Explore 10 intense fights in football teams that have made headlines over the years. Witness the heated moments between players on the field during these intense matches.
A powerful scandal has recently hit France. According to Le Parisien, Kylian Mbappe got into a fight with PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi. This happened before the match of the 33rd round of Ligue 1, in which the Parisians hosted Toulouse (1:3). Al-Khelaifi met with Mbappe and asked Kylian why he did not specifically mention him in his farewell video. After that, a fight broke out and “screams were heard.”
Although there is another version. L’Equipe later wrote that Mbappe and Al-Khelaifi simply had a heated conversation. There are still no official details. And it is not a fact that they will appear. In the meantime, we recall other cases when conflicts occurred in clubs.
Mario Balotelli and Roberto Mancini (Manchester City)
Mario Balotelli is one of the most reckless footballers of the 21st century. You always expect some strange action from the Italian. Balotelli set off firecrackers in the locker room, fought with a bib, set his house on fire and did wild things on the field. A fight with a coach? Yes, but you will be surprised – it was not Mario’s fault.
In January 2013, while playing for Manchester City, Balotelli got into a fight with Roberto Mancini during training . Goal reported that Mario had been training alone until he was invited to take part in a two-sided game. During the game, Mancini repeatedly criticized Balotelli and shouted at him. And then he was the first to start a fight after the forward made a rough tackle on teammate Scott Sinclair. According to the source, it was Mancini’s actions that provoked the conflict. “The players couldn’t believe what was happening. Mancini completely lost control of himself. Balotelli was discouraged, like all the other players,” an eyewitness to the situation noted.
“Balotelli hit his teammate in training. I told him to leave the field, he refused. I grabbed him by the shirt and tried to push him off the field. That’s what happened. There was no fight between us. This can happen at any club. Will I put him up for transfer because of this? Of course not, it doesn’t change anything. I will give Mario many more chances if I see that he is capable of changing. He is only 22 years old, people make mistakes at this age,” Mancini justified himself. But Balotelli left Manchester City at the end of the month – he was bought by Milan. And Mancini left for Galatasaray in the summer of 2013.
Fernando Ricksen and Vladislav Radimov (Zenit)
Fernando Ricksen and Vladislav Radimov have always been known for their fighting spirit. When there are two such tough players in a team, a conflict can break out out of nowhere. This happened in 2007 during a friendly match between Zenit and Malaga. Ricksen and Radimov got into a brawl right on the field. Vladislav pushed Zenit defender Martin Skrtel, and Fernando stood up for the Slovak.
Ricksen and Radimov exchanged blows. And the Dutchman tried to strangle the Zenit captain. The players were naturally sent off, but they did not calm down. Already on the bench, Radimov tried to arrange a second round. However, Alexander Gorshkov stood between the players. “We are both good. This is both mine and Ricksen’s fault,” Radimov admitted later.
Pavel Mamaev, Denis Glushakov and Roman Shirokov (Russian national team)
“Yes, we lost. Yes, we were eliminated, but that’s probably our maximum. I’m expecting shit in the comments,” Pavel Mamaev posted a photo with this caption after his elimination from Euro 2016. And the Russian national team midfielder had a bandage on his face. What happened? During the tournament, a conflict broke out within the team. The main participants were Spartak midfielder Denis Glushakov and CSKA player Roman Shirokov .
Glushakov himself spoke about the situation in 2020. “Roma then moved to CSKA from Spartak. We sat and talked about clubs, about club affairs. He then won the championship with CSKA and started talking about Spartak, like, you’re hanging around there, fifth or tenth. And I said that we’ll be in the top three next year. You left, I said, we’ll be in the top three. One word led to another — yes, there was a small skirmish. He didn’t get it. The other guy got it,” Glushakov said in the documentary “Ours at the Euro.
Who did Glushakov get? That’s right, Mamaev. Pavel was near the epicenter of events and became an accidental victim of the fight. The Russian national team doctor Eduard Bezuglov then said that Mamaev got a cut in the gym. And the football players denied the situation. “This is more nonsense. Pavel Konstantinovich is my good friend – that’s one. Secondly, he is from the Moscow region, just like me, and in our Moscow region it is customary not to beat each other, but to support each other, which I always do with pleasure in relation to him,” Shirokov noted.
