Yesterday, in the last minutes of the Serie A match Fc Juventus - US Sassuolo, the brasilian player Douglas Costa spat at an opponent, the US Sassuolo forward Federico Di Francesco.
The episode was not seen live by the referee, but thanks to the VAR check, the player was sanctioned with a red card.
A so bad fact that even overshadowed the first goals in Italy of Cristiano Ronaldo with his new club.
Behavior aggravated by the fact that Costa has publicly apologized to fans and teammates, but not to his opponent.
It's disgusting when it happens.
But unfortunately, sometimes in the soccer, we had to see these violent and unfair gestures that hurt the dignity of everyone, that of whom commits it, of whom suffers and of whom watches it.
Let's go to see together what are the most famous spits in the soccer story.
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Rijkaard - Voller
In the match of the '90 World Cup between Germany and Netherlands, is minute 22, when the dutch midfielder Frank Rijkaard enters tackle on the german striker Rudi Voller.
Rijkaard receives a correct yellow card, but from that moment he completely loses his head.
He spits twice at Voller and the gesture causes the reaction of the german, that angrily faces the opponent and tries to show to the referee the spit in his hair.
The final result is this: red card for both!
There has never been any public apology from Rijkaard, even if the two players seems to have reconciled through the time.
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Mihajlovic - Mutu
November 4, 2003. SS Lazio and Chelsea FC are playing a Champions League match.
Is the minute 33, and after some forbidden knocks between the two, Sinisa Mihajlovic spits at ear of Adrian Mutu.
No one sees the fact, but the serbian is so nervous that he is able to take two yellow cards in a few minutes and been expelled from the field.
After the end of the match, his gesture is heavily punished with 8 turns of stop.
Mihajlovic tries to defend himself, saying he has been repeatedly provoked, but then he apologizes to his opponent for the crazy action committed.
In 2010, they meet in ACF Fiorentina, with Mihajlovic as coach and Mutu as player.
No problem between the two and peace made.
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Totti - Poulsen
One of the most famous spits seen in a soccer match, was that of Francesco Totti to Christian Poulsen, during Italy - Denmark of the 2004 European Championship.
The mediatic impact was enormous because Totti was the star of the Italian National Team and expected as one of the great protagonists of the tournament.
Poulsen was able to provoke him with little kicks, punchs and pushs.
The derisory behavior of the danish player couldn't be an excuse for the number 10 and in fact he was punished with a disqualification of 3 turns.
Italy was eliminated in the group, also because of the controversial match between Sweden and Denmark, ended 2 - 2, a result that allowed both to go on in the competition.
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Zago - Simeone
It's well known that the Derby between As Roma and SS Lazio is always a match that heats the hearts and turns on many tensions.
So it was between Carlos Zago and Diego Simeone, when in 1999 the brazilian defender, in a close encounter with the opponent, spat at him in his face.
Even in this case, the fact had escaped the referee and this was one of the first cases of disqualification with the use of the TV check, introduced in that season.
Zago was punished with 3 turns of stop and he declared that it was not a good gesture, but that he would do anything for AS Roma.
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Thank you for reading, I hope you liked it!
See you soon!
Girolamo
Follow me and @scorum-italia
Comments