Most explosive footballer feuds as Rooney snipes at Vardy – pitch scraps, infamous golf club attack & comical put-downs

UNITY is critical to a football team’s success – but Jamie Vardy and Wayne Rooney aren’t the only teammates who have fallen out.

Testosterone and egos can combine to create a fatal cocktail that splits a dressing room apart.

At the Wagatha Christie trial this week Leicester City striker Jamie claimed “Wayne is talking nonsense” about allegedly asking him to calm his wife Rebekah down at the Euro 2016 tournament.

Wayne, 36, and Jamie, 35, had been part of the England squad at the time and Rebekah sat next to Rooney’s wife Coleen to watch them play.

While the row between the Vardys and Rooneys has led to a multi-million pound libel trial, far worse has happened between other team mates – including extreme violence.

Here we look at the most explosive feuds that have blighted the beautiful game.

.css-16e4f55{margin:16px 0;}.css-1546w7m{background-color:rgba(237,245,242,1);margin:16px 0;}

John Arne Riise and Craig Bellamy

In the run up to Liverpool’s big match against Barcelona in the Champions League in 2007, fiery striker Bellamy wound-up defender Riise by calling him “Ginge” and telling him to sing.

After the Norwegian refused, Bellamy got a golf club and whacked him with it while drunk in what Bellamy later admitted was “bullying behaviour”.

Riise claimed the attack was so vicious it could have ended his career.

.css-qu9fel{border-top:1px solid #dcdddd;}.css-b9nmbi{margin-bottom:16px;border-top:1px solid #dcdddd;}

He was even more shocked when Bellamy made fun of the assault by mimicking a golf swing after scoring in the key game.

The Norwegian said: “I thought it was f*****g disrespectful.”

Mick McCarthy and Roy Keane

Manchester United’s former midfield hardman Keane has never been one to mince his words – and telling it like it is did not please his manager when he was on international duty for the Republic of Ireland.

As captain of the squad at the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan he felt the need to complain publicly about his team’s preparation.

Gaffer McCarthy confronted Keane in front of the other players and his star player retorted: “You can stick your World Cup up your b******s.”

The manager sent his captain home, but this wasn’t the first time they’d fallen out as they’d had an argument back in 1992 when McCarthy called Keane a “disgrace” for arriving back late on a team bus.

Rafael van der Vaart and Zlatan Ibrahimovic

Both Swede Ibrahimovic and Dutchman Van der Vaart thought they were the best players at Holland’s legendary side Ajax.

Van der Vaart said: “He came to the club and believed that he was the best player at Ajax. It was just two egos converging in one place.”

When Holland faced Sweden in a friendly, Ibrahimovic injured Van der Vaart in a nasty challenge.

Ibrahimovic later said: “I don’t like you, I don’t like you as a captain. I didn’t injure you on purpose and you know it.

“If you accuse me again, I’ll break both your legs and this time it’ll be on purpose.”

Lee Bowyer and Kieron Dyer

One of the most notorious bust-ups was when Newcastle United teammates Bowyer and Dyer squared up to each other near the end of a game in 2005.

Opposition players exchanging blows is controversial enough, but those on the same side is a total no-no.

Reportedly, Bowyer had complained that Dyer wasn’t passing to him and his teammate responded that he wasn’t giving him the ball because he didn’t rate him.

Both players were sent off and handed bans. 

Legend has it that then Newcastle manager Graeme Souness offered to take them on in the dressing room afterwards, but they declined.

El Hadji Diouf and Jamie Carragher

Liverpool’s legendary defender Jamie Carragher and the club’s former striker Diouf have an ongoing war of words.

Diouf, who joined the Anfield side in 2002, said “the difference between Jamie and me is that I am a world class player and he is a s***.”

Carragher mocked Diouf by saying: “The other big difference is he’s scored less goals for LFC in the Premier League than me! (Not counting OG’s!!)”

Diouf only scored three goals in 55 games during his three years on Merseyside.

Michael Owen and Alan Shearer

Shearer is passionate about his boyhood team Newcastle United and did not take well to former teammate Owen making disparaging comments about them.

In his autobiography, the former Liverpool man said Newcastle fans were “deluded” about their club’s stature.

Owen, who like Shearer was one of England’s top strikers, later said moving to the Geordie side was a “downward step” after Real Madrid and something he regretted.

Shearer posted a clip of Owen saying he “couldn’t wait to retire for the final six or seven years” of his career followed by the comment “Yes, Michael, we thought that also, whilst on £120K a week.” Ouch.

Ousmane Dabo and Joey Barton

Hothead midfielder Barton was never far from controversy during his career – but the lowest moment was his attack on Manchester City teammate Dabo in 2007 during a training session.

Witnesses told how he repeatedly punched Dabo while he was on the ground, resulting in an eye injury.

Barton admitted assault and was given a four month jail sentence suspended for two years.

Dabo said: “He says he is a man, a bad boy, but he is just a coward.”

Stefan Effenberg and Lothar Matthaus

When Bayern Munich played Manchester United in the Champions League final in 1999 their two star midfielders couldn’t hide a mutual loathing.

Effenberg had questioned Matthaus’s courage after he failed to take Germany’s penalty in the 1990 World Cup Final.

.css-16e4f55{margin:16px 0;}.css-1546w7m{background-color:rgba(237,245,242,1);margin:16px 0;}

Matthaus later retorted that Effenberg had “lost his touch” and thought that Bayern giants should sell him.

Effenberg, nicknamed The Tiger, responded with a world class put down in his autobiography. A chapter titled ‘What Lothar Matthaus knows about football’ was left blank.

Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk