7 international team-mates who dramatically fell out: Vini Jr v Raphinha… | OneFootball

Carlo Ancelotti could face an awkward job as peacemaker in the next Brazil international camp after Selecao team-mates Vinicius Junior and Raphinha had a heated exchange in the aftermath of Real Madrid’s 2-1 victory over Barcelona.

Vinicius was evidently in an emotional state, having raged at Xabi Alonso after being substituted midway through the second half of Los Blancos’ Clasico victory. He stormed down the tunnel, only to reappear at the final whistle when things kicked off between the two sets of players.

This isn’t the first time that a heated club rivalry has threatened to spill over and make an issue in the national team set-up. We’ve taken a closer look at seven pairs of international team-mates who fell out with one another.

John Terry vs Wayne Bridge

A sort-of international one, this.

The tabloids had a field day when news broke of Terry’s alleged affair with Vanessa Perroncel, the former partner of his old Chelsea team-mate.

Bridge had moved to Manchester City by the time the saga kicked off and memorably refused to shake Terry’s hand.

Terry was stripped of the England captaincy by Fabio Capello, but continued receiving call-ups. The last of Bridge’s 36 Three Lions caps came before the scandal.

John Terry vs Rio Ferdinand

Him again.

And again, a pretty grim one.

The two defining centre-halves of their era, who enjoyed trophy-laden peaks at the two most dominant teams in the country at the time, it’s not unfeasible to have imagined Terry and Ferdinand as a tournament-winning partnership for England.

They lined up alongside one another 35 times, but never after Terry was banned and fined for racially abusing Ferdinand’s younger brother Anton.

“For me, the biggest idiot will always be John Terry,” Ferdinand wrote in his 2014 autobiography.

“As England captain and my centre-back partner, he could have saved everyone a lot of pain by admitting immediately that he had used the words in the heat of the moment but was no racist.

“I think that’s probably what happened and what the truth is. Anton and I would’ve accepted that — instead, he never gave us the chance. I’ve never actually spoken to John about the case.

“I no longer talk to him, but even three years later I find it impossible to forgive or forget the pain he put my family through.”

As with so many of the ‘big six’ rivals in England’s supposed golden era, Terry and Ferdinand were never close – but they buried their club allegiances when it came to England duty.

“We weren’t best mates, but we were football buddies,” he added, recalling his relationship with Terry before the racism incident.

“Yet he just sat there and watched as my brother went through all that because of his stupidity. That was the betrayal. He tried to run away from what he’d done.”

Gerard Pique vs Sergio Ramos

It’s a minor miracle that Spain coalesced into an all-conquering force when you consider that Real Madrid and Barcelona’s rivalry was at the peak of its toxicity in the Pep Guardiola vs Jose Mourinho era.

There are myriad examples of needle involving players on either end of the El Clasico divide, but few as flagrantly obvious as the feud between Pique and Ramos.

They buried the hatchet enough to help form a formidable defensive unit, and there was evidently a mutual respect there, but it didn’t take a PHD in psychology to see there was bad blood there.

“When Gerard Pique attacks Real Madrid, our club, our crest, our colours it does have an impact,” Ramos said in 2017.

“These things can be avoided and which shouldn’t be done but sometimes when everything is calm and quiet, Piqué needs to cause a stir and have that extra hustle and bustle in his life.”

Mauro Icardi vs Maxi Lopez

How long have you got? Strap in…

Teddy Sheringham vs Andy Cole

Like Bridge and Terry, these two shared a dressing room for years in their day job – and were famously two key players in Manchester United’s historic 1998-99 treble.

But their animosity for one another, which is said to continue to this day, stems from England duty.

“I didn’t want to play the game after that,” Cole told The Daily Telegraph, reminiscing on how Sheringham blanked him as he was substituted on in a 1995 friendly against Uruguay.

“That’s how embarrassed I felt.

“Snubbed on the line when you’re making your debut as a young kid… I think I hit the bar in the game but I couldn’t get it out of my mind.

“We never spoke. Unless it was going to be another argument between us… never spoke. We didn’t exchange a single word while we were there.”

Karim Benzema vs Mathieu Valbuena

“I have never met anyone who is going to destroy a video for free just because they love me!” Valbeuna recalled after Benzema was implicated in an alleged sex tape blackmail plot.

“You shouldn’t treat people like idiots.”

A Versailles court later found the former Real Madrid superstar guilty of complicity in attempted blackmail against his Les Bleus team-mate.

The fallout saw Benzema drop out of the international picture for years, omitted from France’s Euro 2016 and World Cup 2018 squads. He eventually returned for Euro 2021.

Robin van Persie vs Klaas-Jan Huntelaar

A bit of competition for a place in the team can be a good thing – a healthy rivalry that motivates both parties to up their game.

That didn’t appear to be the case with Van Persie and Huntelaar, who had a barely disguised disdain for one another during their years as Netherlands internationals.

“There has been irritation between them since the 2010 World Cup in South Africa,” explained Dutch football legend Ruud Gullit.

“It was simmering at Euro 2012 and it all exploded. The problems have far from disappeared.

“Huntelaar was mouthing off again against Kazakhstan and his old confrontation with Van Persie surfaced straight back up.”

Things reached a head in said Kazakhstan qualifier when Huntelaar raged at Van Persie for refusing to pass to him.

The Oranje failed to make it to Euro 2016. A lesson there in pulling in the same direction.