There are many moments in football when players take justice into their hands and commit some heinous fouls. These fouls are not entertained in the world of professional football and the player has to leave the game and be a spectator for the remaining part of the match.
These mistakes and walk out of players affect his team which now has to play at a numbers disadvantage and struggle. Most of the time this ends up being a loss for the team. Let’s take a look at the Top 10 red card moments in FIFA World Cup history.
10. Three yellow cards to a single player in a single game
In the 2006 World Cup matchup between Croatia and Australia, referee Graham Poll handed out four cards to the same player for his continuous fouls and intolerable behavior.
The Croatian defender Josip Simunic was in a foul mood that day when he was shown a yellow card for a foul which didn’t seem like a foul from different angles. However, Josip was frustrated by this and committed another foul mid-match.
It went overboard for Josip when referee Graham Poll handed out the third yellow card to the Croatian left back followed by a red card to throw him out of the match. The last foul was however not Josip’s doing, it looked like he was shown the card for his foul behaviors with the ref.
9. Maradona’s first and last red card
Diego Maradona is without any hesitation one of the best footballers of all time. However, the player was once sent off the field for his foul in a World Cup matchup.
It was the 1982 World Cup match between fated rivals Brazil and Argentina. Maradona hit Joao Batista in his groin which resulted in him being handed out the only red card in his career for his nation. Now, all Maradona could do was watch his team’s defeat and elimination from the tournament.
8. Claudio Caniggia’s legendary red card
Claudio Caniggia was benched for the first time in a while following his severe knee injury. In the 2002 FIFA World Cup group stage matchup between Argentina and Sweden, it was the first time people had seen a referee showing a red card to a player sitting on the substitution bench.
In the near halftime of the match, Claudio used foul language against the referee of the match Ali Bujsaim, which made the ref unhappy and he showed Claudio a red card after pausing the game. This made Claudio the first ever player to get a red card without even touching the ball.
7. David Beckham’s crucial red card
In the round of 16 of the FIFA World Cup 1998, England was destined to fight for glory against Argentina. The matchup was equal and both the parties were playing extremely well.
The scoreline was tied at 2-2 when Diego Simeone of Argentina fouled on England’s ace. David gave up on his anger and in retaliation kicked Diego. The referee saw this and instantly got his hands in his pocket to take out the shining red card and showed David Beckham his way out of the field.
This proved to be fatal as England went on to lose the match and were eliminated from the tournament.
6. Luis Suarez handball
Luis Suarez’s whole career is surrounded by controversies all around. One of those controversial moments came in the Quarterfinals of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The quarter-final was fought between Uruguay and Ghana in the Soccer City stadium.
Very late into the match when the scoreline was tied 1-1, Ghana had a chance to score the finishing goal which one of their players shot too. But Courtesy of Suarez’s handball, the ball never hit the net. However, the player was punished with a red card for his intervention.
This also awarded Ghana with a golden opportunity in the form of a penalty which they failed to convert into a goal. Ghana lost the quarter-final going into the penalty shootouts which resulted in 4-2.
5. Two red cards at once
The 1990 FIFA World Cup Final was surely one of the most entertaining finals to date. The matchup was full of action and thrill to all the audience watching this. The match saw two players being sent off at once.
The final was fought between Germany and Netherlands. Where there was a separate rivalry that was taking shape as the match progressed. Voller and Rijkaard were both already shown yellow cards for their fouls and behavior.
Rijkaard had spat on Voller’s head which made him mad and started a heated argument between the two. Then after some time, Voller was suspected of committing a foul and showed a red card after an argument with the referee. However, Rijkaard spat on Voller again and this time it didn’t go unpunished as he was also shown a red card instantly. The match was now 10 vs 10.
4. Ronaldo’s villainous wink after Rooney’s red card
In a 2006 matchup between England and Portugal, England lost in the penalties due to the man disadvantage after their starplayer Rooney was shown a red card in the second half.
Rooney had stomped on the opposition player Ricardo Carvalho. Ronaldo came running to the scene and was aggressively asking the referee to issue a red card to the English player. Horacio Elizondo was the referee of the match and he after some time pulled out the red card on Rooney.
However, when Rooney was walking out of the field, the cameras spotted Portugal’s starplayer Cristiano Ronaldo winking. Seeing this all the England supporters now thought of Ronaldo as their villain as they had to lose the match in penalties.
3. Zidane’s red card headbutt
The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the last world cup of French team ace Zinedine Zidane. He had performed exceptionally well throughout the whole world cup and had taken his team to the Finals of the World Cup.
However, in the last World Cup match of his career, it didn’t go well for the Frenchman as Zinedine was sent off in the overtime of the matchup. When Materazzi said something to Zidane, he snapped and with full force hit his bald head on Materazzi’s chest.
Materazzi fell to the ground in sheer pain while Zidane was shown the red card by the referee which marked the end of his service to the nation. To make things worse France lost the match in the penalty shootouts to Italy.
2. Fastest red card
The record for the fastest red card in World Cup history goes to the Uruguayan professional footballer Jose Batista. As soon as the match had started, Jose tackled a Scotland player who was crying in pain.
The minute hand on the clock hadn’t even moved before the referee blew the whistle and pulled out the red card to send off Jose Batista after just 54 seconds.
1. Four red cards in a single match
Also popularly known as the ‘Massacre of Nuremberg’, this round of 16 matchup between Portugal and the Netherlands was written down in the history books for the most number of cards shown by a referee in a single match.
The very popular Russian referee Valentin Ivanov pulled out 16 yellow cards that match. On top of that, he went on to show the red card to 4 players sending them back to where they came from.
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