‘I slapped him’… Emile Heskey got into a fight after a rival ‘Spat’ at an England legend

EXCLUSIVE: Emile Heskey claims he got into a huge brawl in the tunnel during half-time of a heated England match.

The striker, renowned for his physical strength, blistering pace, fierce loyalty, and innate eye for goal, was rendered furious when an opposition player supposedly spat at his teammate.

Emile Heskey says he slapped Hasan Şaş because he ‘spat’ at Ashley Cole

On October 11, 2003, England travelled to Turkey for a Euro 2004 qualifier, which gained notoriety for a brawl that occurred in the tunnel.

When asked about the events of that day during an exclusive interview with Sporf via, Betinia, Emile Heskey claimed it all kicked-off because Hasan Şaş spat at Ashley Cole, explaining: “Where do I start? We’re coming through the tunnel, and you know they have the old pullout tunnels? We’re going through that; they’re quite big anyway, and I think something happened with Wayne Rooney in there with Alpay [Özalan].

“As I’m coming through and you go into a little breakout area, I’m looking at Hasan Şaş and Ashley Cole arguing with each other, thinking nothing of it, to be honest. We have that all the time, where players are arguing and then there’s a melee, it was at half-time, not full-time, so you just usually go on about your business, and we’re gonna get ready for the second-half. We go into the tunnel, I’m walking towards them, and Hasan Şaş spits in his face. I lost it a little bit there, and I slapped him. That’s where we were fighting in the tunnel.”

According to The Guardian, after deeming the video evidence inconclusive, instead of penalising individual players, UEFA instead charged both the English and Turkish football authorities with the improper conduct of their players.

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Emile Heskey reveals amusing fan stories from England’s 5-1 win over Germany

While the match against Turkey was certainly eventful, Heskey’s greatest game in an England shirt undoubtedly came on that famous night at the Olympiastadion in Munich, where ‘The Three Lions’ defeated Germany 5-1. And to this very day, the fan favourite still has supporters coming up to him to tell him their amusing anecdotes from that evening.

Heskey chuckled: “It’s a game that gets brought up everywhere. My memories are going into the match, knowing it was going to be tough, knowing that they hadn’t lost in 50+ games at home, so that’s a very long time, and then going 1-0 down. But we managed to get a grip of the game, scoring goals at crucial times, which kind of puts a dent in their aspirations of winning the game. Just before half-time, we scored to go one ahead. Then you come out from half-time, and you score again, you kind of know you’ve got them then.

“Obviously, I scored the fifth to make it 5-1, which was fantastic. Wherever I go around the world, everyone knows exactly where they were at that time. I was recently at a game at Shrewsbury, and you get so many stories where someone had tickets for the game, and his brother’s wedding was on that day, and he was trying to get his family to ok that he didn’t have to go to his brother’s wedding. I’ve got another story of a guy who went with his dad to watch it abroad in a pub, and when they went 1-0 up, he got so upset that he stormed out and didn’t watch the rest of the game. Everybody has got a wonderful story to tell.”

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