Pepe receives 17th career red card after being sent off vs Sporting Lisbon | OneFootball

Highlights

Former Real Madrid defender Pepe was shown a red card on Monday night during Porto's match against Sporting Lisbon after swinging his arm in Matheus Reis' face early in the second half of the game. This latest incident takes his tally of red cards over his career to 17 with club and country, with his disciplinary record over the years absolutely shocking.

The 40-year-old has made a name for himself after consistently fouling opponents and playing right on the limit when it comes to aggression. And with him taking to the field on Monday night for one of Liga Portugal's biggest games of the season, there were always likely to be fireworks.

Porto and Sporting have consistently met in the Primeira Liga since 1934, with both sides making up two of the 'Big Three' alongside Benfica and winning a combined total of 49 league titles. In the 2023/24 term, they are both challenging at the top of the table once again, and came into this latest tie level on points, hoping to keep up pressure on Benfica.

Sporting made a decent start on the night and wasted little time in taking the lead. A through ball down the left released Viktor Gyökeres and after some pinball in the box, the potential Chelsea target's low effort snuck in at the near post to open the scoring.

The striker then had another goal ruled out shortly before half-time for a foul in the build-up by Eduardo Quaresma on João Mário. But the Leões were handed an advantage in a completely different way thanks to a moment of madness from Pepe.

Four minutes after the restart, play was called to a halt by the referee after Reis' went down clutching his face after clashing with the Porto defender. Checking for violent conduct, the official was then sent to the monitor where he could clearly see that Pepe had struck him, leaving him with little choice but to show a red card.

Unsurprisingly, Pepe and the entire Porto squad thought a sending off was the wrong call. He could be seen sarcastically applauding the referee alongside striker Mehdi Taremi before letting out a wry smile. With Sporting going on to lose the game 2-0 thanks to a goal on the hour mark from Pedro Goncalves, Porto were certainly made to pay for Pepe losing his temper.

Pepe's diabolical disciplinary record

Defender has been shown 212 yellow cards and 17 red cards

This latest infraction only adds weight to the argument that Pepe is one of the more dirty players to ever step foot onto a football pitch. He has never been shy of committing a foul and leaving a mark on his opponent, something which is reflected by the sheer number of yellow and red cards he has accumulated over the years for club and country.

Per Transfermarkt, the defender has been shown an outrageous 186 yellow cards in his career at club level. He has been sent off for two yellow card offences on six occasions, and has been shown a straight red nine other times. The vast majority of those came while he was at Real Madrid, with Pepe sent off six times. One of his wildest offences came against Getafe in 2009, with him given a 10-match ban consequently.

His record for Portugal, while slightly better, is still pretty outrageous too. While only being shown two red cards in his 134 games with the Seleção, he has picked up 26 yellow cards during his time with the national team.

Now approaching 41 years old and in the twilight years of his career, you might have expected Pepe to calm down over the years as he became more experienced. But going off this latest episode, he seems as well-versed in the dark arts of football as ever before.