5 Most Famous Interplayer Rivalities In Football

Illustration of players' rivalry in football. (Photo: Pexels/@RF._.studio)

JAKARTA Personal competition between football players in big matches is very common. Whenever these players face each other, the atmosphere can become intense and end up with a famous incident.

In football's history, there is a lot of personal competition between players and famous incidents that have occurred because of it. Here are the 5 most famous rivalry between players, as reported by various sources:

Roy Keane vs Patrick Vieira

The best enemy. Yes, these two players are the best enemies. In the early 2000s, Arsenal vs Manchester United will always provoke emotions between the two.

There are many incidents such as the pizzagate incident, Old Trafford battle, etc. Over the years, these two footballers stood in front of all those hot incidents.

Like true leaders, the two are at war against each other. Premier League fans will never forget what happened in the Highbury tunnel before the match between Arsenal vs Manchester United in 2005.

These two players were involved in clashes in the stadium hall. When traced, it turned out that the incident was caused by Vieira who was trying to intimidate Gary Neville ahead of the League title race.

Although the referee managed to calm the situation, the hot situation continued and the match resulted in six yellow cards and one red card for Manchester United.

Luis Suarez vs Patrice Evra

This competition is remembered for bitter reasons: racism. Despite a lot of awareness and campaigns against racism, racism remains.

In a match between Manchester United and Liverpool, Suarez got into trouble after racial abuse against Patrice Evra.

He received a strong warning and a ban on playing eight games. Since then, the two of them have been an unquenched dispute.

In the next match, Suarez refused to shake hands with Evra. Finally, after winning the match, Evra approached Suarez and asked the supporters to cheer cynically by waving.

Disgusted Suarez left the field full of anger.

Rudi Voller vs Frank Rijkaard

The Netherlands and Germany have always been sworn enemies in the 1970s and 1980s despite this competition rooted in World War II. The rivalry between the two countries increased after Germany defeated the Netherlands in the 1974 World Cup final.

In the 1990 World Cup last 16 match, Frank Rijkaard got a yellow card after challenging Voller. It was his second yellow card at the tournament, so he would miss the quarter-finals if the Netherlands made it to the round.

Unable to accept this, Rijkaard quipped his opponent by spatting on him. After that, the fierce bacot fight ended in a red card for Voller. However, this did not end like that.

When the free kick, upset Rijkaard tried to drag Voller and stepped on his leg, causing the German player to fall. The referee intervened and kicked them both out.

The innocent Voller was on his way back to the dressing room when Rijkaard ran towards him and spat in his curly hair. This sparked controversy over the behavior of the players in World Cup matches.

Pepe vs Messi

Pepe is known for his rough and inhumanities. Under the pressure of El Clasico, Pepe tends to go beyond the limits.

In a match, Pepe even stepped on Messi's hand. In another match, he even kept trying to bring down Messi with his rash tackles.

Sometimes Pepe is also seen often throwing words at Messi's ears every time they face each other on the field.

Sergio Ramos vs Carlos Puyol

"United to defend the country, fighting while defending the club."

Yes, this sentence describes the perfect rivalry between the two players. In the Spanish team, they played in the perfect combination.

Although they denied any rifts between them, their clash in El Clasico proved the rivalry between them existed.

On many occasions, Ramos was seen arguing with Puyol. Once upon a time, the fight ended in a bad fight when they had to be dispersed by the referee and his teammates