Percy Onyeka
Felipe Melo, a fluminese midfielder, and Kyle Walker, an English right-back, got into a furious altercation during Friday’s Club World Cup final at the King Abdullah Sports City Stadium in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Manchester City won their fifth trophy of the year with a convincing 4-0 win over Brazil’s Fluminese, with goals from Julian Alvarez, Phil Foden, and Nino scoring an own goal.
Midfielder Jack Grealish was also involved in the scuffle and appeared to have started the fight.
A clip from the game appeared to show Melo, 40, running to approach Walker, who was walking ahead of a number of his City teammates following the full-time whistle.
Speaking after the game, Felipe Melo claimed that Jack Grealish was disrespectful to his teammate and Fluminese as an institution, and he ‘would never allow that.’
He said, “When the game ended, Grealish went after Martinelli. He chose a little guy. He has no balls to face a big one.
“Grealish was passing close to Martinelli, and I saw them talking, forehead to forehead, so I went after him. I pushed him. Walker pushed me, too. I went to defend a teammate. I defended my institution. I will do this forever. No one will disrespect my institution or its athletes. No one will come and humiliate my friends or my club.
“I didn’t want a mess. Grealish was disrespectful towards the Fluminense institution, and I will never let that happen.
“He was shouting ‘ole’ at the end of the game. This is something that the fans can do; not a player or an athlete on the field cannot be disrespectful.
“I went to defend Martinelli, who was being cornered by this athlete. And I would do it again. I am a warrior. Nobody can ever crow with a rooster.”
Some Fluminense stars, including Martinelli, gave a similar version of events, but Grealish dismissed the argument on X, formerly known as Twitter.
The 28-year-old said, “Not once did I say ‘ole’.”
