10 Sets of Football Teammates That Openly Disliked Each Other

It’s tempting to think that all football teammates get along. After all, they spend countless hours together—training, eating, travelling, celebrating victories, and even enduring the occasional defeat. These shared experiences can forge deep bonds, almost like a second family.

But with so much time spent in close quarters, friction is inevitable. Football teams are melting pots of diverse personalities, and some players are simply destined to clash. Whether it’s a battle of egos, conflicting values, or a heated moment taken too far, some relationships go beyond mere disagreement and spiral into full-blown animosity.

With that in mind, GIVEMESPORT has delved into 10 notorious cases of teammates who couldn’t stand each other. These are the players who didn’t just fail to see eye-to-eye—they openly hated one another. Buckle up, because behind-the-scenes drama is just as intense as the action on the pitch.

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Emmanuel Frimpong and Samir Nasri

Arsenal

This feud began between the two former Arsenal players in 2011 when Samir Nasri slammed Emmanuel Frimpong for getting sent off during a 2-0 loss to Liverpool. Frimpong was just 19 years old at the time, and it was his second Premier League appearance for the club.

“Nobody needed to tell me that what I did was stupid,” Frimpong told the Athletic. “After the game, everybody came into the changing room and Arsene [Wenger] was quiet. Then Nasri basically stood up in front of everybody and said we lost the game because of me.

A few months later, Jack Wilshere took to social media to wish Nasri good luck after he left Arsenal to sign for Manchester City. Frimpong saw Wilshere’s tweet and replied: “Pffffff come on Jack.”

The comment did not go unnoticed by Nasri, who rang Frimpong to confront him. He revealed: “I took the phone and it was Nasri on the phone threatening me, telling me that when he sees me, this that. I told him, ‘I’m not one of the players that’s afraid of you. If you want us to sort it out as men, we can sort it out as men’.

“To be honest, at that time when he left Arsenal, I could tell him what I actually thought about him because he wasn’t there so I could basically let him know my feelings. So I just told him that I don’t like him, I don’t respect him and I will never respect him as a professional player.”

He added: “For me, the truth is I’ve never liked Nasri and I will never, ever like this guy. Even if he gives me five billion dollars, I will still not like him.”

Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Rafael van der Vaart

Ajax

The two former Ajax teammates clashed during an international friendly between Sweden and the Netherlands. Zlatan Ibrahimovic injured Rafael Van der Vaart and the Dutchman believes it was deliberate. In his 2013 autobiography, Zlatan revealed that he threatened to break both of Van der Vaart’s legs.

The striker told his teammate, per the Daily Mail: “I didn’t injure you on purpose, and you know that. If you accuse me again, I’ll break both your legs, and that time it will be on purpose.” Van der Vaart opened up about their frosty relationship in an interview with FourFourTwo in 2018. He said:

Kolo Toure and William Gallas

Arsenal

Kolo Toure and William Gallas had the potential to be a fantastic centre-back pairing at Arsenal, but their relationship wasn’t exactly strong. “When you play with somebody and you don’t even talk to each other on the pitch it’s really difficult,” Toure said in 2010, per The Guardian. “Me and Gallas… we didn’t talk to each other at all.”

Their relationship was so poor that Toure realised that he had to leave for the good of the team. He added: “One of us had to go and it was me. It was coming down to me really because I didn’t want to put the team in a difficult position, so I was the one who said I wanted to go.” And so the Ivorian upped and left to join Manchester City, a route many Arsenal players chose during that timeframe.

Jens Lehmann and Manuel Almunia

Arsenal

More clashes at Arsenal. Jens Lehmann wasn’t too happy with playing second fiddle to Manuel Almunia in the 2007/08 campaign. Almunia said during his time in north London, per talkSPORT: “I know he hates me. Every morning I wake up I know it’s going to be the same. I’ve had to put up with it every day since he was out of the team and even before then.

Speaking to The Athletic in 2019, the Spaniard also recalled: “The problems came when I was very excited and very fit, training well with so much energy and at that same time [Lehmann] wasn’t having his best time at Arsenal, so when Arsene Wenger decided to change the No.1, he’s a winner and he took it very badly.” It went to show that having two top class goalkeepers fighting for the same position never ends well.

