Atletico Madrid legend Filipe Luis has admitted that his biggest regret in football was using underhand tactics against Los Colchoneros’ greatest rivals, Real Madrid. More specifically, it was a game against Angel di Maria that Filipe wished he could have back.
Left-back for Atletico and Brazil, right-winger for Real Madrid and Argentina, Filipe and di Maria had no shortage of bad blood or clashes during their time against each other. Recently retired, Filipe spoke to ‘Charla’ podcast, as carried by Diario AS, Filipe explained that one game he tried to take di Maria out opf the match by any means possible.
“I arrived at Atletico, we were going to play against Real Madrid and Aguero told me: ‘Filipe, if you get close to him, he will lose himself, he will be out of the game. Go see him and talk about his wife. And I arrived and said: ‘your wife, I cursed him, I said his wife’s name… He looked at me, he was crestfallen, I beat him the whole game. And he really didn’t do well in the game.”
🎙️| Filipe Luís: “Even till today I have dreams where Diego Simeone is coaching me, and I am nervous, tense; he had such an imposing voice when giving instructions that it impressed me, left a mark on me. He was a milestone in my life.”
[via @CharlaPodcast] pic.twitter.com/npEiibX1pn
— Atletico Universe (@atletiuniverse) December 10, 2023
“I got home and I regretted it so much… Di Maria, I’m sorry.”
It is not altogether unusual for players to engage in mind games to try to take their opponents out of it, but the majority of the time players expect they will give as good as they get, or not actually hurt their opposition. Filipe clearly felt he had ammends to make, in spite of the vicious nature of the Madrid rivalry.
Looking back, I believe di Maria got the last laugh with 2 CL finals won.