Hodgson responded to Roberto Carlos, who accused him of destroying his career at Inter

Roberto Carlos' time under Roy Hodgson at Inter Milan was acrimonious. A few months ago, at the age of 47, he revived a 20-year-old controversy with the English manager.

The Brazilian said that in 1997 he was on the verge of destroying his career: "Roy Hodgson destroyed me, he made me play in midfield. This way I would not have any opportunity to play with the national team and there was Copa America in 1997".

It seemed that those words had flown with the wind, but no. Months later, the veteran English coach responded in an interview for 'The Italian Football Podcast', where he gave his point of view.

"The opinion that Roberto Carlos was playing out of position under my direction is simply nonsense. Anyone who has seen Inter play in that period could see me playing him at full-back more than anyone else," said Hodgson.

"I think he scored four goals in the first six or seven games from free kicks. However, during the rest of the season, he took about 28 free kicks and never scored one. I don't know if that was my fault," he continued with slyness.

Nevertheless, Hodgson agreed with Roberto Carlos that their day-to-day relationship was not bad. Another question was afterwards: "He was young and I was new to the job. We did not have a bad relationship while working together. But of course, when he left, all hell broke loose".

Finally, he denied that he had anything to do with the sale of the Brazilian to Real Madrid: "It was a decision of the club, and it was mainly due to the fact that the new executive director of Inter, Luigi Predeval, was very anxious to reduce the amount of money that was being spent. Roberto Carlos was one of the players who could be sold... and he was sold".