He’s the grizzled, iron-tough, been-around-the-block, seen-it-all-before football manager whose very name strikes fear into the hearts of underperforming defenders and misfiring strikers everywhere.
But it turns out that even though Louis van Gaal has been around the duck pond enough times to know how brutal the game can be at the very sharp end, he is not immune to getting his feelings hurt when it turns around and bites him on the bum.
And now Philippe Christanval has revealed that it all got too much for the Dutchman when Barcelona sacked him to bring an end to his second spell in charge at the Nou Camp in 2003.
Former France defender Christanval had a two-year spell at the club and was there when LvG was given the boot, with the club 20 points off La Liga leaders Real Sociedad.
(Picture: Phil Cole/Getty Images)
“He came into the dressing room after hearing the news, started to talk, and all of a sudden began crying like a baby,” Christanval told SRF.
“He was really hurt. It impacted me seeing him cry. He was a hard, cold, person, and here he was destroyed.”
Destroyed.
The revelation from Christanval comes just days after Christophe Dugarry revealed he resorted to fake tears in a bid to get Van Gaal to let him leave Barca after an unhappy spell under the Dutch coach.
“I pretended to cry, saying ‘I can’t take anymore, I have to leave,'” he said.
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