Carlos, a then highly-rated Brazilian left-back, joined Inter Milan from Palmeiras before the beginning of the 1995/1996 season.
His arrival coincided with a terrible start to the season by the Nerazzurri, a reason which led to the imminent appointment of Hodgson to steady the ship.
Hodgson is regarded as one of the most respected English coaches, having spent more than three decades as a manager, but Carlos has shared his experience with the 73-year-old which is not quite memorable.
Carlos spent one season at the San Siro before eventually joining Real Madrid, where he became a global icon of the game.
“Roy Hodgson destroyed me. He made me play in midfield and that wasn’t going to give me the chance to play the 1997 Copa America with Brazil. We didn’t get along at all, he simply knew nothing about football,” the 47-year-old Brazilian told Goal.
Hodgson quickly responded to Carlos’ harsh words via Italian Football Podcast.
“Well that’s nonsense [about Roberto Carlos being played out of position]. Anybody who watched us play at that time, he no more played left wing than I did. Every game he played for Inter when I was there was at left back,” the Englishman said.
“What I remember, when I was at Inter, he scored four goals I think in the first six or seven games from free kicks. During the rest of the season he took about 28 free kicks and never scored one! So I don’t know if that was my fault as well.
“But him playing out of position? Unless he wasn’t a left-back, but that’s where I was told he played and what he came to the club as. He was a very attacking left-back, he was much better going forward than he was defending.
“But he was young, I was new to the job. We didn’t have a bad relationship. I wouldn’t say while we were actually working together. But of course, when he left, all hell broke loose.
“The decision to let him go was a club decision, and it was mainly to do with the fact that the then new managing director of Inter, Luigi Predeval, was very anxious to reduce the amount of money that was being spent on transfers and to bring some money back into the club. And Roberto Carlos was one of the players who was sellable. So he got sold.”
