"A Real Madrid president told me to let his son play..." - Capello
The ex-Real Madrid coach says he never had problems with players - only with the president and remembered Secretario "bottling it" at the Bernabéu.
Fabio Capello left Real Madrid after guiding the team to the league title during his first season in charge in 1996/7. The Italian coach admits that he never saw eye to eye with Madrid president Lorenzo Sanz, who wanted his son Fernando to be given a place in the first team. Capello however, was having none of it.
Capello recalls nepotism at Real Madrid
He spoke about the incident at the Bilbao Football Summit this week: “On several occasions, I’ve had problems. Not with the players – just with the president, who wanted things done differently to the way I saw it. He wanted me to put his son in the team… (laughs); I told him: ‘He can’t play in this team’".
As for Portuguese right-back Carlos Secretário, who spent one season at the club, Capello explained that for some reason, he never quite cut it at Real Madrid. “Secretário… goes out onto the pitch at the Bernabéu wearing the Real Madrid shirt and… excuse me for using this phrase but, he shat himself… he couldn’t play. That’s true isn’t it? That’s how it was, he just couldn’t do it. In the day-to-day, in training, he was great – he performed well for the national team too, no problem. But once he pulled on the Real Madrid shirt, he was a disaster – a nightmare. He’d cock up the simplest of passes”.