Top 5 Football Rivalries of all time among Teammates. Fighting between teammates is uncommon, but opposing teams and players acting aggressively and initiating a brawl, on or off the pitch, is widespread. There are some players that couldn’t get along with one another, despite the fact that many teammates treat one another like brothers.
When an athlete spends so much time with their teammates, it is inevitable that sometimes even buddies will turn into rivals due to fame, rivalry, and other factors unique to teams.
We examine seven teammates who detest one another in remembrance of those athletes. Some of them might have started out as close friends, while others may not have cared much for each other; as a result, “events” happened that led to their inclusion on this list.
Here are a few teammates who didn’t get along, whether it was due to pride, egos, or divergent personalities that caused those “events”.
5. Gerard Pique and Alvaro Arbeloa
The Real Madrid team despises Gerard Pique, who has fought at least once with each of the current Los Blancos players. But he has saved his sharpest remarks for Arbeloa, a former teammate from Spain. Pique, a lifelong Barcelona supporter, made fun of Los Blancos after they were disqualified from the Copa Del Ray for using an ineligible player.
However, their conflict is considerably older and dates at least as far back as 2013, following Madrid’s 94th-minute penalty win over Elche.
Since then, the two have fought frequently on social media and on the pitch, particularly when Barcelona plays Real Madrid. Pique escalated the conflict by declaring that he has never thought of Arbeloa as a buddy or a teammate and even compared him to a cone.
Sergio Ramos, the captain of Spain, had to step in to ask Pique to respect his teammates when the altercation got so heated.
However, it appears as though the two may have reconciled, or rather, Pique acted decisively and heeded the counsel of his international captain. Prior to Arbeloa’s farewell match for Real Madrid, Pique wished his Spain teammate luck in the future and added that the Spanish international deserves every honor he has received to date.
4. Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Oguchi Onyewu
Zlatan is a player whose inclusion on this list just once wouldn’t satisfy him; fortunately, he has made it twice. Ibrahimovic broke a rib bone in the fight he got into with Oguchi Onyewu, a former AC Milan player. The tall striker was recruited by Jose Mourinho for Manchester United for a variety of reasons, including his flashy goals, seductive personality, and off-field shenanigans.
Despite all of that, the Swede and the USMNT defender got into a fight in 2010 while he was playing for AC Milan. The fight between Onyewu and Ibrahimovic, a black belt in Taekwondo with a penchant for kicking his colleagues, was started by the striker’s awful tackle. The defender dodged the Swedish player just in time, but it was the impact of the tackle itself that cracked Zlatan’s rib.
The 6-foot-5 defender opted to strike the Swede after objecting to the tackle, and the Swede hit him back with a headbutt. The two then got into a vicious battle, trying to rip each other’s limbs off.
It took almost 10 players and coaches to separate the two players, and even then it appeared as though the brawl would never finish. The altercation garnered international attention, and Oguchi Onyewu eventually left Milan in 2011.
Zlatan described the battle in his autobiography, stating that “Onyewu resembled a heavyweight boxer. He could not manage me despite being over 15 stone and almost 6 feet tall.
3. Kolo Toure and William Gallas
Before something changed in their final season together, Kolo Toure and Willam Gallas, two centre-backs at the core of the Arsenal defence, were essential to whatever Champions League chances the Gunners had. The two didn’t interact much during that time, which caused serious issues with the Arsenal back four.
After the Frenchman lost the captaincy following what was a fairly unusual post-match response to a 2-2 draw with Birmingham City, Gallas, who has a very volatile personality, refused to talk to the Ivory Coast defender.
But according to reports, the two never got into a fight, and it was Gallas who got Toure signed by Manchester City for the upcoming season. Gallas didn’t simply have a disagreement with one Ivorian, however, the Ivory Coast defender was the only one who was traded as a result. “Our relationship has improved, but it’s just a professional relationship,” Toure said when asked about the incident in later interviews. We make an effort to maintain a professional demeanor and communicate once we are on the pitch.
With their defenders unwilling to communicate, the Gunners found it very difficult to compete in the FA Cup or Champions League, which threatened to undermine their entire season. As a result, Toure asked to depart in January. The defender was asked to stay until the conclusion of the season after that request was turned down so that Arsenal might try to salvage something from that season.
However, nothing materialized, and Toure eventually left the team after seven years of service, while Gallas switched to Tottenham Hotspur a year later.
2. Mauro Icardi and Maxi Lopez
After Icardi had an affair with Lopez’s ex-wife, Icardi and Lopez started fighting. Lionel Messi reportedly called for the striker on loan from Inter Milan to be dismissed after Mauro Icardi’s contentious dispute with former colleague Maxi Lopez led to his expulsion from the Argentine national team.
Icardi and Lopez’s wife, Wanda Nara, were teammates at Sampdoria when Icardi started seeing her and eventually married her. Since then, Lopez has steadfastly refused to even acknowledge the presence of his former teammate in his children’s lives or on the football pitch.
Icardi, who is nine years Lopez’s junior, became a supporter when he was still playing for Sampdoria’s youth team when Lopez was competing for the main squad. Icardi married Wanda Nara less than six months after Lopez and Nara’s divorce, it was later discovered that she had an affair with Lopez’s now ex-wife.
After the younger striker started tweeting pictures of Lopez’s kids and himself, things became even worse, and the Mafia allegedly got involved, according to an Argentine journalist. They offered to break the 23-year-old striker’s legs and put an end to his career, but Lopez declined the deal.
However, Lopez has Lionel Messi, Diego Maradona, and the entire Inter Milan home crowd fighting for him and giving Icardi a hard time in his corner.
1. Igor Stimac and Sinisa Mihajlovic
In addition to playing together on the Yugoslavian squad that won the 1987 World Cup, Stimac and Mihajlovic were friends when they were teenagers. They frequently crossed paths while playing for competing teams for their separate clubs in two nearby cities, even though they were teammates on the national team. Igor Stimac, who hails from Croatia’s southern region, was a 19-year-old player on loan at Dinamo Vinkovci.
Sinisa Mihaklovic was born and raised roughly 20 kilometers distant from Vinkovci, the railway junction that connects the northeastern region of Croatia with the present-day Serbian border. Although their friends urged them not to speak, the two would frequently cross paths in pubs and cafés, exchange pleasantries, and talk football despite the pressure.
When Croatia and Serbia’s war broke out, a shootout just yards from Mihajlovic’s childhood home resulted in the deaths of 12 Croatian police officers and three Serbian militia members. Less than a few weeks after the town was completely destroyed, Belgrade hosted the Yugoslav Cup final.
Igor Stimac was the captain of Hajduk Split, and Sinisa Mihajlovic represented Red Star Belgrade. Both teams were wearing bands in memory of slain police officers.
While waiting for the game to begin, Stimac came in close to his old friend and teammate and said, “I hope our guys kill your entire family in Borovo.” Additionally, Mihajlovic had no idea if his family was still alive because phone lines to Borovo had been out of commission for several days.
Mihajlovic was so enraged that he constantly attacked the Hajduk captain. Forgetting about the Cup final, he spent the entire game attempting to hurt Stimac, and the result was a furious kickboxing match in which both players were eventually dismissed. Hajduk prevailed 1-0, and Stimac declared, “It’s ours forever now,” as he raised the trophy. There won’t be any more competitions for the Yugoslav Cup.
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