Football teammates fight: Top 7 clashes between teammates during training in football. Let us take a look at the other famous altercations between teammates.
Raheem Sterling is set to miss England’s clash with Montenegro on Thursday evening after attempting to provoke Joe Gomez into an altercation at St George’s park. The spat was a fall out from their verbal confrontation during the Liverpool vs Man City match.
Clearly, the former Liverpool player was not over it as he attempted to grab his neck while asking him if he still thought he was the big man. Sterling has since apologised to Gomez and the rest of his teammates but has still been punished for conspiring to act violently against his teammate.
However, Sterling is not the first footballer to react aggressively against his own teammate. There have been several instances in the past where players have clashed verbally and sometimes even swapped fists. Let us look at the top 7 time football teammates have had a fight while training.
Mario Balotelli and Roberto Mancini (Man City) 2011
Mario Balotelli is an enigmatic character. However, it was not one of his football teammates he had a fight with. Instead, he ended up having a spat with his own manager. Pictures of the two having a go having a particularly violent conversation began doing the round.
Speaking to French newspaper L’Equipe in 2016, Mancini said: “In a training session, I said to players not to make stupid tackles on Gael Clichy because he was just coming back from injury. And then, Mario made a strong tackle on him. I was furious. I grabbed him by the collar wanting to push him but he is so strong physically I couldn’t move him.”
Balotelli was sold to AC Milan a month later. However, Mancini insisted that he wanted the Italian to stay.
“He came into conflict with some team-mates because of his behaviour, and he wanted to return to Italy. I was disappointed that he wanted to leave because he should have done so much more in an extraordinary championship.”
Neymar and Nelson Semedo (Barcelona) 2017
In 2017 Neymar was in the middle of a transfer storm. PSG had cast a huge shadow at Camp Nou and there were murmurs of the Parisian Club paying the huge sum to prise Neymar away. The Brazilian eventually left for France but was involved in a clash with Nelson Semedo in one of the last moments of his Barcelona career.
Nelson Semedo had just arrived to the club that summer but that did not stop him from quarrelling with the star forward. The incident was caught on camera and left everyone on the edge not knowing where Neymar’s future lay.
Months after the incident, Semedo spoke about it in an interview with Maisfutebol.
“It didn’t set me back; it was a normal situation in training. However, it had a repercussion beyond the normal level. Personally, it didn’t affect me because I had the support of the team and my friends, but it obviously influenced me. I just arrived and one of the most important platers in the team got in a fight with me. It annoyed me at the time but I also understood he was in a difficult moment, he wanted to leave.”
Sergio Ramos and Sergio Reguilon (Real Madrid) 2018
Back in 2018, Sergio Ramos was struggling with form. A clearly frustrated Ramos was sent over the edge when youngster Sergio Reguilon struch him by accident during training. Reguilon threw himself across to prevent Ramos making a pass and knocked the defender is the face.
This left Ramos extremely annoyed. He then took the ball and kicked the teenager with it. The coaching staff decided to end the tension filled practice session. However, Ramos kicked the ball again at the youth player before Luka Modric came to pacify his captain.
Sergio Ramos later apologised after the incident caused rage among fans and supporters. Ramos recognised that his actions were not worthy of a club captain and apologised to the youngster. Reguilon accepted the apology and professed that he would always be with his captain and the club. If only all football teammates acted like this after a fight.
