Alife Haaland, father of Premier League leading goalscorer Erling, was escorted from the Bernabeu after celebrating Manchester City’s equaliser against Real Madrid – but he’s not the first parent to embarrass their footballer child.
Video on social media appears to show Haaland’s dad taunting the home fans before being removed from his hospitality box during the Champions League semi-final.
Haaland waved with both hands while smiling at the crowd below him, cupping his ears to the Real Madrid fans and gesticulating, while reports in Spain suggested he threw food at the supporters.
“OK. RM was not happy we were celebrating KDB’s goal,” the former City and Leeds midfielder tweeted after the game. “Other than that we had to move because RM fans were not happy with 1-1.”
Haaland isn’t the first parent to leave their footballer child cringing with embarrassment, as these five examples show…
Adrian Rabiot
France’s defeat to Switzerland at Euro 2020 left most of us dumbstruck, but that’s no excuse for what happened next inside the stadium in Bucharest.
Video footage soon began circulating of Rabiot’s mother criticising players in the squad and lambasting their families in the stands.
She delivered scathing summaries of Paul Pogba and Kylian Mbappe’s performances to their families while in the stands.
Veronique Rabiot, Adrien's mother, picking a fight with the families of Paul Pogba and Kylian Mbappe in the stands after France's loss to Switzerland.
Like this is normal behaviour… 👀#FRA #Euro2020 pic.twitter.com/JfY0NShexv
— Robin Bairner (@RBairner) June 30, 2021
Veronique was said to have approached Mbappe’s father about his missed spot kick in the penalty shoot-out, stating: “It is embarrassing how he struck that, for a player of his level. He hit it too lightly. I hope you are going to scold him because he is too arrogant.”
This was before turning on Pogba. We’d love to seen Rabiot explain that behaviour to his bemused team-mates.
Ainsley Maitland-Niles
The last thing you need as a young professional hoping to catch the manager’s eye is your over-bearing mother ensuring your credibility is instantly torpedoed.
Spare a thought for Maitland-Niles in 2017, whose mother Jule allegedly hit Arsenal’s Director of Football before threatening to drag her son off the pitch during an under-21 game.
“I’ll do anything to make an impression this season,” the young defender said. His mother, swiftly banned from the training ground, was denied the opportunity to make further ones.
John Terry
In 2009, Terry’s mum Sue and his mother-in-law Sue Poole were cautioned after attempting to nick around £800’s worth of food and clothing from Marks & Spencer and Tesco in Weybridge.
“This will be a huge embarrassment to John,” said a Chelsea spokesman, which is some achievement considering some of the brazen stunts the former defender has pulled over the years.
READ: Ranking every Chelsea captain of the PL era from worst to best
Wojciech Szczesny
Szczesny’s display at Southampton during a New Year’s Day humbling for Arsenal in 2015 – he was at fault for both goals and then sparked up a cigarette in the showers afterwards – was enough to go back to bed for the remaining 364 days of the year.
But Maciej, his father and former goalkeeper himself, made things much worse when he claimed the Gunners’ coaching staff were giving his son ‘zero support’ and defender Per Mertesacker showed ‘the agility of a rhinoceros’.
Despite the journalistic turn of phrase, Szczesny distanced himself from his father’s comments. Unfortunately, he was distanced from the first team soon afterwards too.
Pione Sisto
We’ve definitely saved the most surreal until last. Strap yourself in, folks…
Celebrating their son’s call-up to the Denmark under-21 squad, the parents of Sisto gatecrashed his press conference and performed an ancient Ugandan tribal dance in front of a pack of startled journalists.
In fairness, rather than immediately the pair, Sisto joined in the spirit of the occasion, throwing white powder on his face and posing for snaps with mum and dad.
“Parents, eh?” he laughed afterwards. You don’t say…
