Former Real Madrid defender Marcelo has explained the key differences between Jose Mourinho, Zinedine Zidane and Carlo Ancelotti.
The Brazilian joined the Spanish giant from Fluminense in 2007. He went on to spend 15 trophy-laden years at the Bernabeu, – where he had the opportunity to play under all three managers.
“The best in terms of his talks was Mourinho — a coach who specializes in getting into your head. It changed me into being aggressive.
“In group management I’d say Zizou, because there was a time when Kiko Casilla played 25 games and Keylor Navas smiled on the bench. He kept everyone happy.
“Carlo kept his calm way of being. We scored a goal and we were always calm. It was very good for me to have him.. In my last season in that situation I was the captain of the team, but he preferred to play someone else, and that’s normal, and he has helped me on this issue.”
Marcelo, 34, played alongside several world-class footballers during his time at Real Madrid, but three players in particular took him by surprised
“I’ve been lucky enough to play for Madrid and I’ve seen the best. In each training session I would say “how did he do that?!”
“The three who surprised me the most are: Toni Kroos, Rodrygo and Modric. Kroos, because I don’t know what’s going on in his head, it seems like he’s in his world and he does incredible controls, he manages to dribble with control against the players who come from behind — I’ve never seen it.
“The other is Rodrygo — the typical player who was born with natural gifts. He dribbles with his body… He’s the ‘false slow’, because he’s very fast with the ball.
“And the other is Luka Modric. There are no words. You can’t imagine what Luka is going to do with the ball. One day Rodrygo, Lucas Vázquez and I were on the bench and Luka came in through the middle and came to recover a ball and was cornered, locked up… he dribbled without touching the ball and the one who was marking him didn’t know where he was”.
Marcelo left Real Madrid in 2022. He later signed with Olympiacos in September but left the Greek club after only five months. He is currently a free agent.
