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Football fans are amongst the most vocal sports fans in the world. That’s why the upcoming behind-closed-doors fixtures in leagues across Europe will feel so odd.
But while the majority of fans love nothing better than to cheer their heroes on, sometimes the opposite happens. Over the years, some players – even great ones – have earned the ire of their own fans. Often the fans have reason for their displeasure, but sometimes the jeers rained down on players are definitely unjustified.
Here are 5 players who drew the displeasure of their own fans.
#1 David Beckham (England, 1998-2000)
It seems hard to believe it now, but at one time, David Beckham was arguably the most hated footballer in England. In the summer of 1998, the midfielder – then of Manchester United – essentially became a scapegoat for the Three Lions’ failure in that year’s World Cup.
Beckham had been sent off during England’s Round of 16 match with Argentina for a petulant kick at Diego Simeone. And while his teammates put up a valiant effort, they ended up falling to the South Americans after a dramatic penalty shoot-out.
The feeling was that had Glenn Hoddle’s side been able to play with eleven men, they’d have won. And so anyone who wasn’t a United fan quickly turned on the 23-year-old.
Beckham received taunts and boos at practically every ground he visited during the 1998-99 season. West Ham fans even hung an effigy of him near their home ground. The media didn’t help either, with one tabloid even printing a dartboard with Beckham’s face in the centre.
Worse for the midfielder, the ire of the fans didn’t stop when he pulled on an England jersey either. Despite being arguably the team’s best player during their doomed Euro 2000 campaign, the Three Lions fans continued to jeer the United man.
After England’s 3-2 loss to Portugal during the tournament – a game that saw Beckham create both of his side’s goals – the boos became too much for him. He retaliated with an offensive hand gesture which earned him a warning from the FA.
Thankfully for Beckham, his strong performances in an England shirt eventually became too much for the fans to ignore. And when he scored the goal that sent England to the 2002 World Cup – his famous free-kick against Greece – all was forgiven. The future Real Madrid man was a hero to England fans again, the memories of his 1998 indiscretion finally erased.
#2 Jorginho (Chelsea, 2018-19)
Chelsea fans had high hopes when former Napoli manager Maurizio Sarri was brought in as the Blues’ new manager prior to the 2018-19 season. But after a strong start, things began to go wrong. Sarri’s tactical style – more commonly known as Sarriball – was seemingly found out in back-to-back matches with Everton and Spurs.
Suddenly, Chelsea fans began to turn on the Italian, and one player was seen more than anyone else as the symbol of his reign.
Midfielder Jorginho had been signed in the summer for £51m from Sarri’s old side, Napoli. And to Chelsea fans, the deep-lying pass-master represented everything that was wrong with the new manager’s regime.
Chelsea fans believed that the Italian international had been at fault in losses to Spurs and Wolves, but that wasn’t all. They felt that by deploying him as the team’s deepest-lying midfielder, Sarri was wasting the talents of fan favourite N’Golo Kante.
And so it came as no surprise that Blues fans began to vocalise their displeasure with Sarri’s regime, and with Jorginho too.
Things came to a head during a Europa League tie with Malmo in February 2019. When Jorginho was brought on as a substitute to replace Ross Barkley, the Italian was met with a merciless chorus of boos.
The distaste towards both Sarri and Jorginho didn’t go away for the rest of the 2018-19 campaign. Unsurprisingly, when the season ended, Sarri quickly departed Stamford Bridge – and headed back to Italy as the new manager of Juventus.
Jorginho though has favoured slightly better. Rather than follow his fellow Italian, he instead chose to remain at Chelsea – where, thanks to his slightly different deployment by new boss Frank Lampard, he’s finally earned the favour of the fans.
#3 Gareth Bale (Real Madrid, 2013-2020)
Welsh wizard Gareth Bale famously cost Real Madrid upwards of £80m when he moved to the Bernabeu from Tottenham in the summer of 2013. And while he’s helped to bring plenty of success to the club, he’s not been immune to the displeasure of Los Blancos fans.
