That's what we call not having one's tongue in one's pocket. Rafael, former right back, now retired from the field after having worn, among others, the colors of Manchester United and Olympique Lyonnais, recently gave an interview to the Resenha com TF podcast. For more than two hours, the Brazilian spoke on a plethora of subjects, and was notably asked to give his opinion on Bruno Lage, the current coach of SL Benfica.
The two men played under the same colors for a short period in 2023, in Botafogo. The 48-year-old technician had taken the reins of the club, which was then largely leader of the Brazilian championship and with excellent momentum, but his adventure quickly turned sour (4 victories in 15 matches), to the point of being fired after three months. Rafael, who was his player at the time, has very bad memories of it :
« Honestly, I think Lage is a bad coach. I find it very bad. I'm not lying, he's a very bad coach. I didn't work with him (editor's note: Rafael was injured), but from what I saw in training, I found him bad and I have no problem saying that. »
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