Atlético Madrid’s manager feels it is not ‘healthy or natural’ to shake hands with his opposite number after matches
As soon as the final whistle went, Atlético Madrid’s manager, Diego Simeone, turned and sprinted down the tunnel not stopping for anyone or anything, still less his opposite number whose hand he refused to shake. Not just on Tuesday night against Liverpool but the night before. And the night before that, and the night before that. Just about every night for a decade, in fact.
At the end of Liverpool’s 3-2 dramatic victory at the Metropolitano, Jürgen Klopp was left holding out his hand for a man who didn’t want to shake it. As Simeone ran away having avoided him, Klopp was left looking down the tunnel, putting a thumb up. There was sarcasm there but there was not, Simeone insisted, a snub. “I never shake hands after the game because I don’t like it,” he said.