Top 7 Greatest “Heel Turns” in Football
We’re a couple of months removed from John Cena’s shocking “Heel Turn” at Elimination Chamber, low-blowing Cody Rhodes as he formed an alliance with previous nemesis, The Rock.
For non-wrestling fans reading this blog, a “heel turn” is when a good person becomes a bad person, betraying the crowd and becoming greeted with a chorus of boos.
You may be thinking, how’s this relevant to football, well, it’s not really. But it’s an excuse for us to dive into 7 instances where footballers who were loved by their fans made the ultimate heel move.
This list is in no particular order and certainly not exhaustive.
7) Fabian Delph - Aston Villa to Manchester City
Fabian Delph ultimately went on to win 7 major honours with Manchester City, so I guess he got the last laugh, however his move to Manchester was certainly not without controversy. Just six months after signing a new deal at Villa, Delph pronounced that he would not leave Villa and couldn’t wait to captain the side. Then City came in. Placing a bid that triggered the somewhat tame £8m release clause and the rest was history. The fact that Delph was so open about his desire to stay at Villa only to leave shortly afterwards left a bitter taste in the eyes of many Villa fans.
6) Rafa Benitez - Liverpool to Everton
Okay, okay, I know this wasn’t a direct move and there was some separation between the time in which Rafa left Liverpool and joined Everton. Not to mention a brief stint at Chelsea and a more fondly remembered time at Newcastle sandwiched in between. Nevertheless, it came as a huge shock when Rafa joined Everton in 2021 having previously called Everton a “small club” in 2007. Arguably, it wasn’t the best heel turn as the Everton fans never warmed to him funnily enough and Liverpool fans were not too gutted and perhaps appreciated his efforts, lasting less than 7 months and leaving the club with them rooted to 16th and in the midst of a relegation battle.
5) Mario Gotze - Dortmund to Bayern Munich
Gotze was one of the hottest properties in football back in 2013, with a number of clubs lining up for his signature. Therefore it came with some surprise when Gotze signed a pre-agreement with Bayern Munich in the April of that year. Also making the move from Klopp’s Dortmund to Guardiola’s Bayern. What was incredibly unfortunate for Gotze was the fact that it was also the year in which Dortmund reached the Champions League Final, so he had the unfortunate privilege of watching his current team play against his imminent team, the latter of course winning the game. Worse still, Bayern would not lift another Champions League during Gotze’s time at the club.
4) Ashley Cole - Arsenal to Chelsea
Spoiler alert, this won’t be the first player to leave Arsenal to feature on this list. Ashley Cole, Arsenal invincible was on the way to becoming a club legend at Arsenal, when suddenly that all turned. It began to unravel, when it was revealed in January 2005 a not so secret meeting took place between Ashley Cole and Chelsea, including then boss Jose Mourinho, in fact, Mourinho received a £200,000 fine following this for his participation. Cole turned down a proposed new Arsenal Contract, which did not meet his valuations and switched red for blue, becoming a key part of Chelsea’s success over the following years.
3) Carlos Tevez - Manchester United to Manchester City
Scoring 19 goals in his first season, Tevez played a pivotal role in guiding Manchester United to Premier League and Champions League double in 2008. It seemed certain that Tevez would join Manchester United and Sir Alex Ferguson permantley on the back of that season, United actually triggered his £25m release clause from West Ham, however Tevez decided to join the blue side of Manchester. This was also shortly after Sheikh Mansour had completed his takeover of Man City and signalled the beginning of a potential power shift in the city. The move was surrounded with infamy, when Tevez appeared on the ‘Welcome to Manchester Billboard’ making it the most famous billboard in the sports industry.
2) Emmanuel Adebayor - Arsenal to Manchester City
What was it about Manchester City in the late 2000s, when players joined there, they really wanted to put the boot in to their former employers. Being an Arsenal fan myself, I remember this one very well and the betrayal felt with ‘that’ celebration. The move from Arsenal to Man City wasn’t in itself massively controversial, although Adebayor was a key player for Arsenal, Robin Van Persie (who could have also easily made this list!) was clearly the key man. What made this one of the great football heel turns however was the moment when Adebayor powered Shaun Wright-Phillips’ header past the goalkeeper to put the game out of Arsenal’s reach. Whilst I’ll never understand players who don’t celebrate against their former clubs, Adebayor took it to the opposite end of the spectrum, sprinting the length of the pitch to knee slide and celebrate directly infront of the travelling Arsenal fans.
1) Luis Figo - Barcelona to Real Madrid
You know a football heel turn is good when Netflix release an entire documentary about it… Luis Figo, you may have won this one. A paragraph on a blog post probably doesn’t do this one justice, in isolation it warrants a story in itself and I highly recommend the Netflix documentary ‘The Figo Affair’ if you have not already watched it. Florentino Perez vowed to make Figo a Real Madrid player and eventually, he did, paying one of the most expensive release clauses ever paid at the time at approx. 60 million Euros. Understandably, Figo was met with with a hostile reception upon his first return to Barcelona in a Real Madrid shirt. Most notably, Figo was subjected to having numerous objects thrown towards him including a pig’s head. This level of heat is why I believe, Figo made the ultimate Football Heel Turn.