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Football

26th Dec 2018

Jesé Rodriguez: ‘I thought I had friends at Real Madrid, I was wrong’

Ex-Real Madrid forward Jesé Rodríguez has lifted the lid on the fall-out between him and his former teammates, claiming none of them ever checked up on him

Reuben Pinder

Incredibly, he is still under contract at PSG

Jesé Rodríguez is one of those footballers who showed so much promise, but never came close to justifying the hype. In his defence, a horrible knee injury in 2014 halted some good progress he was making at Real Madrid.

But nonetheless, he has significantly underwhelmed on the pitch, but at least he’s got his music off it.

After falling down the pecking order at Madrid, Jesé sought a new beginning in Paris and joined PSG, just before they signed Ángel Di María, Julian Draxler, Kylian Mbappé and Neymar. He has only played nine times for PSG.

Even a loan move to his hometown side of Las Palmas couldn’t revive his career, nor could a season at Stoke City. He now finds himself under contract at PSG, with little to no chance of getting any game time. With the January window just around the corner, he has taken the chance to remind people and clubs of his existence by firing shots at his former teammates at Real Madrid.

Jesé has expressed his disappointment at how his so-called ‘friends’ acted after he left Real Madrid.

Speaking to AS, Jesé said: “When you leave the club you realise plenty of things. But this is not a critic, everybody can do what they want to do.

“I thought I had friends in Madrid’s dressing room and I was wrong. They are not friends anymore because they didn’t reply to my messages or ask me how I was.”

Now on the look for a new club, Jesé is training with the coach who worked with him before he suffered his last injury.

“Other than training with the team, I also do a personalised session with him and another one at home. I’ve dropped seven kilos,” Jesé revealed.

“[Thomas] Tuchel said a month ago during a team meeting that I was a good example for the rest of the squad because of how I am responding to my situation within the club. He thanked me.”

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