10 Footballers Who Have BRUTAL Rivalries!

Welcome back to Football Daily where today we bring you our top 10 of football's craziest arguments. 10. Van Gaal vs Cruyff Both players with Ajax in the 70s, though Van Gaal never got on the pitch, these two Dutchmen were polar opposites. While Cruyff promoted flair and solo talent, Van Gaal wanted his players to be cogs in a rigid machine. Van Gaal claimed that the beef started with a dinner at Cruyff's house in the 1980s, along with Ronald Koeman, who he would also grow to hate. LVG had been invited to spend the evening with the greatest of Dutch masters, but during the meal he received a call telling him his sister had died. Van Gaal understandably ran out, but Cruyff was irritated that there had been no goodbye and no thank you for his hospitality. Cruyff denied this, saying Van Gaal must have Alzheimer's, and when LVG took the Barcelona job he became his harshest critic. As recently as 2011, he tried to block Van Gaal's appointment as technical director at Ajax, voicing his hatred for the man in the press and taking the club to court. The judge sided with Cruyff, and Van Gaal spent a year out of work. 9. Adebayor vs Bentner Of all the people to lecture someone on respect, Emmanuel Adebayor is not the most obvious candidate. But in 2008, the Togolese forward was a leading light in a strong Arsenal team, and decided to teach 20-year-old strike partner Nicolas Bentner some manners. According to Adebayor, trainers were banned from the Arsenal dressing room, but the Dane would ignore the rules every single day. Adebayor thought this showed a lack of respect for the club and told Bentner to take them off. But the youngster refused, and Wenger reportedly had to step in to break up the argument. A few days later, during a League Cup match against Spurs, tensions were still running high, and the men even squared off while defending a corner. This time, Adebayor head-butted Bentner, leaving him with a bloody nose. But Arsene Wenger claimed he hadn't seen the incident. 8. Riise vs Bellamy Craig Bellamy could start a fight in an empty room, but the Welshman had no shortage of sparring partners during his spell at Liverpool. Apparently, Bellamy and the Kraken himself, came to blows before a Champions League fixture against Barcelona back in 2007. The Reds were in Portugal, and boss Rafa Benitez told them they could have one beer, which Bellamy evidently interpreted loosely. Before long, the players were drunk and singing karaoke, with Bellamy trying to get Riise to join him. But when the Norwegian said no, Bellamy waited until everyone had gone to sleep before sneaking into the defender's room and hitting him on the arse with a golf club. The next day, Riise turned up at Bellamy's room for round two, but the Cardiff native pussied out. It didn't affect their performance though, as Liverpool went on to record a famous 2-1 victory over Messi, Ronaldo and Co, with Riise and Bellamy scoring both the goals. 7. Vela vs Mexico Once touted as the new Cuauhtémoc Blanco, Carlos Vela has had a fractious relationship with his country's national team. In 2010, most of the squad, including Javier Hernandez, were fined for partying after a game against Colombia, but Vela and Efrain Juárez were banned from playing for six months. When the suspension expired, Vela was recalled, but refused to play for his country on three separate occasions. As a result, he missed El Tri's 2012 Olympic triumph, as well as the 2014 World Cup, where Mexico exited narrowly in the round of 16. During the four seasons he spent out of the national set-up, Vela notched 52 goals and claimed 31 assists for Arsenal and Real Sociedad, and on his return to the line-up in November 2014, he scored twice in a 3-2 win over the Netherlands. 6. Lasso vs Fowler Graeme Lasso was always an outsider in football. The England international was middle-class, unlike many of his teammates, loved art and poetry, and was known for his liberal politics. Over time, the press and fellow players decided that the reason didn't fit in was that he was gay, and the story began to spread. At the time, openly gay footballer Justin Fashinou had just committed suicide, and while Lasso was sick of the abuse, he didn't want to marginalise gay players and fans any further. But things came to a head at Stamford Bridge, as Lasso's Chelsea took on Liverpool. Reds forward Robbie Fowler was booked for a bad tackle on Lasso, but then called the defender a poof and told him, you take it up the arse. Lasso refused to take the free kick, and was booked for time-wasting, and the pair continued to kick and elbow each other for the rest of the game. Afterwards, they were both charged with misconduct, as English football once again refused to take a stand. 