Jesé: “I thought I had friends in Real Madrid but I was wrong”

Jese Rodriguez was one of the most promising players out of Real Madrid’s academy in the last two or three decades. The attacker played some extremely valuable minutes as a starter for Los Blancos when Bale got injured in the first half of the 2013-2014 season under Carlo Ancelotti. However, he suffered a terrible ACL injury which ended up affecting his confidence and his overall game.

Now, Jese has not played a professional football game in almost a year. He’s training with Paris Saint-Germain but the French club did not include him in the squad for the season. Ever since he signed for PSG, he’s also played for Las Palmas and Stoke City on loan deals. Neither club wanted to keep him after that deal expired. Jese has spoken to AS and reveals what he’s gone through these years.

“When you leave the club you realize plenty of things. But this is not a critic, everybody can do what they want to do. I thought I had friends in Madrid’s dressing room and I was wrong. They are not friends anymore because they didn’t reply to my messages or ask me how I was,” said Jese.

“I’m now training with the person who was working with me prior to the injury. Other than training with the team, I also do a personalized session with him and another one at home. I’ve dropped seven kilos,” he added. “Tuchel said a month ago during a team meeting that I was a good example for the rest of the squad because of how I am responding to my situation within the club. He thanked me,” revealed the attacker.

“What I regret the most is not taking advantage of the moments I had in Madrid after the injury. I’ve been thinking and I admit that had I taking things as seriously as I’m taking them right now...Then I came to Paris, I had surgery and was out for two months, never played on a consistent basis. Had I been as disciplined after the injury in Madrid maybe my career would’ve been different,” explains Jese, who also says that he “should not have have added so much muscle” to his body after the injury, which “affected his game.”

PSG will try to find a new team for Jese this winter and the striker might need to start all over again in a new club. He will turn 26 years old next February and perhaps he can become a relevant player once again if he keeps working hard.