Paris Saint Germain and Argentina star Angel Di Maria have blasted his former club Manchester United, claiming he didn’t “give a f***” about taking the club’s famous No.7 shirt number. The English Premier League side United shelled out a club-record £59.7million fee to sign Di Maria from Real Madrid in August 2014.
Di Maria was to replace Cristiano Ronaldo in the club and bring back the wonders of jersey number seven which the club cherish. He proved to be a sound addition at first, scoring a memorable goal against Leicester City and registering ten assists and three goals in 22 appearances.
But the player struggled to adapt to life in Manchester United and had trouble settling in with his teammates after failing to improve his English. His future became uncertain, and he ould not meet up with the demand and challenges the jersey number seven brings. He was sold to Paris Saint-Germain for £45m.
Now Di Maria has lifted the lid on his short spell with the club. He said the No.7 shirt given to him, which was worn by club legends such as Eric Cantona and David Beckham and Cristiano Ronaldo, had no special meaning to him. According to him, he said: “I didn’t give a f*** about the Manchester United No.7,” Di Maria was quoted telling Libero on TyC Sports in a wide-ranging interview.”
Angel Di Maria Blast Van Gaal
“At first, they talked to me a lot about it. It was just a shirt.” Di Maria’s had a special disdain for the then head coach Louis van Gaal was evident during his stay with the club. Speaking about the head coach, he said: “My problem at Manchester was the coach.”
“Van Gaal was the worst of my career. “I would score, assist, and the next day he would show me my misplaced passes.” He said the coach does not like players growing bigger than him.