LONDON
TS
Jose Mourinho’s broadband must have been down last week when One Direction tickets went on sale.
The Real Madrid manager - who will quit to rejoin Chelsea next week - took drastic action to land his daughter some tickets to see the boyband. Rather than trawling ticket sites online, he went straight to the horse’s mouth. He invited the lads to have a kickabout at the Spanish side’s plush training ground. Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson and Liam Payne all headed to the swanky facility. Bandmates Harry Styles and Zayn Malik clearly didn’t fancy it.
The other three had a half-hour kickaround with the entire Real squad, and they sorted the Special One and his daughter with tickets to see them perform at the Palacio Vistalegre arena that night.
Niall said: “Mourinho’s daughter is a fan and he wanted to get tickets to the show so he invited us down to train with the lads. Next thing we were taking free kicks with Ronaldo and Kaka - it was unbelievable. It was all a bit mad. It’s really hard to believe the stuff we get to do, it’s crazy.”
Mourinho might have a good excuse as to why he was so desperate to see the lads, but the rest of the squad have some serious questions to answer.
First team players Sergio Ramos, Luka Modric and Michael Essien all grinned in photos with them - and even went for some personal snaps after they’d all had a shower. Jose then also gave the 1D boys their own Real shirts as a keepsake of the day. Aong with the rest of the lads, Irishman Niall now has a few days off before he goes back on tour in South America.
He’s headed back to his native Mullingar for the rest of the week to see pals from his schooldays. He told former Westlife singer Nicky Byrne on Irish radio station 2fm: “When all the lads went off to college and that, I went a different way so it’s good to get back to see them.