VIDEO: Six footballers who allegedly had affairs with their teammates’ partners

There has been many broken relationships between men (celebrities) and fans are always curious to know what may have caused those breakdowns in friendship and brotherhood.

In the football space, there have been quite some controversial relationship with that of John Terry and Wayne bridge being the most dominant one arguably.

Today we look at some of the popular relationships between men that broke down because of women but the focus will be on popular footballers.

1. Mauro Icardi snatched Maxi Lopez’s wife

Mauro Icardi and Maxi Lopez were once teammates at both the national team and club side, playing for Sampdoria and Argentina before the former moved to Inter. Their friendship became sour after Lopez lost his wife, Wanda Nara to Icardi.

Nara divorced Lopez in 2013 and got married to Icardi in 2014. The marriage sparked a feud between the two Argentine footballers.

When Sampdoria met Inter in a Serie A game in April 2014, Lopez refused to shake hands with Icardi who had his hand out for it. The press dubbed the match ‘Wanda derby.’

‘Unfortunately, these things happen, it depends on the ignorance of certain people. I gave my hand, I am polite,’ Icardi said after Lopez refused his handshake.

After 8 years of marriage, Wanda and Icardi have divorced. The split occurred in 2022 as Wanda posted a picture of Maxi Lopez a few days after the divorce.

2. Thibaut Courtois and Kevin DeBruyne

Kevin De Bruyne’s ex-girlfriend Caroline Lijnen allegedly cheated on him with his Belgium teammate Thibaut Courtois, which broke the relationship between the two footballers.

Caroline Lijnen broke silence on his fling with Courtois back in 2014, claiming De Bruyne kicked into the hands of the goalkeeper by cheating on her with her best friend.

“In the summer of 2012, Kevin told me that he had an affair with my old best friend. I gave him the choice: her or me. I was ready to give him another chance, but our relationship was never the same afterwards,” as quoted by dailystar.co.uk.

“[I then went to Madrid, and even] Kevin thought that this trip was a good idea. I asked him beforehand. But then something happened that should never have happened.”

She said Courtois gave her everything she had never received from DeBruyne in their three-year relationship.

“That evening, Thibaut offered me what I had not received during a three-year relationship with Kevin. With Thibaut, I could talk about anything and everything and he had even prepared me a delicious meal. Kevin never did it for me.”

“Kevin had deceived me and I thought ‘Why shouldn’t I do that too?’”

Courtois, since his fling with Caroline, has dated four different women. Marta Dominguez, Brittny Gastineau, Elsa Izac, and now Mishel Gerzig.

3. John Terry and Wayne Bridge

In 2010, alleged news about former Chelsea skipper John Terry having an affair with his ex-Chelsea and England teammate Wayne Bridge’s wife Vanessa Perroncel broke and went haywire.

Although Vannessa still holds that nothing happened between her and Terry , the allegations led to Terry being stripped of his England captaincy in 2010 after the news broke.

“After much thought, I have made the decision that it will be best for me to take the captaincy away from John Terry,” said Fabio Capello, who was then the Three Lions manager.

Two days after the allegations surfaced, Bridge’s City teammates Carlos Tevez, Stephen Ireland and Nigel de Jong all wore T-shirts reading “Team Bridge.”

“If you acted like [Terry did] in Argentina, you’d be dead,” Tevez later said as quoted by theguardian.com.

“In my opinion, Terry has no moral code for what he did to Bridge. In my neighbourhood, if you do that, you lose your legs,” he added.

4. Ballack and Christian Lell’s Wife

Michael Ballack and Christian Lell were friends and teammates in the German youth teams but their relationship was cut short due to the former Chelsea midfielder’s alleged betrayal.

According to Christian Lell, his relationship with Michael Ballack broke down because he allegedly slept with his now ex-wife Daniella Aumann.

He revealed that the incident happened during their time at Bayern Munich and he even spoke out about the issue later via Express.

“Ballack enters into other people’s private lives and ruins them without further thought. But maybe when you are the Germany captain that’s how you think,” he said.

5. Mesut Ozil and Christian Lell’s girlfriend

Christian Lell was not lucky in his career as he suffered two betrayals from his teammates. After Ballack and his ex-wife Daniella Aumann’s affair another teammate of his, Mesut Ozil, is also rumored to have had an affair with one of his former partners.

Mesut Ozil also got involved with model Melanie Rickinger at the time that she was dating Lell

Melanie Rickinger reportedly got involved with Ozil when she was in a relationship with Lell.

6. Jean Francois Larios and Michel Platini’s wife

There is also a famous story of how the legendary Michel Platini allegedly had his teammate, Jean Francois Larios kicked out of the French national team for having an affair with his wife.

Before France hosted the 1984 European championship, Larios was ‘booted out’ of the France squad after allegedly having an affair with the wife of Michel Platini who was the captain of the French national team.

This thread of football betrayals was put together by a Twitter user with the name @modap_ which was sighted by GhanaWeb Sports.