It isn’t often that players are eager to call out their worst coaches, but Ángel Di María doesn’t appear to have that problem.
Speaking ESPN Argentina, the 36-year-old Benfica and Argentina midfielder singled out his one season at Manchester United under Louis van Gaal, tacking on the Dutch manager’s name when asked to identify the top three managers in his career.
“The worst is van Gaal, you can be sure of that. In case you had any doubt, I’ll clear that up for you right now,” Di María told ESPN.
It is not the first time the former Real Madrid star has taken aim at Van Gaal. In 2021, Di María described him in similarly scathing terms, only for Van Gaal to brush off the comments ahead of a clash between Argentina and the Netherlands at the 2022 World Cup.
“Ángel Di María is simply a really good football player,” Van Gaal said during his time as coach of the national team. “At the time when he played for Manchester United, he had a lot of personal issues.”
Di María went on to describe Lionel Scaloni, with whom he won the 2022 World Cup with Argentina, as “one of the best,” as well as another of his national team coaches, Alejandro Sabella, who “had a great impact on me.”
Di María said he held a special place for the late Diego Maradona, who also coached him with Argentina.
“I won’t consider him as a manager to you because to me he was more of a close friend, someone who stopped by to chat,” Di María said. “He didn’t seem like a manager but more like a friend, a brother, a dad. A dad more than anything. He would put up with me when nobody else did, helped me to move forward. The more criticism I received, the more he supported me.
“He was everything to me. Diego is the best that ever was. I’ve said it before, Leo Messi is the greatest of all time, but Diego is Diego. To me, to Argentina and to the world.”