Top 5 incidents where football stars refused to shake hands

Following Chelsea’s 2-1 win over Manchester City over the weekend, the Citizens’ manager Manuel Pellegrini seemed to ignore Jose Mourinho’s offer for a post-match handshake, instead choosing to walk straight into the tunnel.

He later said, “I didn’t shake hands. I didn’t want to.”

In that light, let us look at the top 5 bust-ups that led to players or managers choosing not to share pleasantries before or after the match.

1. Patrice Evra – Luis Suarez

The most publicised spat between footballers in recent years, Luis Suarez and Patrice Evra’s racism incident dominated headlines for long periods, for all the wrong reasons.

The issue was kicked off when Luis Suarez was adjudged to have directed racist comments towards Evra, which later led to the Uruguay international earning a 10-match ban. The Liverpool striker also appeared to move his hand away during the two teams’ next encounter as Evra offered to shake his hand.

2. Roy Keane – Patrick Vieira

In the build-up to Manchester United’s 4-2 win over Arsenal at Highbury in 2005, club captains Roy Keane and Patrick Vieira got involved in a massive argument in the tunnel as the two teams were lining up. Known to have a long and bitter rivalry, the two went right at each other, with Pascal Cygan, Dennis Bergkamp and referee Graham Poll helping break up the fight.

During the customary handshakes, Vieira was ignored by Keane, Paul Scholes and Wayne Rooney, while Gary Neville gave the Frenchman a cold stare as he shook his hand.

3. John Terry – Wayne Bridge

Things got ugly between England teammates John Terry and Wayne Bridge when the former was accused of sleeping with Bridge’s girlfriend, Vanessa Perroncel.

When the two faced-off against each other in a match between Chelsea and Manchester City, Bridge snubbed Terry’s offer to shake his hand, with it growing the tension in between the compatriots and former club teammates.

Wayne Bridge decided not to play for England thereafter, deciding that the fall-out that had followed the incident made his position in the team untenable, while John Terry was stripped of his captaincy by manager Fabio Capello.

The two avoided each other again when Chelsea played West Ham United.

4. Anton Ferdinand – John Terry

Making his second appearance in this article, John Terry was involved in another incident with QPR defender Anton Ferdinand, who is also the brother of Terry’s then-England teammate Rio Ferdinand.

This time, Terry was reprimanded for hurling racist abuses at Ferdinand, with reports suggesting that the Chelsea defender called Ferdinand a ‘f****** black c***’.

Terry later apologised, but was handed a four-match ban and a £220,000 fine.

5. Alan Pardew – Arsene Wenger

The two veteran managers got into quite a big tiff during a league game between West Ham United and Arsenal, as the two had a fight after the Hammers scored a late winner.

What started as some pushing and shoving ended with Wenger choosing not to shake Pardew’s hand after the game. The two had been involved in controversies earlier as well, when Pardew criticised Wenger for not playing an English player in a Champions League game, while Wenger accused Pardew of being a xenophobe (someone who dislikes people from other countries).