WATCH: What Happened When Tevez Tried To Take A Penalty Away From Ronaldo In 2007
REUTERS/Nigel Roddis
Paris Saint-Germain stars Edinson Cavani and Neymar have recently been in the headlines due to their spot-kick incident. The two supposedly have bad blood between them, after the former rejected the Brazilian’s request to let him take the penalty which was awarded in the second half of PSG’s 2-0 win over Lyon.
The club’s penalty duties are currently assigned to the Uruguayan striker, but since the arrival of world-record signing Neymar from Barcelona this summer, the role seems to have become a heated topic at Parc des Princes.
The £198 million man, who decided to leave Lionel Messi’s shadow in order to rise to the top of world football, wants the spot-kick duties to be handed over to him, especially after the 30-year-old striker missed ‘The Penalty’ which started the dispute in the first place.
However, many thought that the momentary clash between the two alpha forwards of the club would come to an end after the match, but to everyone’s astonishment, that wasn’t the case. The drama on the pitch has continued, with rumours of fights almost breaking out in the dressing room, and Cavani storming out of the stadium.
Amusingly, PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi tried to resolve this issue by offering Cavani a whooping €1 million to hand over his penalties duties to Neymar, but only faced rejection from the Uruguay international’s end.
Even though this is not the first time the two players have wrangled over the spot-kick role, it is arguably a very childish issue. Top clubs have faced these kinds of problems numerous times, and one very similar incident took place in 2007 in England, when Manchester United faced Derby County.
The players involved were Red Devils’ superstars Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez, but the way they dealt with the matter is a total contrast to what is currently happening in Paris.
Tevez, who was on a hat-trick, simply asked the regular kick-taker, Ronaldo, to let him take the penalty, but the United No. 7 refused, and that was all. In fact, as per Daily Mail, the then United manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, even snubbed all rumours of a disagreement between his players after the game.
Ferguson stated: “Carlos Tevez is making a great contribution this season. Cristiano is our regular penalty-taker so I can understand why he wanted to take it, but it would have been great for Carlos if he had scored a hat-trick.”
Written by Sidharth Jindal 
Sports fanatic with a passion for writing (predominantly football) and “Wants to live life to its fullest.” Writes about the Premier League on his personal blog.
