Mourinho will call me in a few minutes?! That Mourinho? You must be joking...

Sami Khedira was an outstanding, versatile midfielder, hard-working player with lots of virtues. We say he was because Khedira ended his fruitful career ten days ago. In his first post-retirement interview for the Spanish newspaper Marca, the German player of Tunisian descent, recalled the best moments during the tenures at Stuttgart, Real Madrid, Juventus and Hertha Berlin.

It was the one phone call, in his opinion, that changed his life. And it was The Special One.

"Spain had just eliminated us from the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, and I was sunk. We were all very sad because that generation deserved a final. I was feeling down, it didn't go out of my head, and suddenly I received a call. "Sami, Madrid loves you, and Mourinho will call you." It's a damn joke, I thought. I am not for these things right now.

"No, really, he'll call you, Mou himself," he insisted. "You're going to Real Madrid!" It changed my whole body suddenly. I was very nervous, and my main concern was my English because, at that time, I did not speak it well. And I was nervous. So Mourinho called me, and I asked him if we could communicate via messages! He laughed and said sure. He told me that he wanted me for Madrid, not to doubt it. And that conversation changed my career. Mourinho is the best thing that has happened to me".

But the peak of Khedira's career came with a bit of help from another tactician. It was Mourinho's successor at Santiago Bernabeu that showed him how important he is for the club. That guy has returned these days to Real Madrid's dugout. Yes, it was Carlo Ancelotti, who took Khedira and Madrid to the UCL crown in 2014.

Ancelotti and Khedira back in the days (©Denis Doyle/Getty Images)

"I will never forget him. I got injured, and due to deadlines, I was to be sidelined for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. But I said to myself - I have to get there. I underwent surgery, and I 'locked' myself in a clinic in Germany to recover. I lived there, in the clinic, recovering at all hours. An effort that nobody knows. I was alone there, in the clinic with the doctors and the physios.

"But there was also Carlo. From the moment I got injured until I went back to training in Madrid, he called me every single day. One day, another, another. Like when your father calls you, I already waited for the coach's call every day because he never failed. He had 23 players, the thousand problems of a coach, the pressure, his family, and he still called me to chat with me every day."

Sami was so stunned, that he had to tell Ancelotti himself what it meant for him.

"One day I said to him, mister, this seems incredible to me, and I thanked him. And he said to me, "Sami, we are a family, and you are alone in the hospital. How could I not call you! We are all with you."

Sometimes, being a compassionate human being is the only thing that counts, and not the trophies. The latter comes as a consequence of the earlier.