Mauro Icardi and Maxi Lopez

Sampdoria

We probably all know why Mauro Icardi and Maxi Lopez aren’t exactly friends. It began when Icardi and Lopez played together for Sampdoria. Lopez offered Icardi a place to stay at his home. It didn’t go to plan as Icardi would have an affair with Lopez’s wife, Wanda Nara.

Nara would eventually leave Lopez for Icardi, and Lopez made his feelings clear when he refused to shake Icardi’s hand ahead of a meeting against Inter Milan in 2014. Speaking in 2019, Lopez revealed that he had finally forgiven his ex-teammate and even thanked Icardi for taking Nara away from him.

Teddy Sheringham and Andy Cole

Manchester United

Despite playing four seasons together and having discovered great success at Manchester United, Andy Cole and Teddy Sheringham were never friends. Cole accused Sheringham of ruining his England debut in 1995. Cole was replacing Sheringham, who didn’t make eye contact and refused his offer of a handshake. “I didn’t want to play the game after that,” Cole told The Daily Telegraph in 2019. “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. From that moment on, I knew Sheringham was not for me.” The pair were reunited two years later when Cole joined Sheringham at Manchester United.

Jamie Carragher and El-Hadji Diouf

Liverpool

El-Hadji Diouf was never the most likeable person and has taken on Liverpool legends Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher since leaving Anfield. But it’s the latter who appears to hate Diouf the most. He called Diouf “the worst footballer” he played with at Liverpool.

“The worst has to be El Hadji Diouf,” Carragher said, per the Daily Star. “Actually, I quite enjoyed playing against him as you could kick him then, can’t kick your own players.” Meanwhile, Diouf said, per SportsJoe:

Diouf launched another rant against Carragher in 2019, saying, per Goal: “Jamie Carragher, he has two left feet. He’s a right-footed player who has two left feet and he played because he was a Scouser. “If he was not a Liverpool kid, he was never going to make the career he did. But I had the [balls] to go out of my house and cash in on my talent here in Europe. Was it necessary for him to go to Inter, to Real Madrid? Has he had any offers in his life?”

Lothar Matthaus and Stefan Effenberg

Germany & Bayern Munich

Lothar Matthaus and Stefan Effenberg were teammates for both Bayern Munich and the German national team. So you’d think they’d get on quite well, but the reality couldn’t be more different. Matthaus’ failure to take a penalty for his country in the 1990 World Cup final didn’t go down well with Effenberg.

Effenberg called Matthaus a ‘quitter’ in his autobiography, and dedicated an entire chapter to his former teammate titled: ‘What Lothar Matthaus knows about football.’ It was a single blank page. In return, it’s clear that Matthaus feels the same way, as his former teammate is still referenced in a lot of his social media posts.

John Fashanu and Lawrie Sanchez

Wimbledon

Wimbledon were called the ‘Crazy Gang’ for a reason. Despite winning the FA Cup final together in 1988, a serious feud between two key players was occurring. The two clashed in training, with John Fashanu recalling the story in an interview with FourFourTwo in 2002.

He started: “I don’t like Sanch [Lawrie Sanchez] and he doesn’t like me. Sanch and I had a disagreement in training. Sanch gave me a shot and, give him credit, it wasn’t a bad shot. I thought I’d teach Sanch a lesson and gave a sweep of the legs, but Sanch has calves like most people have thighs and he didn’t move. So I gave him another couple, but Sanch came back at me.

“So I thought, ‘I’m gonna take this guy out’, and I hit him with one of the best shots I’d been training with – BAM! Take that, Sanch! – right in the solar plexus, a shot that would supposedly knock a horse down. And still he stood there. Then Terry Burton came over to break us up.” Fashanu’s only regret, he claimed, was not striking Lawrie Sanchez sooner.

Craig Bellamy and John Arne Riise

Liverpool

Craig Bellamy’s dislike for John Arne Riise stemmed from a notorious incident during their time at Liverpool. In 2007, during a team bonding trip, Bellamy allegedly hit Riise with a golf club after an argument escalated. The tension between the two was fueled by their contrasting personalities: Bellamy, known for his fiery temper, often clashed with the more laid-back Riise.

Despite this, both players remained professional on the field, but their relationship remained strained. Bellamy later admitted the incident caused a rift in the dressing room, highlighting the personal friction that impacted their time together at Liverpool. Arne Riise, meanwhile, said as recently as April, 2024: