“It was just the most insane thing ever.”
Craig Bellamy tells an unknown side story to the infamous incident involving himself, John Arne Riise, Karaoke and a golf cub, and it’s even more crazy.
Bellamy was at Liverpool at the time, and just as they were preparing to play Barcelona in the Champions League, the team were sent on a training camp in Portugal.
After the camp, they were allowed to go out to play some golf and have a night out, which is where things began to go wrong. Bellamy was convinced that Riise was cheating during the game of golf and started to get annoyed with his colleague.
Craig Bellamy tells in brutally honest detail what exactly happened between him and John Arne Riise
Then after a few drinks on the night, the former Premier League star explains to Gary Neville on The Overlap, exactly what happened.
“During that night, after a few drinks it was like karaoke songs, because Javier Mascherano had signed for us and one or two new players had to sing a song as part of the initiation.
“But he (Riise) had to sing a song because we had a Christmas Do, and he didn’t turn up to it. He said he was going back to Norway, but he didn’t go back to Norway and we found out about it afterwards, so he had to sing a song as well as pay a fine.
“So as it’s going round, I was like ‘you have got to sing’ but he was dead against it. You know when someone is dead against something and doesn’t want to do it – I seem to want to push it more then.
“I was like ‘no you have to’ and it kept going back and forth and he said ‘Look, I ain’t f***ing singing, and stop trying to f***ing make me’.
“So I have took offence, and I think he said something a little bit more to that. So I’m with Sami Hyppia, and as this is going on, I’m getting more and more unhappy with it.
“So he’s gone, but the more it has gone on I’m like, I’m not accepting that. So I carried on thinking about it, it’s festering in my head, more drink is going in, and I’m not using that as an excuse.
“But then I started remembering little moments like when he elbowed me in training, just little petty stuff and I was like this has been going on for a while now, and it just exaggerates it all even more.
“So me, him and Steve Finnan are sharing rooms, we go back, and I said ‘I’m not having this, whose room is he in?’ And it was Daniel Agger’s so I said to Steve ‘what club in here don’t you like?’
“He said the 8-Iron, so that’s coming with me, I’ve got it and said ‘I’m going to find him, you can either stay here or come’ so he’s coming with me.
“I’m quite embarrassed about this, this is not a good moment for me at all, but you have to own it, it’s a ridiculously pathetic act that it would be unfair for me to not want to talk about it, and I’m not proud when I talk about it.
“So I knock the door, no answer, so he leaves the door on the latch because he thinks it’s Daniel Agger, so he’s gone back to bed but I come in, turn the light on, and I swore a hell of a lot at him.
“I smacked him across the legs, which is not a good thing to do but there was no like smacking him across the head or anything – so got him in a corner, he’s got the bed sheets around him, and I said ‘if you ever speak to me like that again in front of people’ and I started turning it into a riddle where I said ‘if you’re unhappy with this then you can come and see me tomorrow morning.’
“It was just the most insane thing ever.”
Craig Bellamy tells unknown side story to ‘John Arne Riise golf’ incident
“I called him a liar on live TV!” 🗣️
This week, we’re at The Cube with Craig Bellamy where he reveals all on his fascinating career with @GNev2 in this exclusive interview!⁰
🏌️Golf club fight with John Arne Riise
🤝 Working with Sir Bobby Robson
😡 Newcastle fall-out! pic.twitter.com/QiCP5hADIP— The Overlap (@WeAreTheOverlap) October 25, 2023
What beggars belief is this wasn’t even the worst thing that happened that night in terms of Liverpool players having too much to drink and getting in trouble with the law.
“Believe it or not, there was a madder story that went on before it. Jerzey Dudek was out that same evening, he was told to leave, he wouldn’t leave, they brought security in, they then brought the police in, then as he’s being wrestled by the police he head-butts a security guard.
“So he gets put into a riot van, and Rafa Benitez had to then that night go into the police station, get Jerzey out – he’s scarred because the police didn’t take too kindly to what he had done.
“Then obviously he’s gone from there, John Arne has gone and see him, and he has to deal with that too.”
“It’s no wonder we won the league”, laughed a gobsmacked Neville.
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