We all know the tale – Craig Bellamy attacked John Arne Riise with a golf club on a training camp in Portugal before Liverpool’s Champions League clash with Barcelona in February 2007.
And then both players scored – Bellamy can be seen celebrating his goal in the above picture – as the Reds won 2-1 at the Camp Nou on their way to the final.
But the full story has never been revealed…until now. It involves alcohol (of course), karaoke and a midnight break in by an eight-iron wielding Bellamy.
Over to John Arne to tell you the rest…
Riise told the Liverpool Echo: “We were allowed to go out on a team dinner on the last night and I remember Rafa Benitez told us we could have one beer. Some had more than one.
“We had a private room in a karaoke bar. Bellamy kept saying: ‘Ginge is going up to sing’. I said: ‘No, I’m not singing. I can do a lot of things but singing is not one of them’.
“Bellamy wouldn’t leave it. I kept saying: ‘No, no, no’, but he kept on annoying me.
“When he grabbed the microphone and said again: ‘Ginge, is coming up to sing’, I went up to his face and told him clearly I wouldn’t be and to stop it.
“I left and went back to my room. I was rooming with Daniel Agger. When I heard the key in the door I thought it was Dan coming back but then the lights went on.
“Next thing I saw was a golf club smashing me on my backside.
“I jumped out of bed and was stood in my underwear while Bellamy was there shouting. He just said: ‘9am tomorrow outside my room’. I got there for 8.45am and waited until 9.10am but there was no sign of him.
“At breakfast all the boys were laughing and when Bellamy walked in they were clapping. Of course I thought about reacting. But in the end I just left it.
“Why? I’m not a fighter. Also I was worried if I did react badly it could be the end of my Liverpool career.”
Liverpool lost the second leg at Anfield but progressed to the quarter-finals on away goals, and also beat PSV Eindhoven and Chelsea before losing to AC Milan in the final.
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