When team-mates fall out - Dyer vs Bowyer, Craig Bellamy’s golf club vs John Arne Riise’s shins...
- Matt Whiley
- 4 April 2022
It is 17 years to the day since one of the most awkward handshakes in football when Kieron Dyer and Lee Bowyer were paraded in front of the cameras following their on-field scuffle while at Newcastle.
Lee Bowyer was fined a record six weeks wages for his part in the altercation and to mark the anniversary we look back on other high-profile fall-outs between colleagues.
And it's not the only awkward handshake in there.
Craig Bellamy vs John Arne Riise
Ahead of the first leg of Liverpool's 2007 Champions League last-16 clash with Barcelona, Rafael Benitez took his squad to the Algarve in Portugal for a warm-weather training camp.
What started as a disagreement over the Norwegian's lack of enthusiasm for singing karaoke in a restaurant quickly escalated.
According to Riise's autobiography, Bellamy objected to his refusal to sing so much that, later that night, the Welsh striker crept into his room and proceeded to attack him with a golf club. His first swing, towards Riise's shins, missed, but further blows made contact with his hip and thigh. Riise called the club doctor, who made Benitez aware of the confrontation and the eternally calm Spanish manager decreed that everyone would meet in the morning.
Bellamy apologised - although Riise said he struggled to believe in its sincerity - and was fined £80,000 for his behaviour. However, the feud didn't end there. In the match at Camp Nou five days later, Bellamy nodded in Liverpool's equaliser in a match they went on to win 2-1 and celebrated by miming a golf swing!
David Batty vs Graeme Le Saux
Another example of two members of an English side falling out during a Champions League away day came in 1995, when Blackburn Rovers travelled to Spartak Moscow for a group stage clash.
However, unlike Bellamy's golf club antics, this fight occurred on the field, and thanks to the numerous TV cameras covering the game, it played out for the world to witness.
Tensions must have already been uncomfortable in the Blackburn camp, as it took only four minutes before all hell broke loose in Russia's capital. Mike Newell looked to pick out Le Saux down the wing, but before the left-back could reach it, he collided with Batty, who looked to be attempting to take possession too. Cue numerous shoves from both men before Le Saux escalated the brawl by punching Batty.
Tim Sherwood, attempting to intervene, received a punch to his cheek for his troubles, before the duo were eventually separated and play was allowed to resume with neither receiving any punishment. Le Saux later attempted to explain his actions as self-defence, saying in his autobiography: "If I had not hit him, I felt he was going to hit me."
John Terry vs Wayne Bridge
One of the most famous, and possibly bitterest, team-mate feuds occurred in 2010, when Chelsea duo Bridge and Terry fell out. It came about after a story emerged that Terry had embarked on an affair with Bridge's then-girlfriend Vanessa Perroncel.
Bridge went on to join Manchester City, leading to one of the Premier League's most infamous pre-match moments.
Terry's Chelsea met Bridge's City at Stamford Bridge in February 2010, and all eyes were on the duo at the pre-match handshake. Following Vincent Kompany in the queue of City players, Bridge came to Terry, walking straight past as he refused to even make eye contact with his former team-mate, instead moving straight on to Blues goalkeeper Henrique Hilario.
Bridge ended up quitting the England team, and later said "I still don't think anyone knows the full story," while Terry was stripped of the national team's captaincy. To this day, Perroncel denies such an affair ever took place - and her claims are backed up by legal judgements - while Terry has never publicly commented on the situation, but the narrative continues to rumble on.
Kieron Dyer vs Lee Bowyer
From a rejected handshake to something more violent, as we come to the case of Newcastle team-mates Dyer and Bowyer, who ended up at each other's throats during a 2005 Premier League game with Aston Villa. Tensions ran high as the Magpies fell 3-0 behind and were reduced to ten men, leading to another truly infamous bust-up which went down in Premier League history.
With play heading from midfield into the Newcastle half, a sudden flaring of tempers off the ball saw Dyer and Bowyer begin grappling away at one another, each holding fistfuls of shirt in one hand and attempting to land a blow with the other. They were quickly pulled apart, but Bowyer now sported a huge rip down the front of his shirt, and both were swiftly sent off, reducing Newcastle to eight men and compounding a miserable afternoon.
The pair both received bans of several months, and Dyer later revealed another titbit of information that only served to further enhance the fight's status in Premier League lore. According to Dyer, after full time, Magpies manager Graeme Souness "came in and said 'I'm going to fight the pair of you. I'm going to watch it back then fight the pair of you'".
Maxi Lopez vs Mauro Icardi
Following in the footsteps of Terry vs Bridge, we come to another case of team-mates explosively colliding over a woman. However, unlike the England pair, the evidence in this one was very much on show for the world to see, and there were no denials.
As well as being Argentine compatriots, Lopez and Icardi played on the same Sampdoria team in the 2012/13 season, during which actress Wanda Nara ended her marriage to Lopez and began a relationship with Icardi. Following Icardi's move to Inter Milan, a subsequent meeting between Sampdoria and Inter saw the pair meet again and Lopez pulled off the same tactic as Bridge, refusing to shake Icardi's hand. He did so again two years later, when Inter played Lopez's new side Torino.
Nara and Icardi remain married and the couple have two daughters, alongside Nara's three children from her marriage to Lopez. The saga remains open-ended, with no confirmation that Lopez and Icardi have settled their differences, or if they ever will. Peace does admittedly look a little unlikely, given that Icardi now sports a tattoo that features…Lopez's children.
