So it turns out Patrice Evra doesn’t always “love this game”, as we saw last week when he attempted to KICK A FAN IN THE HEAD… Yep, Patrice went straight-up old-skool Street Fighter on his own fans. In fact, in his next Instagram video he should change his catchphrase from “I love this game!” to “Hadouken!”
As a result Evra was shown a red card – no surprise there – and it got me thinking about the most shocking red card moments I’ve seen in my years as a football fan. So here’s my top 10, in reverse order:
10. Eden Hazard (vs Swansea, January 2013)
Remember when Hazard was sent off for kicking the ball from under the Swansea ball boy? – Although let’s be honest; that had to have been the oldest ball boy I’ve ever seen in my life. Man was nearly as big as Hazard! He looked like he had a wife and kid at home.
9. Steven Gerrard (vs Man Utd, March 2015)
He came, he stamped, he went off… That was how you could sum up Steven Gerrard’s game. If you were late to coming back to the 2nd half you would’ve missed it. He came and went in under a minute… Sort of like my sex life!
8. David Beckham (vs Argentina, June 1998)
This was the first BIG England red card I had seen… And man did Beckham suffer. I remember the papers giving him 0/10 and costing us the tournament… Yea, cos we all know had he stayed on we would’ve beaten Argentina and gone on to win the World Cup beating the likes of France and Brazil (eyes rolling).
7. Roy Keane (vs Man City, April 2001)
I couldn’t have a list of red cards and not include the captain of red cards himself! The man who somehow brought GBH to a football pitch. This dude purposely set out to injure Alfe Inge Haaland and even admitted it in his book… “I have many regrets in my life and he’s not one of them”… Roy Keane is so scary if he fouled me I’d just say thank you!
6. Paolo Di Canio (vs Arsenal, September 1998)
Ok this one was shocking at the time, as it was so random and never been seen before, but it wasn’t THAT bad… Yea he pushed the ref, which you can’t do, but at the same time that ref needed to hit the weights! He went down like he had just been dropkicked by The Undertaker!
5. Luis Suarez (vs Chelsea, April 2013)
The biter… Still can’t work out what possessed a grown man to bite like that. Is he half footballer, half vampire? And to make it worse he went and did it again at the World Cup! Dude bites so much even Mike Tyson would be like “You got a problem!”
4. Kieran Gibbs (vs Chelsea, March 2014)
Dear Andre Marriner, Black Lives Matter!!! So The Ox handles the ball on the line and the ref sends off Kieran Gibbs! What, do all light-skin bruddas look the same? The only how it could’ve been any worse was if in his little notebook Marriner wrote down ‘Walcot.’
3. Zidane (vs Italy, July 2006)
What a way for one of the greats to go out! In his last game and in the World Cup final, Zizu charged into Materazzi’s chest like a raging bull. What did Materazzi say to get him so riled up? I can only assume it was the most brutal ‘your mum’ cuss ever!
2. Lee Bowyer & Kieron Dyer (vs Aston Villa, April 2005)
I’m not gonna lie, there was a part of me that was hoping the ref would just let them fight – the winner got to play on and the loser had to leave. It was shocking at first and then awkward a few days later when they posed shaking hands for a photo.
1. Eric Cantona (vs Crystal Palace, January 1995)
The most insane red card moment for me… I would’ve only been 10 at the time and remember thinking “Are football players allowed to do that?” Turns out they aren’t! But Cantona wasn’t someone to live according to rules.
So what do you think? Are there any I’ve missed out? Who’d be in your top 10?
