Ever since shoving the soles of his boot down the poor Xavi Alonso’s sternum during Spain’s triumphant 2010 World Cup final win, Nigel de Jong has garnished quite the reputation as being somewhat of a reckless a-hole.
Here’s the former Man City midfielder, now LA Galaxy player, showing he’s ‘still got it’ by leaving a nasty foot in on Portland Timbers’ wonderfully named Darlington Nagbe….
Yeah, that’s bound to hurt. You won’t be surprised to hear he only got a yellow.
Post match their was quite the discussion about the Dutchman’s moral compass. Big Nige however commented that it was not his intention to hurt Nagbe, per the club’s website:
It was a ball that came my way. It was 50-50 and normally I always have those balls. But I went over the ball and caught the ball a little bit and caught most of his ankle.
It was a pity; it was never my intention to hurt him. He’s a good kid, as well, and I said that after the game, as well, to him. It’s a pity, but that’s football, as well. It was never my intention, and when a ball comes in that situation, you always go for it 100 per cent.
Former Bolton midfielder and now US pundit Stuart Holden, a previous victim of another dangerous De Jong tackle in March 2010, weighed in with his own two cents on the matter, via Simon Borg of the official MLS website:
I’m sitting here and now I’m seeing this challenge first hand on Darlington Nagbe, and it makes me feel sick. Because I know what Darlington Nagbe is going through. We saw him sitting there. He had the towel over his head. We saw his body mannerism and that’s a man that knows he’s done something serious. I don’t want to speculate what it is, but I know it’s not good. And De Jong did go over and apologize, but there is absolutely no excuse for that type of challenge. We don’t need it in the game. It’s horrific. It’s horrible. And he’s going to get retroactive punishment.
Well, let’s hope so.
(Via Reddit)