Bastian Schweinsteiger is no longer a Manchester United player.
Not even two years on from arriving at Old Trafford from Bayern Munich , the German international has made the move to America, where he will help Chicago Fire in their attempts to win the World Cup Major League Soccer.
If any guy can help Chicago Fire win the the World Cup, it's Bastian Swinesneijder https://t.co/CgbCbBIh9P
— Soccer Guy (@usasoccerguy) March 30, 2017
The move to Chicago brings to an end a largely unsuccessful spell for Schweinsteiger with the Premier League club. Signed by Louis van Gaal, the 32-year-old struggled with injury towards the end of his first (and only full) season in Manchester. With Van Gaal replaced by Jose Mourinho in the summer, Schweinsteiger found himself frozen out of the first team picture – to the extent that United even wrote him off as an asset in their accounts.
Although he did recover to make four appearances in the cup competitions, it was clear that the German’s time in England was all but over as soon as Mourinho arrived.
Speaking in his first press conference since Schweinsteiger’s move to the US was confirmed, Mourinho acknowledged that he regrets the way he treated the midfielder during his early days at the club.
“He’s in a category of players that I feel sorry for something that I did to him,” Mourinho explained. “I don’t want to speak about him as a player, I don’t want to speak as I buy or not to buy. I want to speak about him as a professional, as a human being.
“The last thing I told him before he left ‘I was not right with you once, I have to be right with you now’. So when he was asking me to let him leave I had to say ‘yes, you can leave’ because I did it once, I cannot do it twice.
“So I feel sorry for the first period with him, he knows that. I am happy that he knows because I told him. I will miss a good guy, a good professional, a good influence in training – a very good influence.”
Later asked if he regretted the way he treated him, Mourinho responded by adding: “Yeah, I do.”
