Former Manchester United right-back Rafael has said he fell out of love with football while playing for Red Devils manager Louis van Gaal.
The 25-year-old Brazilian international fell out of favour with Dutch trainer van Gaal and was allowed to leave to join French Ligue 1 side Lyon for a reported poultry £2.5 million last summer.
At the time many of the Manchester United faithful were sorry to see Rafael leave after his seven year stint at the club, and while the United defender was unhappy about the way he was forced out he was happy to see the back of the 64-year-old van Gaal.
‘When Van Gaal arrived I could see I wasn’t in the plan. When you’re a player you can feel it, you can see that,’ he said.
‘To be honest I didn’t really enjoy playing when Van Gaal was there.
‘I like to enjoy myself, to try things and do stuff. Last year I wasn’t doing that.
‘The 10 games I played I thought I played very well apart from Leicester [a 5-3 away defeat]. It’s hard to know.
‘I had some choices to go in England, but in the end I wanted to try something different. It’s good to challenge yourself.’
