In October of the current year, it was already known that Zinedine Zidane, the men’s coach of Real Madrid was recognized as the Best FIFA Men’s Coach 2017, Portuguese forward Cristiano Ronaldo as the Best Player. 
It also became known that the men’s coach of the Armenian national team, Arthur Petrosyan and the leader of the team, Henrikh Mkhitaryan have also voted in favor of Ronaldo and Zidane.
Perhaps it was a coincidence from the perspective time, but it is noteworthy that after this voting the English “Manchester United” men’s coach Jose Mourinho began voicing negative evaluations about Mkhitaryan, particularly, as if he was good from the beginning, but then lowered the level of the performances. “I was not happy with his last performances. I’m not speaking about one or two, I’m speaking about three, four or five. He started the season very well and after that, step by step, he was disappearing. His performance levels in terms of goalscoring and assists, pressing, recovering the ball high up the pitch, bringing the team with him as a No10, were decreasing. That was enough [to drop him] because the others worked to have a chance. Everybody works to have a chance. It’s as simple as that”, said Mourinho.
Mkhitaryan was absent in the last two games.
There are grounds to assume that the story with Iker Casillas and Jose Mourinho repeats when the latter was the men’s coach of “Real Madrid”. In 2011 “Real Madrid” goalkeeper Iker Casillas had not voted in favor of his coach during Fifa Ballon d’Or awards. He voted for Cristiano Ronaldo, Mesut Ozil and Lionel Messi as players. That year Pep Guardiola was recognized as the best men’s coach.
A controversy started between the goalkeeper and the coach, during which the media informed that Jose Mourinho did not speak to team leader Iker Casillas for a month. Or, that the coach considered Casillas’s journalist girlfriend, Mourinho saw Casillas, with his journalist girlfriend Sara Carbonero, as the source of leaks.
Jose Mourinho was publicly demanded to manifest a greater respect towards Casillas. The goalkeeper started to spend more time on the bench of substitutes. Spanish media informed that the men’s coach of “Real Madrid” did not want to see Ramos and Casillas in the team any longer, and had represented a set of requirements to the leadership of the Royal Club. Mourinho had demanded to sell team leader Iker Casillas.
Casillas was 27 years old when he outgrew the best goalkeeper of Madrid history, a row of Clubs of English Premier League were interested in him and suggested record amounts of money, and Casillas turned down them all, saying whatever happens he would stay in Madrid. However, in the end, the controversy was over: in 2014/2015 season Casillas left the team a part of which he had been for 11 years.
Ashot STEPANYAN
