By Jamie Spencer
Bastian Schweinsteiger has revealed that he was banished from Manchester United's first-team squad by Jose Mourinho on his 32nd birthday and forced to train with the club's under-16s.
Schweinsteiger had been brought to United by Louis van Gaal a year earlier, with the Dutchman credited for developing him from a winger into a world class central midfielder during a previous spell together at Bayern Munich. After initially being a key player, injury had limited the German to only one start in the second half of 2015/16 and adversely affected his impact at Euro 2016.
But having reported for pre-season back at United that summer, Mourinho seemingly decided on the first day that Schweinsteiger wasn't going to have a role under the new direction and banished him from the first team squad.
"I was very sad because United was the second club of my heart. I gave a lot when I played as well, so that's why I was sad, but I'm not the type of person to go running to the media. It's more important for me to focus on football and behave the way I did," the 39-year-old told Gary Neville on The Overlap.
"When I arrived on the first day, I trained with Zlatan Ibrahimovic and thought it was great, a player who has the vision and is amazing to play with. The next day, on my birthday, when I walked into Carrington, [football director] John Murtough was there and said that I wasn't allowed to walk into the dressing room - the coach had said so.
"I had to ask him to bring me my [boots] and training gear. I asked him who I was training with, and he said there was the Under-16 team, so I went and trained with them. The first time someone apologised was when I decided to leave Manchester United for America.
"I asked Jose if I could do that and he apologised for the way he treated me in the beginning. He had to let me go because he could not do something against me again."
At the time of his exile, Schweinsteiger was a Champions League and World Cup winner, having made 500 appearances for Bayern Munich and well over 100 for Germany. He did play four times for United under Mourinho (none in the Premier League) and was surprisingly recalled to training at the end of October after the best part of three months out of the picture. But he soon left in March 2017.
Schweinsteiger was only 32 the day that Mourinho decided he was of no use and it was a decision that effectively ended his career at the highest level, when many would have expected to play on for longer. He spent his final professional years with Chicago Fire in MLS before retiring in 2019.
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This article was originally published on 90min.com as Bastian Schweinsteiger reveals brutal Man Utd banishment imposed by Jose Mourinho.
