Football enemies who became friends | OneFootball

It's been said before that football is not a matter of life and death, but is actually much more important than that. It's such a competitive sport that can create some very fierce rivalries between its participants.

The tribal nature of football often means that players are constantly trying to get one over on their opponents, and this can sometimes boil over and lead to lasting feuds between two players. Similarly, even players on the same team can let their egos get the better of them, leading to division between teammates.

Some players are teammates at club level but end up coming to blows during matches between their respective nations. Or alternatively, two players could represent both sides of a bitter rivalry at club level and are then forced to put differences aside when playing for the same national team.

There are many ways for football players and managers to fall out with each other, but sometimes they are able to resolve any previous conflicts. Here at GIVEMESPORT, we're looking at ten pairs of footballing enemies who later became friends.

10 Alexis Sanchez and Marcos Rojo

Alexis Sanchez and Marcos Rojo had a strained relationship after arriving in the Premier League in the same summer window of 2014, joining Arsenal and Manchester United respectively. Sanchez represented Chile while Rojo played for Argentina and the fierce rivalry between the two nations meant the pair were frequently coming to blows in matches between the Gunners and the Red Devils.

This made things pretty awkward when Sanchez transferred to Old Trafford in January 2018 and Rojo admitted that he reacted with furious disbelief after learning the news from manager Jose Mourinho. Nevertheless, the pair were still able to adapt to being teammates, with rumours even emerging that Sanchez had made a bet with the Argentinian that Mourinho would get the sack in December 2018.

9 Andy Cole and Teddy Sheringham

Now onto a pair of players who had to put their differences aside as teammates at Old Trafford. Andy Cole fell out badly with Teddy Sheringham when he made his England debut in 1995, coming on as a substitute for the forward and getting 'actively snubbed' by his international colleague, who would go on to join him at Manchester United two years later.

Despite playing no fewer than 95 times and winning five major honours together for the Red Devils, the pair never spoke to each other but still managed to make their strike partnership work, with nine joint goal participations between them in that time, according to Transfermarkt. In 2023, Sheringham said the pair unofficially made up in a nightclub many years after they had both retired.

8 Lee Bowyer and Kieron Dyer

The infamous fight between Newcastle United's Lee Bowyer and Kieron Dyer in 2005 has gone down in Premier League folklore. With the Magpies already down to ten men and trailing 3-0 at home to Aston Villa, angry words and then punches were exchanged between the two teammates, who had to be forcibly separated by both Newcastle and Villa players.

Naturally, they were both sent off, and after Bowyer took the blame for the incident, he was banned for six matches. After a moment of madness, the two players were able to move on and play in harmony for Newcastle again, and they would also end up playing together at West Ham United between 2007 and 2009.

7 Craig Bellamy and John Arne Riise

In 2007, a feud between Liverpool teammates Craig Bellamy and John Arne Riise ironically started on a team bonding trip in Algarve in the lead-up to an important Champions League match away to Barcelona. A drunken Bellamy was angrily rebuffed by Riise after attempting to get the Norwegian to sing karaoke at a night do, and retaliated later that night by going into his room and hitting the full-back across the legs with a golf club.

Incredibly, in the subsequent match, both players managed to get their names on the scoresheet as the Reds recorded a famous 2-1 win at Camp Nou, and the Welshman even celebrated his goal by imitating a golf swing. Riise later claimed he found this gesture disrespectful, but it was clear the pair didn't let their feud spill onto the pitch, as Liverpool went on to reach the Champions League final that season, in which they were beaten 2-1 by AC Milan.

6 Frank Rijkaard and Rudi Voller

In one of the most infamous moments in World Cup history, a heated match between the Netherlands and West Germany boiled over after a clash between Dutch defender Frank Rijkaard and German striker Rudi Voller, in which Rijkaard could be seen spitting in his opponent's hair on two separate occasions. Both players were sent off for their antics.