In 2023, Mamaev was reminded of the situation. He noted that nothing terrible had happened then: “What’s so special about this incident? It’s completely ordinary, well, a broken eyebrow. I mean ordinary from the point of view of a male team. If you globalize it, you can blow it out of proportion. A broken eyebrow — what’s so special about that? I’ve had it broken so many times in the game: they stitched it up — you go and play.
Vladimir Bystrov and Quincy Owusu-Abeyie (Spartak)
In 2006, Spartak ended the year with a match of the 6th round of the Champions League group stage against Portuguese Sporting. The red-and-whites did not take the RPL championship, losing to CSKA on additional indicators. All that was left was to play in Lisbon and fight for third place in the group and entry into the UEFA Cup. Before the match with Sporting, the red-and-whites held an open training session. During the game, Vladimir Bystrov and Quincy Owusu-Abeyie started a fight right in front of journalists and cameras . They exchanged several blows, but no injuries occurred. The players were pulled apart by their teammates, after which coach Vladimir Fedotov kicked them out of the training session.
Later, Fedotov said that the conflict was over: “By the end of the season, the players had accumulated not only physical but also psychological fatigue. Unfortunately, it sometimes manifests itself in such unattractive forms. There are breakdowns. Without justifying the guys, I will note that in my youth, such situations happened much more often, since football was tougher.” Spartak eventually won against Sporting with a score of 3:1. And Bystrov participated in all three goals of the red-whites.
Artem Dzyuba and Yuri Lodygin (Zenit), Artem Dzyuba and Sergei Pinyaev (Lokomotiv)
Artem Dzyuba is one of the most charismatic players in the RPL in the 21st century. His character is combined with physical strength. And sometimes this results in trouble. For example, Dzyuba fought with Zenit goalkeeper Yuri Lodygin after the RPL match with Krasnodar (1:2) in 2016. In the 86th minute, Artem put the Petersburgers ahead. However, the “bulls” snatched victory, scoring twice in added time. The broadcast included an episode in which Dzyuba made an obscene gesture to one of his teammates. Lodygin did not like this, which caused a fight to break out in the Zenit locker room.
“What is my relationship with Artem Dzyuba? None. Maybe if we meet, we will communicate, greet each other, talk. However, we do not communicate now. A fight with him? Well, yes, there was. But then everything calmed down. It was a normal working relationship. It definitely did not get worse. Maybe it got a little better,” Lodygin said in an interview with Sport24 in 2023. Although Dzyuba denied the conflict after the match: “We did not have a fight. Do you see anything on your face? There was nothing at all, no need to invent anything.”
And at the end of 2023, insider Ivan Karpov reported that Dzyuba had a fight with his Lokomotiv teammate Sergei Pinyaev after the 14th round RPL match with Spartak (1:1). During the game, Artyom punched his teammate for several unsuccessful actions in a row, to which the 19-year-old footballer responded to Artyom with something like: “We all run here, and you generally walk across the field.” After the match, Dzyuba continued the conflict in the locker room, after which a brawl broke out. Other Lokomotiv players had to separate the players. However, Pinyaev and Dzyuba ridiculed this news on their social networks.
Later, Sergey commented on the situation: “I didn’t pay attention to it. We laughed together, and that’s it. If you saw how we reacted on social networks, and the same messages were exchanged in the team group – how do you imagine this? Everyone laughed, and that’s it – as you can see, it didn’t affect the team for the worse. And maybe it even affected it for the better. In our team, we respect each other, we don’t cross any line. Artem, [like] any other leader older than me, can always tell me – I will take this the right way. We are always for healthy conversations and healthy tips.”
Neymar and Nelson Semedo (Barcelona)
In July 2017, Barcelona was touring the United States. Neymar was considering a move to PSG, and defender Nelson Semedo had just moved to Catalonia. And during one of the training sessions, a conflict arose between the players. Neymar kicked Semedo in the legs, which led to a fight that was caught on camera. Sergio Busquets and Samuel Umtiti separated the partners, but the bad feeling remained.
“Personally, it [Neymar’s attitude] didn’t affect me much because I had the support of the team and my friends. I had just transferred, and one of the most important players in the team fought with me. It irritated me, but I also understood that he was in a difficult situation, he wanted to leave,” Semedo noted that same year. And Neymar moved from Barcelona to PSG a couple of weeks later for €222 million.
