Sporting CP defender Jeremy Mathieu has revealed he may well celebrate if he scores against former club Barcelona tonight.
The Frenchman spent three years at the Nou Camp, making 91 appearances and winning a total of nine trophies after signing from Valencia.
But he was never really regarded as being good enough by members of the Barcelona hierarchy or supporters and plenty of fans were happy to see the back of him when he left for Sporting on a free transfer in the summer.
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And now, with Sporting paired with Barca in the Champions League group stage, the 33-year old has been reflecting on his time at the club with MARCA, who asked him if he would celebrate if he did find the net in Wednesday's game at the Estádio José Alvalade.
"I don't know. I have a lot of respect for my ex-teammates and the fans. If I celebrate it will be because of [club president] Josep Maria Bartomeu and [technical secretary] Robert Fernandez, because I think the way they treated me was very harsh."
Mathieu also had a hard time from the Catalan press, who are quick to jump on a quick player's back when things aren't going well. And though he didn't have an issue with the media on the whole, he remains extremely angry with Catalan outlet SPORT over the way he was treated after struggling in Barca's 3-0 Champions League quarter final first leg loss against Juventus in Turin last term.
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Asked whether he felt the press were unfair to him, he said:
"The press no, just the newspaper Sport. I'm a little pissed off with them because every time I played they always had something bad to say against me. But hey, that's how it was. Football is a team sport and when you lose it is never the fault of one person. That's my opinion."
"I have seen the match against Juventus again and everyone says that I was the problem. It is true that for the goals I was one against one and I did not win the ball, it deflected off me, but then Juve pass the ball and they could say what are Mascherano or Pique doing, but no. That's just my opinion."
Despite his grievances, Mathieu says he didn't leave the Blaugrana on bad terms.
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"No. I played a lot, I won titles and the only sad thing is that people say I did not play a lot," he added.
"In my first season I played 58 percent of games and scored important goals."
"In the second I played less, say 53-54 percent which is also not bad and in the final year it was difficult with the injuries and the lack of confidence from the coach but that's the way it was."
Featured Image Credit: PATopics: Barcelona, Sporting, Champions League