Who ate all the pies?
Rojo not the first footballer to go bananas for eating on the pitch
Headlines would have you believe that the most interesting thing that happened during the two legs of Manchester United’s tie with FC Rostov was nothing to do with football.
Rather, it was the sight of Manchester United defender Marcos Rojo eating a banana during the second half of the second leg, a limp encounter that United won 1-0 to edge the tie 2-1 on aggregate. The Argentina international was handed the peeled fruit by substitute Ashley Young as a measure to counter against the defender’sdefender s fatigue.
Cynics will assume that manager Jose Mourinho, the man who handed the banana to Young, was using the fruit as another barb on which to skewer those he believes to be out against his United side – which includes everyone from UEFA to the Premier League – as he speaks out against a build-up of fixtures and fatigue that threatens to derail his season. Others took it on face value: Rojo needed some more energy in order to finish the game.
Either way this was the incident that made headlines and was perhaps the most talked about event of that Europa League match day – a round of 16 fixtures which also included 10-man Besiktas crushing Olympiacos, Schalke coming back to edge Monchengladbach on away goals and Roma failing to edge Lyon. Based on social media going into full-scale meltdown, you would think a player eating on the pitch had never happened before. But – as with everything that modern football fans think – plenty of other footballers have gone bananas when it comes to eating on the field.
Dani Alves – Barcelona v Villareal – April 2014
Barcelona’s Brazilian fullback was waiting to take a corner at Villareal’s El Madrigal stadium when one home fan tossed a banana onto the pitch. Alves took a bite and began an anti-racism campaign on social media backed by his club and country teammate Neymar, many other highprofile footballers and even politicians. While the throwing of the fruit was a genuine racist incident – Villareal banned the fan for life – it emerged that the social media campaign was pre-planned by Neymar and a Brazilian PR company as a way to highlight the problems still faced by players of color in Spanish football. Incidentally, Barcelona won the game 3-2. Interestingly, Alves was not the first player to think of silencing the racists this way. West Ham United’s George Parris recalled an incident during the 1980s when he ate a banana tossed at him from the away end at Upton Park.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic – Bastia v PSG – April 2014
There is a certain irony to throwing peanuts at a player as well-paid as Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and that sharpens when he doesn’t monkey about on the pitch – he was well on the way to his second of four league titles in a trophy-laden stay in Paris by April 2014. But none of that stopped one home fan trying to hit the Swede with a bag of peanuts when Ibrahimovic was awaiting a corner in PSG’s Ligue 1 match away to Bastia. Ibrahimovic responded by eating them and then, to have his cake and eat it, scoring the third in a 3-0 win.
Rio Ferdinand – Manchester United v Charlton Athletic – May 2006
The Manchester United defender was so untroubled in his side’s 4-0 win over Charlton Athletic in the Premier League that he found time to eat Jaffa Cakes during the game. Ferdinand managed the full 90 minutes so the snack must have helped, something that may have been in his mind when he ate a banana while playing in the Asia Dream Cup charity match in the summer of 2012.
Gareth Roberts – Chester v Barnsley – December 2014
Anything that Ferdinand can do, former Wales international Roberts can do better is a sentence never heard before, but when it comes to on-pitch Jaffa Cakes Roberts took the biscuit. The Chester defender enjoyed some on the pitch in his side’s FA Cup replay against Barnsley and then went on to offer them to his teammates, his opponents and the ref. It was Chester’s last bite at the cup that season – they lost the game 3-0.
Jason Lee – Corby Town v Mickleover Sports – February 2017
When Ben Milnes scored what proved to be the winner for Corby Town ahead in their Northern Premier League Premier Division tie at Steel Park Stadium, teammate Jason Lee celebrated by grabbing a fan’s pint of cider and having a swig. Lee might have got the idea from Horsham FC striker Terry Dodd, who helped himself to a fan’s beer after missing an open goal against Hailsham in their Southern League Combination Premier Division meeting in April 2016. Dodd wasn’t drowning his sorrows, though: He’d already scored a hat trick in the 11-1 win which saw them clinch the title.
Adam Fraczczak – Lechia Gdansk v Pogon Szczecin
The Polish midfielder was waiting to take a penalty in the Polish Ekstraklasa top-flight game with rivals Lechia Gdansk when the home fans tossed a chocolate wafer sandwich close to the 12-yard (11-meter) spot. He picked it up and took a bite and gave the fans a thumbs-up before dispatching the spot kick into the goal for the equalizer.
Paul Gascoigne – Newcastle v Tottenham Hotspur – 1988
Gazza, as he was known, was the clown prince of football at the time and his response to being taunted about his weight upon his first return to St James’ Park after signing for Spurs was typical. Home fans in the Gallowgate End threw Mars Bars – a snack he had declared a liking for in an earlier interview – as the local lad waited to take a corner. Gazza being Gazza, he took a bite of one of them.
Four years later it was a Newcastle player who was making the fans eat humble pie when Mick Quinn – a striker who was regularly taunted with “who ate all the pies?” – took a bite out of a pie thrown at him by a Grimsby Town fan during a game at Blundell Park.