Former Liverpool defender Fabio Aurelio has provided his version of the ‘bizarre’ events which resulted in the police arriving at the team’s hotel prior to a Champions League game against Barcelona back in 2007.
The Brazilian joined the Reds in 2006 and discussed the incident which saw Craig Bellamy attempt to injure teammate John Arne Riise with FourFourTwo (via Liverpool Echo), “Well, there’s that story of Bellamy and John Arne Riise in the Algarve. It was bizarre, actually. Bellamy lost his mind and went to Riise’s room to hit him with a golf club!”
“We were relaxing in Portugal before a Champions League game against Barcelona and then the police showed up at our hotel. Benitez was going crazy, but luckily it didn’t escalate further.”
The Welshman was known for his aggressive behaviour throughout his playing career and rather ironically found himself on the scoresheet alongside the Norwegian as the Merseysiders defeated the Catalan club 2-1 at the Camp Nou.
The former Cardiff City attacker celebrated the goal by swinging an imaginary golf club and our former No.12 admits that the fans must’ve been baffled by the celebration at the time.
“We played Barça and Bellamy scored a goal. The funny thing is that Riise took part in the build-up to the goal. Bellamy celebrated by swinging an imaginary golf club. The fans didn’t know why he was doing that celebration, but the players did,” Aurelio added.
The incident happened more than 14-years-ago but becomes crazier each time you hear it.
Let’s hope nothing similar happens between our current group of players anytime soon and that our players leave their aggression on the pitch.