According to the wife of new Real Madrid manager Rafa Benitez, her husband has been brought in to clean up yet another mess left in the wake of Jose Mourinho being in charge of the Spanish giants.
The highly experience Spanish coach has now succeeded Portuguese manager Jose Mourinho at three different club, first Inter Milan, then Chelsea and now Real Madrid, following of course Carlo Ancelotti’s time in the Spanish capital.
With the 55-year-old trainers wife Montserrat Seara believing that he husband is almost fated into this role.
“We tidy up his messes,” she joked, speaking to La Region. “If you think about it, of course you end up crossing paths. There are only a few world-class clubs out there.”
Despite the difficulties Rafa had to endure while in charge of Serie A side Napoli, Seara a law professor from Galicia in Northern Spain says her husband remains as passionate about the game as ever.
“On our first date, Rafa explained to me what a 4-4-2 was. He finds it hard to stay away from the game,” she said. “The year we spent at home he helped coach the local school team. It was hilarious. He stood on the side-lines and shouted at them as if they were first division players, waving his arms about. He doesn’t see football as work, it’s his passion.
“It was hard to see each other over the winter in Napoli. There were no direct flights and it was complicated. Things will be much easier now in Madrid.”
Seara thinks that his tendency to tinker with starting line-up may have upset a few fans on Merseyside by the time he left Liverpool.
“Even I don’t know them,” she said of his tactics. “Sometimes I ask him, who’s going to play? He says he doesn’t know yet. They criticised him at Liverpool for constantly tweaking his starting XI. I thought his two best friends in England were going to kill him.”
She does however feel that her husband still has a long time remaining in the game.
“I don’t know if he’ll ever retire,” she added. “All being well, he has 20 years of football left.”
