Angel Di Maria’s wife has opened up on her ordeal of living in England during the forward’s brief spell at Manchester United, complaining about the food, the weather and the people that made the experience “horrible”.
Argentina international Di Maria signed a five-year deal at Manchester United when the Premier League club broke their transfer record to buy him from Real Madrid for almost £60m in 2014.
But the transfer was a disaster, with Di Maria being sold to Paris Saint-Germain the following season for a loss, and the star’s wife Jorgelina Cardoso revealed the pair had reservations about leaving Madrid for Manchester but went because of the money.
Di Maria and Cardoso had previously visited the Manchester City and Argentina striker Sergio Aguero and his wife Gianinna Maradona on holiday but in an interview with TV channel LAM, she revealed the nightmare year was worse than expected.
“Angel came to me one day and said: ‘Look at this offer from Manchester United’. I didn’t want to go, I told him to go alone,” She said. “It was a lot of money, more than [Real Madrid] had offered. So, we went. If you work in a company and someone offers you double the salary, you go running.
“We were friends with Gianinna Maradona, Sergio Aguero’s wife, and we travelled to Manchester on vacation for a year. It was always horrible! We came home and I said: ‘If you’re ever transferred, make sure it’s anywhere in the world but England.
“I didn’t like it at all... I can tell you. People are all weird. You walk around and you don’t know if they’re going to kill you. The food is disgusting. The women look like porcelain. Angel and I were in Madrid, at the best team in the world, perfect food, perfect weather, everything was perfect. And then came United’s proposal....
“I told him ‘no way, no way’, but he kept saying we will be a little more financially secure and we have to go. We fought about it... We try to be closer when things go wrong. I don’t blame him for going there. It was horrible, so horrible. I just told him, ‘Darling, it’s horrible, it’s nighttime at two o’clock.’”
Cardoso’s comments came as Brazil international Casemiro made the same switch from Real Madrid to Manchester United, with the 30-year-old signing a five-year deal at Old Trafford after several successful seasons in Spain.
France defender Raphael Varane was also bought by Manchester United from Real Madrid last season.
