From burglar-busters and one-punch Chilean knock-out artists to an Australian honey badger and King Eric, we touch gloves with the players who just couldn’t help getting riled up in the name of the beautiful game
Words Si Hawkins
GENNARO GATTUSO
Credentials The beast to Andrea Pirlo’s beauty for Milan and Italy, Ringhio (‘The Snarl’) was the most terrier-like of midfielders, scurrying about, barking at bigger boys and pissing up their legs (probably). Televisual highlights don’t really do justice to the full narrative arc of his aggro: the deceptively mild early clash, the sinister simmer and the eventual boil-over followed by a ludicrous tackle and glorious multi-player free-for-all. It’s almost operatic.
Angriest moment Explicit challenges aside, Rino’s most mad-eyed moment was the furious, topless headbutt on the fearsome but venerable Tottenham assistant Joe ‘Jaws’ Jordan, another Rossoneri legend. Gattuso blamed that 2011 skirmish (right) for him not getting the Spurs job a decade later, though some inadvisable comments about all sorts of best-avoided issues didn’t help, either.
RAGE RATING
DIEGO COSTA
Credentials Was he constantly on the edge, or did Costa pull one of the great footballing con tricks? So much opposition energy was spent on winding him up, yet he never saw red in the Premier League – until this season, playing for Wolves, butting Brentford’s Ben Mee. Diego’s repertoire of s**thousery also included biting, slapping, poking, stamping, simulating and saucy-gesturing, and he was even labelled a cheat by one of his Chelsea team-mates: the cat-kicking Kurt Zouma.
Angriest moment He did get an early bath in Chelsea’s 2016 FA Cup defeat to Everton (above right), going all misty-eyed after close attention from Gareth Barry and enjoying a vampiric nuzzle on his neck, then gesturing at Toffees fans. Barry played down the bite, while Chelsea boss Guus Hiddink suggested taking Costa to the pictures. Which movie? Anger Management, obviously.
RAGE RATING
PEPE
Credentials Another master of the dark arts, Pepe is now grudgingly admired due to the longevity of his intensity. The 39-year-old has mellowed since leaving Real Madrid in 2017; back then (above right), he was explosive, win-at-all-costs and content to seem an oddly fragile hard man, always on the floor or up in the ref’s grill after any provocation.
Angriest moment The Real Madrid-Getafe derby, April 2009. The Azulones’ Francisco Casquero went down pretty easily, true, but Pepe’s combination ankle-kick, neck-volley, knee-in-the-back and double-stamp would have been a tad too much in Street Fighter – thankfull
