The Roma player Jose Mourinho said 'betrayed' his teammates - what happened to him? | OneFootball

Highlights

Jose Mourinho gave an extraordinary post-match interview after Roma drew 1-1 with Sassuolo in November last season. The match won't be remembered too fondly by football fans - even fans of both clubs.

Roma appeared to have won the match away from home when Tammy Abraham scored with just 10 minutes remaining. However, Mourinho's side proceeded to throw away two points by allowing Andrea Pinamonti to equalise in the 85th minute.

The result left Roma in sixth when victory would have seen them jump to third. It was a position in which they finished, just one point adrift of fifth-placed Atalanta. Meanwhile, Sassuolo finished 13th come the end of the campaign.

But two points dropped that night was all too much for Mourinho. The Portuguese manager isn't a stranger to sensational interviews but the one he gave after the match certainly made headlines.

Mourinho's extraordinary post-match interview

Mourinho threw one player under the bus for his attitude, saying: “I am sorry that the efforts of the team were betrayed by the attitude of one unprofessional player. You didn’t see me talking that way about Roger Ibanez against Lazio, because errors are part of the game, his attitude was never a problem.

“An unprofessional attitude that is not fair to his teammates, that is what disappoints me. I had 16 players on the field tonight and I liked the attitude of 15 of them. The other player, I won't say who it is, but he betrayed everyone else's effort.

“In January, he needs to find himself another club.”

Wow. But it led to everyone wondering who was the player Mourinho was talking about. Fans would have been watching back the match wondering who was at fault for Sassuolo's equaliser.

Who is the player Mourinho was talking about?

While Mourinho refused to name the player publicly, it didn't take long for reports in Italy to emerge revealing the player's identity.

According to Sky Italia, per Get Italian Football News, the player was right-back Rick Karsdorp. That's backed up by Corriere dello Sport, per Football Italia.

What did Karsdorp do wrong?

Karsdorp, a 27-year-old Dutch defender, came on in the 65th-minute with the scores still level at 0-0. According to Football Italia, he "lost several challenges, misplaced crosses and did not defend well when Armand Laurienté broke away to set up Pinamonti."

In fact, looking at Sassuolo's equaliser, Karsdorp's defending really does need to be questioned as he fails to track his man.

Karsdorp joined Roma from Feyenoord in 2017 for €16 million and was under contract until 2025. But according to Mourinho, he would have to find a new club in just two months' time.

What happened to Rick Karsdorp?

Did Mourinho stick to his word and sell Karsdorp in January. Well, the answer is no, but he certainly didn't immediately forgive him either.

For the next eight league games, Karsdorp didn't even make the Roma squad and was left out completely by Mourinho as punishment for his 'betrayal'. Roma Ultras turned up outside his house and was attacked on social media following Mourinho's comments. It resulted in a series of unsavoury events where Karsdorp missed training and failed to join his teammates on a mid-season trip to Japan.

Roma wanted to fine the defender more than the 5% of his monthly salary, set as a maximum limit by the rules for fines. However, Karsdorp explained his absence from training with health reasons, mentioning emotional stress caused by the behaviour of Roma fans.

In December, a month later the match against Sassuolo, FIFPRO felt they needed to release a statement after the treatment of Karsdorp from Roma.

FIFPRO's statement on Roma's treatment of Rick Karsdorp

They wrote: "FIFPRO strongly condemns AS Roma’s treatment of Rick Karsdorp, who in recent weeks has been the victim of a mobbing campaign.

"Karsdorp has been accused in public of being a 'traitor', a hurtful and baseless term that club management has failed to address or apologise for, and fans have repeatedly used to confront him and his family.

"Furthermore, he has been made the subject of an unjustified disciplinary case. These acts apparently are a way to deflect from the club’s poor recent performances and aimed to put unjustified pressure on the player. Such behaviour is incompatible with the FIFA Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players.

"Rick Karsdorp has the full support of both FIFPRO and Dutch players’ union VVCS.

VVCS Director and FIFPRO board member Louis Everard said: "It is obviously not the first time that we hear about players being used as scapegoats to deflect the attention from the performance and management of clubs. It is not acceptable for a club to isolate one player and treat him differently from his team-mates."

General Secretary of FIFPRO Jonas Baer-Hoffmann said: "It cannot be stressed enough that players are first and foremost employees of their clubs and that, as such, clubs have a duty of care towards them. We call on AS Roma to immediately comply with that duty of care and ensure that Rick Karsdorp is treated fairly, and that his rights are respected."

Karsdorp's lawyer, Salvatore Civale said: "This whole thing started because someone very famous at Roma had the wrong attitude, and he is not at all new to this sort of thing, specifically Jose Mourinho.

"When these comments to the media come from someone of his calibre and fame, unfortunately that generates a hostile atmosphere around a player, as you heard he was attacked by Roma fans in an airport and on social media."

That statement from FIFPRO didn't exactly change Mourinho's mind, and it wasn't until February that he was reinstated back into the first team squad. But Karsdorp clearly won Mourinho around and he appeared in four consecutive league games. But, in March, he suffered a serious knee injury that would rule him out until the end of the season.

Whether or not that serious injury impacted the interest in Karsdorp but, to this day, he remains a Roma player having failed to secure a transfer away from the club in the summer. That said, it seems unlikely that he's going to force his way into Mourinho's plans any time soon.