After ‘I will murder you’ yells and fists are launched at halftime, Spurs players are torn apart.
Midway through the game, two Tottenham players got into a furious argument in the locker room over who was in charge of set-pieces.
The altercation that Sandro broke up in the locker room during halftime of a game has been described by the former Tottenham star.
The Brazilian midfielder, who played at White Hart Lane for four seasons between 2010 and 2014, was compelled to intervene when two of his Spurs teammates got into an altercation in the middle of a match. A argument over a free kick led to the brawl.
Left-back Benoit Assou-Ekotto typically handled set-piece responsibilities, but creative spark Rafael van der Vaart wanted to take over that role, so he illegally took advantage of a promising free-kick opportunity.
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Assou-Ekotto didn’t take well to that, as Sandro recounted in a recent interview. Assou took this very personally, he exclusively revealed to Ladbrokes Fanzone.
He was quite unhappy since he believed that was his ball and that he should have shot. As a bunch of guys playing with him, we usually simply let Assou do whatever he wanted to do—let him be, you know?
He was furious at the time. When we enter the locker room during halftime, Rafael is being punched by him! He was resisting my attempts to grab hold of him since he was so powerful, then I grabbed hold of him and dragged him away from Rafa.
“[He’s saying] ‘why did you take the shot? Why did you do this? It’s my ball, my friend… you don’t take it! Next time, I kill you!’ He was so angry. The next day, we turn up to training and Van der Vaart comes over to me and says ‘Sandro, you saved my life… thank you very much’.”
Assou-Ekotto himself first spoke publicly about the fight, telling The Athletic in February 2022: “After that, we became even more close. On the Sunday I had the fight with him, then a few days later he gives me the ball and I score against Everton. He was happy and we were close.”
Jermaine Jenas, meanwhile, said the pair were “going at it naked” on talkSPORT last September. “We get in, everyone is getting changed and then suddenly I hear this commotion in the showers It’s Rafa and Benoit going at it, naked! It got stopped pretty much immediately,” he said.