Emmanuel Adebayor and Nicklas Bendtner (Arsenal)
Both Emmanuel Adebayor and Nicklas Bendtner were footballers with not the most pleasant character. And in 2008, there was a conflict between them. Arsenal lost to Tottenham (1:4), and the players’ nerves could not stand it. Adebayor swore at Bendtner, and then hit him right in the nose. Fortunately, there was no fracture.
Such rudeness is unacceptable in our team. Emmanuel and Niklas must apologise to everyone. Especially to the fans,” said Arsenal defender William Gallas. “Emmanuel is a strange guy. To put it mildly. But I forgive him,” Bendtner said later.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Oguchi Onyewu (Milan)
The real heavyweights met in Milan. In 2010, La Gazzetta dello Sport reported that Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Oguchi Onyewu had a fight during training. According to the American, the forward acted harshly in one of the episodes. Oguchi expressed his dissatisfaction, which caused Zlatan’s anger. The verbal altercation escalated into a fight. Ibrahimovic knocked down Onyewu, who is 195 cm tall. After Onyewu got to his feet, he grabbed the striker by the neck. 10 people tried to separate the players, and then coach Massimiliano Allegri interrupted the training. Milan management removed both players from the main squad.
brahimovic recounted the episode in his autobiography: “We had a derby with Inter coming up, and I knew what their fans would do. The atmosphere was tense, and on top of that I didn’t get along with Onyewu, an American the size of a house. I told the boys: ‘Something serious is coming, I can feel it.’ Onyewu was like a heavyweight boxer. Two metres tall, 100 kilos. He couldn’t stand me. He accused me of trash talk, but that was nonsense. I was the one who was constantly insulted. I heard so much crap: a fucking gypsy, stuff about my mother and so on. I told Onyewu about it, but he wouldn’t stop, he kept pointing his finger at me.
At some point, I was overcome. When he received the ball, I rushed in with a hard tackle, but he noticed me and managed to dodge. We both fell, but I was sure that I had missed. I got up, felt a poke in the shoulder. Bad idea, Oguchi Onyewu . I hit him with my head, we ran into each other. It was hard. And then the strangest thing happened. With tears in his eyes, Onyewu began to pray to God and cross himself. I thought it was a provocation, I got even angrier. Allegri tried to calm us down, but I just grabbed him in my arms, pushed him away and rushed at Oguchi again. Our teammates stretched us out. Now that was a good idea.”
Onyewu ended up breaking Zlatan’s rib, but Ibrahimovic didn’t tell the doctors and played the next match. Oguchi left Milan two months later.
Gerard Pique and Alex Song (Barcelona)
The conflict between Barcelona players occurred during the championship celebration in 2013. The club held a parade and celebrated the title with fans. The Barça bus was moving along the city streets. Meanwhile, Alex Song and Gerard Pique clashed on the second tier . What happened is unknown. Eyewitnesses noted that the Spaniard provoked the situation. Song suddenly slapped Pique and was about to punch him. But Carles Puyol saved Gerard. And the Barça management noted that alcohol played a role in the conflict.
Raheem Sterling and Joe Gomez (England team)
In 2019, a conflict occurred in the England national team: it happened between Raheem Sterling and Joe Gomez. Sky Sports reported details of the incident. According to them, the conflict happened in the canteen. Sterling was sitting at the table, Gomez approached him to say hello, to which the City forward said: “You’re a tough guy now, aren’t you? Yeah, big guy?” The teammates initially didn’t pay attention to it, thinking that Sterling was just joking. But Raheem grabbed his teammate by the throat. Gomez did not fall for the provocation, and the players did not have to intervene in the brawl.
What prompted Sterling to behave like this? It all started with the Liverpool-Manchester City match that took place right before the England call-up. In the final minutes of the game, Raheem had a row with Joe: they were pushing each other while fighting for the ball, and the forward decided that there had been a foul. Then the Liverpool defender grabbed him by the shoulders, said something and pushed him away. Sterling tried to respond, but was pulled away. Apparently, the City player was still upset.
Following the incident with the national team, Rahim released a statement on social media and noted that the situation had been resolved. However, head coach Gareth Southgate suspended the winger for the matches against Montenegro and Kosovo in the Euro 2020 qualifiers.