JOHN ARNE RIISE: 'I CAN FORGIVE CRAIG BELLAMY, BUT NOT FORGET – I DON'T WANT HIM IN MY LIFE'

John Arne Riise says he can “forgive” Craig Bellamy for attacking him with a golf club – but insists he doesn’t want his former Liverpool team-mate in his life.

Former Reds defender Riise has had a long-running feud with Bellamy, currently the manager of the Wales national team, since their infamous bust-up in 2007. Tensions boiled over in their team hotel the night before a Champions League clash with Barcelona, after which a drunken Bellamy stormed into Riise’s room and assaulted the Norwegian with a golf club, striking him on the hip and thigh.

Liverpool went on to beat Barcelona 2-1 in the last-16 tie, with Bellamy scoring and astonishingly setting up Riise’s goal, while the Welshman even dared to mimic a golf swing for his celebration. It seemed the pair had managed to put the shocking incident behind them.

But Riise has still not forgotten the wild events which saw Bellamy fined £80,000, nor his satirical sense of humour, which he claimed made him want to “knock Bellamy out”. The 2005 Champions League winner, 43, revealed he has no intention of reconciling with the now-manager, deeming him to have crossed a line.

Speaking to Ladbrokes, the official betting partner of Liverpool FC, Riise said: “I don't have any contact with or preference to be friends with Craig Bellamy now, no, because team-mates shouldn't do what he did to me. Team-mates argue all the time, and things happen in training, but he went too far, so he's not a person I would like to have in my life.

“I have nothing against him; he's doing his own thing and I saw he had a good couple of years with Vincent Kompany at Burnley, and I'm glad he's doing well. But he's not a person I would like to have in my life. I can forgive, but not forget. What happened between us was forgiven a long, long, long time ago, but still, you don't forget what he did, because it was way over the line.”

Bellamy, who had joined Liverpool the previous summer and left at the end of the 2006/07 season, has been apologetic in recent times. He shared his perspective on The Overlap with Gary Neville last year.

Bellamy recalled: “Me, Robbie Fowler, John Arne Riise, Steve Finnan were playing golf and I questioned some of his shots. I felt there were certain areas where I thought it went somewhere but it ended up in a much better position.

“I started to get a bit worried when it was in the woods but it was on a tee. It wound me up a little bit, I said to Finnan, ‘he’s cheating’, and he said, ‘don’t worry about it’.

“During the night we had a few drinks and there was karaoke. [Javier] Mascherano sang for us and one or two other players had to sing a song as part of their initiation. He [Riise] had to sing a song as there was a Christmas do and he didn’t turn up, he said he was going back to Norway and he didn’t so it was part of his punishment to sing a song and pay a fine.

“I said to him, ‘you’ve got to sing’ and he was dead against it, and I seemed to push it more then like, ‘no you have to’ and it went back and forth and he said, ‘look I ain’t f****** singing and stop trying to f****** make me’.” I took offence and I’m with Sami Hyypia and I’m getting more and more unhappy with it.

“He’s [Riise] gone and I’m thinking, ‘I’m not accepting that’. Then I started remembering all the little petty moments in training where he elbowed me and thinking it had been going on for a while. Finnan and me were sharing rooms and we got back and I’ve said, ‘I’m not having this, where’s his room?’

“He didn’t know so I said, 'where’s his roommate Daniel Agger?' So we got hold of Agger and I said, ‘which club in here don’t you like?’ He said, 'the eight iron', so I said, 'that’s coming with me'. I knocked on the door, and I’m quite embarrassed about this, this isn’t a good moment and I really mean that but I have to own it, it was a ridiculously pathetic act, and I’m not proud of it.

“I knocked on the door and he didn’t answer and he gets up and leaves the door on the latch and gone back to bed as he thinks it’s Agger. I came in, turned the light on then swore a hell of a lot. People think I’ve smacked him across the head but I smacked him across the legs and then he got into the corner and got the sheets around him. I said to him, ‘you ever speak to me like that again, I’m telling you now…’

Riise claims Bellamy said: "Nobody disrespects me like that in front of the lads", and that he was "completely gone".

The Welsh winger allegedly insisted he “didn’t care” about going to jail as he continued to swing the club. His tantrum ended when he took up Riise’s offer to “fight with their fists”, responding: “Tomorrow at nine o’clock we’ll meet and finish this,” before finally leaving Riise’s room.

Join our new WhatsApp community and receive your daily dose of Mirror Football content. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.

2024-09-04T14:27:58Z dg43tfdfdgfd