"Guardiola brainwashed me; I was playing the wrong football"

Defender Danilo Luiz entered the final stage of his career this season after a successful career in which he won titles with Santos, Porto, Real Madrid, Manchester City and Juventus. Now at Flamengo, the player reviewed his career in ‘The Guardian’ and heaped praise on his former coach Pep Guardiola for managing to transform his football at the age of 26.

It was only two seasons at Manchester City, but it was enough to change the Brazilian player's mentality: "Pep Guardiola is a coach who educates his players. That's the most important thing in his work, that he gets all his players to think the same way. Time, space, movement, possession and taking care of the ball, those are his maxims."

"He brainwashed me... but from a positive point of view. He's someone who makes you understand the spaces on the pitch like no other coach and he also lives the games on an emotional level like nobody else. For me, being with him was like going to university," added the Brazilian.

"The time I spent with him allowed me to raise my level to maintain it to this day. I wasn't an idiot before I came to Manchester City, but I understood straight away that I was playing the wrong kind of football," he said.

Danilo wished he had met Guardiola earlier as he believes his time at his previous clubs would have been very different: "If I had met him earlier, he would have made my life much easier. I'm very grateful to have been able to play for him and for everything I learned during those years."

Danilo also spoke about his time in the Spanish capital and the mental health problems he suffered as a Real Madrid player: "It was the peak of that problem because it's the biggest team in the world. I suffered so much that I sought professional help. There came a time when I couldn't remember how to play football well. The criticism was destroying me and I became too dependent on social media and what was being said about me."

To conclude, the defender denied that he wants to continue playing until he is 40 and hinted that he does not have much of a career left, as he also wants to enjoy life off the pitch while he is still young.