Bale has won multiple trophies with Real, including 4 Champions Leagues, one La Liga title and the Copa del Rey. But only months into his career with Los Blancos, he felt the ire of the side’s fans. Why? At that stage it was honestly hard to say. Essentially, Real fans have insanely high standards, and seemingly, the Welshman wasn’t living up to them.
Despite his achievements since, Bale has never truly been accepted by the fans in Madrid. Injury layoffs and some inconsistent spells haven’t helped, but things truly began to go south in 2018.
Following suggestions in the media that the Welshman was more bothered about playing golf than playing for Real, the fans at the Bernabeu turned on him entirely.
And by the time the 2018-19 season began, the boos for Bale became so vehement that they felt deafening at times. Not one to take things lying down, the Welshman hit back. Following an international game, Bale held a flag that read ‘Wales. Golf. Madrid. In that order’.
Naturally the incident didn’t help matters at the Bernabeu. When Bale was booed mercilessly by fans during a win over Real Sociedad, manager Zinedine Zidane was forced to urge them to change their minds in a post-match interview.
As of the time of writing, Bale remains a Real Madrid player. But with his relationship with the side’s fans seemingly not improving, how much longer he’ll stay in the Spanish capital is anyone’s guess.
#4 Emmanuel Eboue (Arsenal, 2008-2009)
Ivorian international Emmanuel Eboue spent a total of 7 seasons at Arsenal, and played more than 200 games for the club. While he never won a trophy in North London, his time there was still relatively successful, as he helped Arsene Wenger’s side to the 2006 Champions League final.
However, in the 2008-09 campaign, he became a target for Arsenal fans, who felt that his performances were beginning to slip under par. Things came to a head during a match with Wigan Athletic at the Emirates Stadium in December 2008.
The match saw Wenger introduce Eboue on as a first half substitute, but the Ivorian went on to have a nightmare. Constantly losing the ball and misplacing passes, it was clear that Eboue was struggling – perhaps because he was being played in an unfamiliar position.
That didn’t seem to matter to Gunners fans, who began to boo him loudly. The crowd reaction appeared to make matters even worse, as Eboue continued to make unforced errors – even tackling teammate Kolo Toure at one point.
Eventually, Wenger was forced to bring him off, giving fans a rare example of a substitute being brought off later on in the game.
Years later, the Ivorian would admit that the crowd reaction cut deeply. In a 2016 interview, he confessed that the boos had reduced him to tears, and that he actually told Arsene Wenger he no longer wanted to come in for training.
In the end though, Eboue ended up staying at the Emirates. And in a bit of poetic justice, his first goal in the 2009-10 season came at home against Wigan – in the same match he’d been booed viciously in during the previous season.
#5 Wayne Rooney (England, 2010)
It’s one thing for fans to turn on a single player, but another thing entirely for fans to turn on an entire team. And yet that’s what happened to England during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa – with star striker Wayne Rooney coming under fire in particular.
Fans of the Three Lions – usually amongst the most vocal in support of their side at any international tournament – began to boo their side during a group stage encounter with unfancied Algeria.
Admittedly, it was hard not to understand their frustrations. Fabio Capello’s side had qualified for the tournament impressively and were amongst the favourites to win the competition outright going in.
But a 1-1 draw with the USA in their opening game quickly tempered expectations, and despite England being favoured to easily beat Algeria, it wasn’t plain sailing at all.
Capello’s men seemed incapable of stringing a series of passes together, and Rooney cut a frustrated figure isolated at the head of the team’s attack. When the match ended 0-0, the England fans’ boos were so loud that they could be heard over the sound of the tournament’s popular vuvuzelas.
Rooney himself was so angry with the crowd’s reaction that he launched an x-rated rant at a TV camera as he headed off the pitch. And while the Manchester United striker later apologised for his actions, the fans didn’t seem to feel any sympathy for him and his teammates.
England’s campaign would come to an abrupt end at the hands of Germany in the Round of 16, and Rooney’s reputation never fully recovered in the eyes of some Three Lions fans.