5. Lampard vs Fabregas There's never been any love lost between Arsenal and Chelsea, and though Lampard and Fabregas were both classy footballers, the two hated each other on the field. The rivalry stemmed from the 2007 League Cup final, when Fabregas pulled the Englishman off Kolo Toure by the neck. Somehow, neither player got sent off as Chelsea ran out winners, but the hatred continued and even followed Cesc back to Barcelona, as Lampard got booked for a scissor tackle on the Spaniard during the two-all draw at the Nou Camp in 2012. Fabregas finally joined the Blues in 2014, the same summer that Lampard left England for New York, and the former England midfielder finally decided to end the feud, though he couldn't resist one final challenge, saying, I'd hate to put the pressure on him. What I've done at Chelsea will never change. 4. Mandzukic vs De Rossi Mario Mandzukic and Daniel De Rossi are throwback footballers, two tough guys who love the physical side of the game. The Italian even has a tattoo of a hazard sign with someone slide-tackling on it, and the men have more than 200 career yellow cards between them, so it came as no surprise when they clashed during Roma's visit to Juventus in January 2016. The Bianconeri were 1-0 up thanks to a Paulo Dybala strike, and De Rossi and Mandzukic were engaged in a running battle during the match, culminating in De Rossi referring to the striker's Croatian heritage and saying, shut up, you gypsy piece of ----. While De Rossi did issue a sort of apology afterwards, Roma coach Luciano Spalletti refused to criticise his player, only saying that the midfielder should have covered his mouth. The Italian FA subsequently took no further action. The twin saviours of Tottenham Hotspur, business mogul Alan Sugar and manager Terry Venables put up £3m each in 1991 to save Spurs from bankruptcy. It was meant to be the perfect marriage, Sugar handling the business, Venables in charge of the football. Spurs were in more than £10m of debt, a huge sum back then, and Sugar had told Venables that the club couldn't make any signings. But while the businessman was away on holiday, Venables paid nearly £3m for striker Gordon Durie, and Sugar lost his ----. He offered the coach his investment back, but Venables decided to take it to the board, confident his popularity would save his job. It didn't, and a messy court case followed as the two men fought for the control of the club. Sugar, one and a quarter of a century on, is overseeing Spurs' move into a new £750m stadium. Venables, meanwhile, runs a hotel in Spain. Jean-Francois Larios was once thought to be the future of the French national team. The midfielder won three titles with San Etienne alongside Michel Platini, attracting interest from Barca and Real Madrid, and was called up to play with his talented friend again at the 1982 World Cup. However, France lost their first game 3-1 to England, and Larios was mysteriously dropped from the line-up for the next game, and the one after that. Soon, rumours appeared in the press that the Algerian-born hard man had been having an affair with Platini's wife, Chantelle, and the squad sided with their superstar. Les Bleus went all the way to the semi, where they lost to West Germany. Larios appeared just once more for his country in the third-place play-off, in which Platini did not appear. It seemed that the eventual three-time Ballon d'Or winner had asked national coach Michel Hidalgo to drop Larios, but the manager later revealed that the disgraced player had withdrawn himself from the team. He handled the situation well, said Hidalgo. His decision made things easier for me, but you can't say bravo to him for what he had done before that. 1. Pelé vs Maradona Pelé's last season as a professional was Maradona's first, 1976-77, but despite never facing each other, the two men's talent made them enemies. Each named the greatest of all time, and representing ancient rivals Brazil and Argentina, they've hated each other for decades. While Pelé has pointed to his three World Cups vs Maradona's won and his incredible, but probably unrealistic, goal record, Maradona has made homophobic jokes about Pelé losing his virginity to a man. Meanwhile, the Brazilian has used his squeaky-clean image to his advantage. In 2000, FIFA held a poll to determine the greatest player of all time, and when Maradona went ahead, Sepp Blatter rigged the votes to give Pelé victory, worrying that El Diego's love of cocaine and bad behaviour would be too controversial. Maradona went mental, saying, I won't share the award with anyone, while Pelé said, He must be in love with me. It seems that this rivalry will always bring out the ugly side in these two stars of the beautiful game. Don't forget to like and subscribe and get on our Snapchat and our Twitter.