do this, you should do that... He said it in front of the whole team. This surprised me, although I had been criticized before, but not from the big boss. He finally finished speaking and went to do something else. But I was embarrassed to be there. Some well-meaning teammates came over and explained, don't worry, just ignore him, he's just trying to get a reaction from you and he's just that.
However, the young Gomez at the time did not understand this. Gomez described the mood at the time, saying: "I was still very young, so I was thinking, 'TMD, he hates me.'" ’。 So, I went back to my room and called my dad. I almost cried.
Five years on, the more mature Gomez understood the situation from another angle.
Gomez said: What kind of person he really is, which finally has a fixed impression in my mind. Mourinho always wanted the best and I think he wanted to train me like a first-team player so that I could progress faster to play in the first team. It's not youth football there. It wasn't until I grew up that I fully understood what was happening at the time. I now think I'm too young to understand what kind of person he really is, but as I mature I would love to play under him again because he gave a lot for his players.
Gomez now thinks it's Mourinho's concern for him.
Gomez said: He is very, very enthusiastic and it affects the players he works with. He cared about me. I remember Marcus (Rashford) and Jesse telling me that sometimes when they were at home, the coach would give them a video call just to say hello and ask what they were doing. That's something interesting for me.