Man City star Grealish told he has ‘no balls’ after he chose to ‘humiliate’ Martinelli | OneFootball

Kyle Walker steps in to protect Jack Grealish at the end of the Club World Cup final.

Man City winger Jack Grealish has denied that he shouted “ole” to the Fluminense players at the end of their Club World Cup final victory.

A Julian Alvarez brace, a Nino own goal and another goal from Phil Foden sealed a comfortable 4-0 victory for the Citizens against the Brazilian outfit to win the Club World Cup.

Tempers briefly flared after the final whistle with Felipe Melo and Kyle Walker grappling in a heated exchange as the Man City defender tried to defend Grealish from the Fluminense midfielder.

And Melo subsequently blamed Grealish for stoking tensions with the former Juventus and Inter Milan man claiming the Man City winger “went for” Matheus Martinelli.

Melo told reporters: “When the game ended, Grealish went after Martinelli. He chose a little guy. He has no balls to face a big one. He was passing close to Martinelli and I saw them talking, forehead to forehead, so I went after him. I pushed him. [Kyle] Walker pushed me, too. I went to defend a teammate…

“I also defended my institution. I will do this forever. No one will disrespect my institution or its athletes. No one will come and humiliate my friends or my club.

“I didn’t want a mess. Grealish was disrespectful towards the Fluminense institution and I will never let that happen.

“He was shouting “ole” at the end of the game. This is something that the fans can do, not a player – an athlete on the field cannot be disrespectful.

“I went to defend Martinelli, who was being cornered by this athlete. And I would do it again. I am a warrior. Nobody can ever crow with a rooster.”

Grealish, who is actually one inch smaller than Martinelli, claims that at no point did he shout “ole” at the Fluminense players, he said on X: “Not once did I say ‘ole’.'”

Martinelli also gave his view on the incident to reporters, he added: “I didn’t understand what he said, everything was in English. I wanted him to be sent to hell because he was talking aggressively to me.

“I did not talk to him at all, so why he had to come and tease me? That’s football, the guy is really also disrespectful during the game. But it’s football, life that goes on. He’s just a bad sportsman.”

Other Fluminense players were also annoyed at Grealish with Real Madrid legend Marcelo claiming: “Everyone does what they want when playing.

“All I will say about Grealish is that he has won this competition once – and I have won it four times. I would never act like that.”

And Fluminense’s Colombian forward Jhon Arias also gave his opinion, he said: “Grealish was very bad. After the fourth goal he started saying ‘ole’ and making fun of us.

“This is simply not sportsmanship. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose, but you have to be a man at all times and he lacked a man’s behaviour.

“You can’t do that after scoring a fourth goal. It’s no surprise it didn’t sit well with Felipe Melo – you know what his temper is like.”