Atletico Madrid have announced that they have parted company with Portuguese midfielder Maniche by mutual consent. Maniche’s contract was set to expire this June, but both the parties reached an agreement that makes Maniche a free agent again.
Maniche, whose real name is João Ricardo de Oliveira Ribeiro, joined Atletico from Dynamo Moscow in 2006. He has had a torrid time at Vicente Calderon, making only 58 appearances in three seasons. He also spent a part of 2008 on loan at Inter Milan. He failed to break into the first 11 under Javier Aguirre, and his relationship with Abel Resino wasn’t anything great either.
Recently, Maniche was slapped with a 10 day ban by Atletico for missing their league game against Sporting Gijon. He allegedly celebrated his punishment with team mate Seitaridis by having dinner.
Maniche is ridiculous, but his loss not theirs. Great blog, I really like the content. I have some ideas for other posts that I would like to share with you.
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Lauren