It was a bizarre 90 seconds of a World Cup round of 16 match that would live long in the memory. However, Rijkaard accepted full responsibility for his actions in the aftermath and publicly apologised to Voller, and a few years later, the pair would star in an advert for Dutch butter together with the tagline of 'everything in butter again' - a German proverb meaning that everything is okay again.

5 Sergio Ramos and Gerard Pique

Sergio Ramos and Gerard Pique have both been presented as confrontational figures throughout their playing careers and the complexity of their relationship was always a source of fascination for viewers. For over a decade, the two centre-backs starred on opposite sides of the hugely competitive El Clasico rivalry, but had to simultaneously form a defensive partnership in the Spanish national team.

Both starred in the backline of Spain's victorious 2010 World Cup campaign and injury to Carles Puyol meant the pair starred as the centre-back pairing for Euro 2012, which also ended with Spain as champions. The two played in the same team as each other no fewer than 78 times and showed that, despite their nation's presence on the world stage diminishing, they were able to put their club allegiances aside and form a quality centre-back partnership for their country.

4 Jose Mourinho and Juan Mata

We now come to the only manager on this list, and it had to be Jose Mourinho, who almost certainly has more enemies than friends in football. It seemed likely that one of those enemies was Juan Mata, when, in the space of six months, the Spaniard went from Chelsea's star player to being sold to Manchester United after new manager Mourinho made it clear Mata was not part of his plans.

In 2016, Man United appointed Mourinho as their new manager, and most assumed that Mata's career at Old Trafford would be coming to a swift end. However, the midfielder stayed to fight for his place and remained a regular for the Red Devils, making 100 appearances and winning the Europa League and Carabao Cup under Mourinho, before the Portuguese manager was sacked in December 2018.

3 Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher

Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher went from bitter rivals on opposite sides of the Manchester-Liverpool divide in their playing careers to two of the most respected football pundits on TV. It was a stroke of genius from Sky Sports when they invited Carragher to be a regular on their football coverage alongside Neville, who had already re-invented himself on the television screen after retiring from professional football in 2011.

The articulate manner and insightful analysis offered by the pair of them, whether in the studio or behind the mic, as well as their ability to play off one another and continue a more friendly rivalry, has made them the key figures of England's leading football broadcaster. Neville and Carragher have certainly come a long way from wanting to tear into each other on either the Old Trafford or Anfield turf whenever Manchester United and Liverpool played each other.

2 Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney

Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney had already been Manchester United teammates for two seasons by the time they fell out after an incident on the international stage. In a 2006 World Cup quarter-final between Ronaldo's Portgual and Rooney's England, the latter was involved in an incident with Ricardo Carvalho, and Ronaldo successfully convinced the referee to send Rooney off, giving a wink to the Portugal bench after doing so.

Man United fans must have feared that their relationship was beyond repair, but they couldn't have been more wrong. Instead, the duo formed one of the deadliest partnerships in Premier League history, scoring 152 goals between them over the next three seasons as Sir Alex Ferguson's side won three league titles, a League Cup and a Champions League, before Ronaldo made a big-money move to Real Madrid in 2009.

1 Lionel Messi and Sergio Ramos

The ever-so-quarrelsome Sergio Ramos features on this list for the second time, and this hatred turned friendship was with arguably the greatest footballer to ever live. Lionel Messi's sheer presence in the Barcelona team from 2005 to 2021 meant the Catalans were always a force to be reckoned with, and no-one was more determined to stop the Argentinian in his tracks than the Real Madrid defender.

Despite admitting he has great respect for who he calls 'the best player football has ever produced', Ramos was sent off on more than one occasion for fouling Messi in an El Clasico. In the summer of 2021, Messi finally ended his career-long association with a financially unstable Barcelona while Ramos let his Real Madrid contract expire, and the pair ended up becoming teammates at PSG, playing alongside each other for the Parisian giants 45 times before going their separate ways again in 2023.