Angel Di Maria says he “didn’t give a f*ck about the Manchester United No 7” after being handed the jersey at Old Trafford in 2014 and claims Louis van Gaal is the main reason for his failure in English football.
The Argentina international forward generated plenty of excitement when making his £59.7 million ($82m) move from Real Madrid.
However he flopped badly – leaving for Paris Saint-Germain a year later with just 32 appearances and four goals to his name – and a man who had an iconic shirt thrust upon him says the experienced Dutch coach was responsible for his inability to emulate the efforts of fellow No.7s such as Eric Cantona, David Beckham and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Di Maria told TyC Sports: “I didn’t give a f*ck about the Manchester United No. 7, at first they talked to me a lot about it, it was just a shirt.
“My problem at Manchester was the coach. Van Gaal was the worst of my career. I would score, assist, and the next day he would show me my misplaced passes. He displaced me from one day to the other, he didn’t like players being more than him.”
