10 Footballers Who Got Kicked Out Of The Dressing Room
These guys were far from popular.
Football is a team sport.
Seems pretty obvious right? In order to enjoy success on the pitch, eleven individuals need to be able to come together as a cohesive whole so their strengths can work in harmony. So, with most players having participated in the sport from a young age you would assume that differences can easily be put aside, and that most footballers can quite literally play well with others.
But that isn't always the case...
Some footballers do not adhere to this mantra, and can very quickly become a toxic influence on a club that they have joined. In order to avoid allowing this behaviour to spread to the rest of a team, a manager will often attempt to sell a player they feel has become disruptive, or in extreme cases, banish them to the reserves.
Sometimes though, a player just genuinely isn't the right fit for the team around them, and can go on and find success elsewhere. However, throughout the history of the sport there has been a number of supremely talented players that just cannot seem to be able to go anywhere without proving fractious to the team around them.
These players drew the ire of their coworkers, and were kicked out of the dressing room as a result.
10. Dimitar Berbatov
Unlike many of his contemporaries on this list, Dimitar Berbatov was something of a consummate professional for the majority of his career, relying on his sublime technical acumen on the pitch, and largely avoiding any significant controversies off it.
So what makes the Bulgarian striker worthy of a place?
Well, after becoming one of English football's hottest properties in 2008 after netting 15 times in the previous season for Tottenham Hotspur, reigning champions Manchester United came calling, with Sir Alex Ferguson publicly declaring his interest in the forward. However, Spurs were initially unwilling to sell the player to United after agreeing a deal with the newly-minted Man City.
With the negotiations devolving into an all-out war in front of the eyes of the press, Berbatov was banished from Spurs' first-team dressing room and sent to train with the reserves until the situation was finally resolved and the move completed a month later.