“Mourinho talks to me like a father talks to his son. In one of our first training sessions he came over to me & asked me in French ‘How are you?’ And he added: ‘I hope you leave the Benzema of last year behind’. I realised he cared about me, when he arrived at Madrid I had back trouble, I’d put on weight, & I was disappointed I hadn’t been at the World Cup. He said I should make more of an effort in training. He’s never left me alone, even when I didn’t do what I should do to play, he made me train hard in order to improve, & in the press conferences he stung me so I would work harder, so I could show myself. And at the end of the day the work has paid off”.