Rafinha slams Magath

Brazilian Rafinha, freshly-arrived at Genoa, told reporters he was glad to have left behind former side Schalke, saying disciplinarian coach Felix Magath ran a boot camp.

“It’s tough for a Brazilian to work with him. After the way he treated me I think I could become a general in the Brazilian army,” Rafinha said.

“We Brazilians upset him with the way we are. We have a laugh, we talk a lot whereas he is calm and concentrated and above all he works in a way which is not really synonymous with pleasure. I sometimes had the impression I was in the army,” the defender complained.

Magath, who twice won the Bundesliga title with Bayern Munich and then with unfashionable Wolfsburg, is known for his authoritarian methods.

One former player dubbed him “Europe’s last ruling dictator.”