These players didn’t deal well with international rejection
- Published
From trashed rooms to the entire French team taking their ball home with them
It’s World Cup squad selection time and there will be a few players left disappointed.
In 2018, what is the appropriate way to let a player down? Face-to-face? Phone call? WhatsApp? Just ghost them?
After turbulent seasons, Joe Hart and Jack Wilshere have both been omitted from Gareth Southgate’s plans.
Some newspapers are reporting, external that Joe Hart is ‘furious’ with West Ham manager David Moyes for leaving him out of the club’s final three games of the season.
Meanwhile, Wilshere seems to be looking on the bright side.
Thirty degrees in Zante in June – who wants to go to Moscow anyway?!
Could you blame the players for being disappointed though? Come on - hark back to PE lessons and remember the hot, searing humiliation of being picked last. Or even worse, when you were at the park with friends and the same thing happened.
If this rings a bell, then you'll have sympathy with the professionals who took international rejection badly.
Romario’s 1998 heartbreak
He had been one of Brazil’s inspirations at the 1994 World Cup, scoring five goals to help them win the tournament.
A calf-muscle injury was enough for Mario Zagallo to deem the 32-year-old surplus to requirements for the France 1998 World Cup.
In a now-famous press conference, Romario repeatedly broke down and wept, and eventually had to be led out in tears.
"This is a very difficult moment in my life. From now on, I will start to give value to other things," the player said, external.
Glenn Hoddle and Gazza's bust-up
“A man possessed” is how Glen Hoddle apparently described, external Paul Gascoigne’s reaction to being left out of England’s France 1998 World Cup squad.
Gazza is then reported to have kicked over a chair and smashed a lamp – perhaps to prove his aim was still as true as ever - before offering Hoddle some colourful feedback.
Hoddle told this version of the exchange between the pair in his book chronicling the 1998 World Cup campaign. Gascoigne's adviser later criticised Hoddle for the decision.
It was just weeks before the tournament that Hoddle deemed that the former England talisman had not sufficiently proved his match fitness.
It probably didn't help that just a week before, tabloids had printed pictures of Gazza out with DJ Chris Evans, tucking into a kebab. Either way, that meant Gazza’s dazzling display at Euro '96 was to be his last tournament for England.
Nasri’s girlfriend has some choice words for Deschamps
In 2014, attacking midfielder Samir Nasri had just helped Manchester City to their second Premier League title, but France manager Didier Deschamps decided that his attitude might upset the camp and so omitted him from his 30-man squad.
"As he says himself, when he is not one of the starters he is not happy and I can assure you that it shows, that others in the group feel it," Deschamps told TF1 television, external.
In the event, it was Nasri’s girlfriend, Anara Atanes who had most to say. Her tweet from the time has since been deleted, but it was so sweary and insulting to Deschamps, external that it prompted threats of legal redress for “public insult” from the manager, and was then swiftly followed up by an apology by Atanes. Messy.
Ashley Cole throws in the towel
Okay, maybe it’s a bit unfair to include Ashley Cole in this list, because his comments after being left out of Roy Hodgson’s 23-man squad for World Cup 2014 were actually very gracious.
"We have a great manager and team and I wish them only success. I will be supporting them like a true fan. Thanks to everyone for everything,"
Nevertheless, for some, his decision to retire immediately from international duty just a day after being left out of the squad had a whiff of the 'Well, I didn’t want to go out with you anyway' about it.
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The whole France squad strike following Anelka’s expulsion
There is no love lost between striker Nicolas Anelka and former France manager Raymond Domenech.
France were 2-0 down at half time to Mexico during the group stages of the 2010 World Cup, and the manager had some 'feedback' on Anelka’s performance. This allegedly prompted the latter to shout some choice words back at the coach, external.
Anelka was subbed for the second half, unsurprisingly, and also booted out of the squad.
If Domenech thought that Anelka’s exclusion might heal relations in the camp, he was wrong. Instead, the team refused to train, and submitted a letter of complaint at the French Football Federation’s decision to expel Anelka.
France finished the group in bottom place, behind South Africa, Mexico and Uruguay.
Jeepers. There you go. Quite the HR nightmare. Let’s hope for cooler heads this year. Only a game, after all, eh lads?
