Five football players who fell out with their club

Yaya Toure Photo: Paul Ellis

Yaya Toure Photo: Paul Ellis

Published Sep 21, 2016

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Four-time African player of the year Yaya Toure is out in the cold at his club Manchester City after Pep Guardiola said he would not play until his agent apologised for remarks he made.

AFP Sports looks at five other examples of players who either refused to play or were barred by the manager from doing so:

Bastian Schweinsteiger (Manchester United)

The former Bayern Munich enforcer has incurred the wrath of Jose Mourinho by turning down a loan move to Portuguese side Sporting Lisbon after being told by his coach that he would not feature for United this season.

The 32-year-old is training on his own and rolling up to pick up his wages of a reported £190 000 a week.

Carlos Tevez (Manchester City)

The adrenalin burn Argentinian international striker played up to his nickname of 'Apache' by refusing to warm up to potentially go on as a substitute in the last moments of a Champions League match in September 2011 with Bayern Munich. City coach Roberto Mancini said Tevez, then 28, would never play for City again.

But a combination of his massive wages and the huge fee City were asking meant there were no takers, as Tevez holidayed in Argentina and considered retiring before eventually returning to the first team in March. He was to leave in 2013 for Juventus.

Pierre van Hooijdonk (Nottingham Forest)

The Dutch international striker's goals had been instrumental in Forest returning to the Premier League at the first time of asking but went on strike at the beginning of the 1998/99 season because he was furious key players had been let go. He then trained at his old club NAC Breda and demanded a move which was rejected.

He yielded only when the club would not budge and then manager Dave Bassett felt compelled to play him. The depth of antipathy at the club was reflected when he scored his first goal on his return and the players congratulated Scott Gemmill for creating the chance and not him. Forest were relegated and he left, Vitesse Arnhem buying him for £3.5million.

Dimitar Berbatov (Tottenham Hotspur)

The moody Bulgarian international striker tested the patience of the Spurs hierarchy and manager Juande Ramos as he looked to engineer a multi-million pound 'dream' move to Manchester United at the beginning of the 2008/09 campaign.

Appropriately for a player who learnt English by watching the Godfather films he awaited an offer Spurs couldn't tun down. He refused to play in the Premier League game with Sunderland and was threatened with demotion to the reserves. Spurs complained to the Premier League about United 'tapping up' the striker but eventually sold him on September 1 that season for £30million.

Winston Bogarde (Chelsea)

Another Dutch international to cause his club endless headaches. Signed aged 30 and apparently without the knowledge of then Blues manager Gianluca Vialli in the 2000/01 season, the latter's successor Claudio Ranieri disliked him so much he wanted the player to leave just weeks later.

Bogarde dug his heels in and stayed for four years, despite being dropped first to the reserves and the the youth team. He justified his behaviour by declaring in his biography: “This world is about money (he was on a reported £40,000 a week), so when you are offered those millions you take them. Few people will ever earn so many. I am one of the few fortunates who do. I may be one of the worst buys in the history of the Premiership but I don't care.”

AFP

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