Players who betrayed their previous club by joining their fiercest rivals
Probably the most famous and quite a strange saga
Maybe the most famous English one?
Always chuckled at the fact FIGO looked about 47 all the time.
Lovely player
Greatest betrayals (in football)
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Always chuckled at the fact FIGO looked about 47 all the time.
Lovely player
Kanchelskis to Everton via the Russian mafia
To arsenal fans RVP is a great betrayal. Even though it shows how beta they are.
Half of the italian league
RVP?
Betrayels 
When footballers play for a football club is work, it's their job and for them just business.
Majority of cases, players playing for the club you are a fan of never grew up being a fan of the club you are a fan of. If i worked for Sony in the Playstation department i'd happily move to Microsofts Xbox department if they paid me more even though I've always played Playstation and never owned an Xbox console.
When footballers play for a football club is work, it's their job and for them just business.
Majority of cases, players playing for the club you are a fan of never grew up being a fan of the club you are a fan of. If i worked for Sony in the Playstation department i'd happily move to Microsofts Xbox department if they paid me more even though I've always played Playstation and never owned an Xbox console.
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Disagree. Denis played for City before he left for Torino. City later offered him a chance when it was clear that the Doc no longer wanted him at United.
What about McQueen and Jordan? Lee Sharp, Brian Greenhoff, Johnny Giles and Gordon Strachan and, of course, King Eric.
Mo Johnston caused an uproar when he signed for Rangers. Admittedly, he didn't move directly to Ibrox from Parkhead but my goodness there was a stink. Souness was the manager at the time and Rangers fans burned scarves and ripped up their season tickets in response to the transfer and to Celtic fans he was, of course, a Judas.
Also funny:
That was hilarious.
All those gurning foul mouthed scumbag fans getting all irate because a guy has kicked a ball into a net in a sport
This is so true!
Zlatan played for Juve, Inter, and Milan.
Players frequently move between Milan clubs too.
How is Van Persie not mentioned yet.
Maybe - depends ... as a fan or as a professional with no extra affiliation to the club?
Applying some empathy here: If the company you worked brilliantly for (assuming you do) for over a year, replaced you, decided you were surplus to requirements, and started pushing you out the door, if another another company that had the same/better prospects came in eager to snap you up, and every other option had much lesser prospects and required you to up roots and move to a new city, what would you do?
Have a good think while you take the elevator down your extremely high horse.
Selling Ronaldo to Madrid and then not getting Robben/Schneider etc. instead was a dreadful betrayal to fans.
It really says a lot about Fabian Delph's insignificance as a player that he hasn't been mentioned yet in this thread.
Went out in public promising there was no chance he would leave Villa, fecked at the first opportunity anyway.
Went out in public promising there was no chance he would leave Villa, fecked at the first opportunity anyway.
Mr. Ajax himself, Cruyff in his last (83/84) season. Its modern-day equivalent would be Messi going to Real Madrid.
There's even a book dedicated to his year-long adulterous relationship.
He won us the double and still manages to look weird in a Feyenoord shirt.
There's even a book dedicated to his year-long adulterous relationship.
He won us the double and still manages to look weird in a Feyenoord shirt.
He has been mentioned
you're not wrong!Aguero, next season, bringing the PL back to Old Trafford. You’ve heard it here first.
Re: Tevez.
I definitely felt betrayed by that. He was an important member of a successful team with us, and would have been even more so the following few years with Ronaldo leaving at the end of that season when we offered a permanent 5 year deal to Tevez. He opted instead to follow the money and join our big rivals - that was a treacherous act.
He was a very good player, and was a good team player when happy at a club. But he wasn't loyal or professional all the time and, like Mourinho, he seemed to have controversial incidents wherever he went and often left on a sour note.
At Corinthians he refused to play to push through a move to West Ham. At West Ham it was the double ownership issue. With us it was walking out on us to join our rivals. At City he kicked up a fuss, demanded a transfer, and refused to come on as a sub one game. At Juventus he asked to leave because he was homesick and wanted to return to Boca Juniors. But then, not long after re-joining them, he accepted a big money move to China for a last big pay day - criticised for his efforts there and describing it as a 'holiday' - before returning to Boca.
I definitely felt betrayed by that. He was an important member of a successful team with us, and would have been even more so the following few years with Ronaldo leaving at the end of that season when we offered a permanent 5 year deal to Tevez. He opted instead to follow the money and join our big rivals - that was a treacherous act.
He was a very good player, and was a good team player when happy at a club. But he wasn't loyal or professional all the time and, like Mourinho, he seemed to have controversial incidents wherever he went and often left on a sour note.
At Corinthians he refused to play to push through a move to West Ham. At West Ham it was the double ownership issue. With us it was walking out on us to join our rivals. At City he kicked up a fuss, demanded a transfer, and refused to come on as a sub one game. At Juventus he asked to leave because he was homesick and wanted to return to Boca Juniors. But then, not long after re-joining them, he accepted a big money move to China for a last big pay day - criticised for his efforts there and describing it as a 'holiday' - before returning to Boca.
It speaks to his insignificance as a player that I didn't even notice.
Make it happen.
Honorable mentions:-
He was
One from Norway:
Back in 2002 20-year-old Azar Karadas made the move from Brann to Rosenborg, two teams that had developed a particularly fierce rivalry during the 90s. Traditionally Rosenborg, hailing from Trondheim, had mostly been the rivals of Molde, due to the proximity of the clubs, and Bodø/Glimt, the closest other top team from "The North", but the games between the Bergen-based Brann and Rosenborg were arguably even more heated at the time, possibly due to the fact that people from Bergen and Trondheim are slightly more passionate about football than the average Norwegian. Only the Vålerenga/Lillestrøm derby in Oslo really comes close in terms of passion. Of course, nothing in Norway has ever come close to comparing to the most fervent European Ultras, so while I use terms like 'fierce' and 'passionate', we're still not in frothing-at-the-mouth territory by any means. The extent of our rivalries mostly involves calling opposition fans farmers and singing songs with low-quality rhymes about how awesome our team is and how shite everyone else is. "We are cool, we are smart. Go Start!" That sort of thing. The transfer of Azar Karadas probably displayed the worst of the worst of what we have to offer.
What happened, you might ask? Well, he was called Judas for starters. Obviously, right? That's Scorned Fan 101. Happens everywhere. In addition to that he received threatening notes in his mailbox in Bergen, saying "Never show your face here again!", and some genius also wrote "You're going to die!" in the snow in front of his apartment... in ketchup.
Karadas eventually left Rosenborg and spent a few seasons abroad, before returning home to Brann in 2007. Brann won the league title the same year, for the first time in decades, and they haven't won it since. If the animosity towards Karadas was a thing when he returned it was definitely forgotten by the end of the year. A banner was flown at the stands that read "We hated you so much because we loved you so dearly". Aww.
I guess we're not quite the ferocious raping and plundering Vikings we used to be.
Back in 2002 20-year-old Azar Karadas made the move from Brann to Rosenborg, two teams that had developed a particularly fierce rivalry during the 90s. Traditionally Rosenborg, hailing from Trondheim, had mostly been the rivals of Molde, due to the proximity of the clubs, and Bodø/Glimt, the closest other top team from "The North", but the games between the Bergen-based Brann and Rosenborg were arguably even more heated at the time, possibly due to the fact that people from Bergen and Trondheim are slightly more passionate about football than the average Norwegian. Only the Vålerenga/Lillestrøm derby in Oslo really comes close in terms of passion. Of course, nothing in Norway has ever come close to comparing to the most fervent European Ultras, so while I use terms like 'fierce' and 'passionate', we're still not in frothing-at-the-mouth territory by any means. The extent of our rivalries mostly involves calling opposition fans farmers and singing songs with low-quality rhymes about how awesome our team is and how shite everyone else is. "We are cool, we are smart. Go Start!" That sort of thing. The transfer of Azar Karadas probably displayed the worst of the worst of what we have to offer.
What happened, you might ask? Well, he was called Judas for starters. Obviously, right? That's Scorned Fan 101. Happens everywhere. In addition to that he received threatening notes in his mailbox in Bergen, saying "Never show your face here again!", and some genius also wrote "You're going to die!" in the snow in front of his apartment... in ketchup.
Karadas eventually left Rosenborg and spent a few seasons abroad, before returning home to Brann in 2007. Brann won the league title the same year, for the first time in decades, and they haven't won it since. If the animosity towards Karadas was a thing when he returned it was definitely forgotten by the end of the year. A banner was flown at the stands that read "We hated you so much because we loved you so dearly". Aww.
I guess we're not quite the ferocious raping and plundering Vikings we used to be.
Ranieri and Leicester. Did the unthinkable, then ditched him when things went south not even a season later.
I think its nowhere near some of the mentioned here.
Leeds got relegated and they can't afford Smith's wages. They had to let him go.
Tevez wanted to leave, we weren't exactly pulling out all stops to keep him.
Owen was already washed up and Liverpool weren't too arsed about it.
As an Irishman the Declan Rice ad Grealish sagas are not as straightforward as us trying to pinch non-Irish players. Grealish grew up playing for his local GAA club in Birmingham and supported Ireland as a kid, often turning up to training in Ireland kits and even played at half-time as a kid during an All-Ireland final in Dublin.
However he decided in his late teens he would rather play for England - fair enough but it did come as a bit of a surprise.
However, the Declan Rice one was even harder to swallow as he had played for the first team and had often shouted about being Irish from the rooftops, even going as far as posting pro-IRA comments on social media and then suddenly declaring he would rather play for England.
It was interesting that him posting comments on social media in support of a paramilitary terrorist group never resulted in the same media scrutiny as James McClean not wearing a poppy.
Also as for Ireland taking players from NI, it's well-known that the overwhelming majority of Catholics in NI identify as Irish not Northern Irish or British. Players from areas like Derry would be unlikely to be able to represent Ireland at underage level, due to scouts not having access to them. They couldn't play for Ireland until they were established at a higher level and more visible.
Again I totally get the frustration about losing players after spending years developing them - to be fair it's something FIFA could nip in the bud but then is it fair to expect 12-3 year old teenagers to make decisions that will affect their future livelihoods at such a young age?
There is also an acceptance that playing for England is much more profitable for a young player's career than NI, Scotland, Wales or Ireland.
Gareth Bale's decision to declare for Wales and not England, against his agent's advice, cost him millions in lost sponsorship revenue according to the same agent - who also happens to be the agent of Jack Grealish.
Plus when Declan Rice joined a new agency a few years ago one of the first things he did was declare his interest in playing for England and not Ireland. It's another examples of fans being tribal and feeling betrayed by the career choices of professional athletes who don't even know they exist.
If anything, the actions of Rice and Grealish might give the FAI a kick up the backside to spend more resources developing youth at home - I doubt it though.
However he decided in his late teens he would rather play for England - fair enough but it did come as a bit of a surprise.
However, the Declan Rice one was even harder to swallow as he had played for the first team and had often shouted about being Irish from the rooftops, even going as far as posting pro-IRA comments on social media and then suddenly declaring he would rather play for England.
It was interesting that him posting comments on social media in support of a paramilitary terrorist group never resulted in the same media scrutiny as James McClean not wearing a poppy.
Also as for Ireland taking players from NI, it's well-known that the overwhelming majority of Catholics in NI identify as Irish not Northern Irish or British. Players from areas like Derry would be unlikely to be able to represent Ireland at underage level, due to scouts not having access to them. They couldn't play for Ireland until they were established at a higher level and more visible.
Again I totally get the frustration about losing players after spending years developing them - to be fair it's something FIFA could nip in the bud but then is it fair to expect 12-3 year old teenagers to make decisions that will affect their future livelihoods at such a young age?
There is also an acceptance that playing for England is much more profitable for a young player's career than NI, Scotland, Wales or Ireland.
Gareth Bale's decision to declare for Wales and not England, against his agent's advice, cost him millions in lost sponsorship revenue according to the same agent - who also happens to be the agent of Jack Grealish.
Plus when Declan Rice joined a new agency a few years ago one of the first things he did was declare his interest in playing for England and not Ireland. It's another examples of fans being tribal and feeling betrayed by the career choices of professional athletes who don't even know they exist.
If anything, the actions of Rice and Grealish might give the FAI a kick up the backside to spend more resources developing youth at home - I doubt it though.
I agree.
with Tevez, it wasn’t the move to City per se. Many players have done it. It was the RIP Fergie element.
if we really wanted to have kept him, we would have offered him a contract sooner, not at the last minute.
Gotze. Lewandowski.
Bale is a welsh legend, he’s probably their 2nd greatest player (behind John Charles). I doubt any potential money ‘lost’ matters to him one bit.
all three players you’ve mentioned have made good footballing decisions. I seriously doubt money makes a difference.
Rice was born in England, and to English parents. If anything, the decision to represent Ireland at youth level was the misstep.
I agree about Bale, was similar with Giggs. Martin O'Neill said Rice's father was really keen for him to declare for Ireland whereas Grealish's dad was pushing for him to declare for England.
True but there was a movement to get him to declare for England and not Wales, no doubt fuelled by the fact he played for England Schoolboys.
Not really anything to do with the above. One of the first things Levy did was to sack Graham, and there were (and have always been) fumes around him that he makes Harry Redknapp look like an honest accountant. As he's not worked again since, I'd say that it looks very much 1 + 1, but I don't think it was ever verbatim
Giggs was eligible for England Schoolboys because he was in school in England at that stage, but he would never have been eligible under FIFA professional teams.
Bale had a tenuous eligibility due to a grandmother, however.