Rafa Benitez has long been one of football’s most polarizing managers, with a reputation for countless dressing-room bust-ups that often overshadow his achievements. Remember the 2005 UEFA Champions League final in Istanbul? There’s a dark backstory involving one of Liverpool’s players from that night—and it all centers on Benitez.
The Spanish manager included left-back Stephen Warnock in the squad, and he was elated. Though never a regular starter for Liverpool, his boyhood club, the chance to make the team sheet on the night the Reds could win their fifth UEFA Champions League was the stuff of dreams.
Alas, it all came crashing down.
“I looked at the squad list and my name was on the squad list and I was like, ‘f*cking hell, it’s the Champions League final. I’m on the bench or I’m playing’. I’m at home, packing everything, getting ready and then my phone goes and it was like – it was Palo Ayestaran who was the number two – and he goes, we’ve made a mistake on the squad, he said ‘you’re not in it’,” Warnock said on the Undr the Cosh podcast.
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Understandably, Warnock was furious, and to make matters worse, Benitez never apologized. After the match, Benitez called him—not to say sorry, but simply to inform him they’d talk the following week.
Heartbroken, Warnock recalled flying home separately from the 18-man squad and their girlfriends. “I watched it on Sky Sports,” he added, referring to the parade celebrations.
Since leaving Liverpool in 2010, Rafa Benitez has managed several top European clubs—notably during Liverpool’s period of gradual decline. He took charge of Chelsea, Napoli, Real Madrid, and Newcastle, all ambitious clubs where he often clashed with players behind the scenes.
At Real Madrid, his relationship with Cristiano Ronaldo was particularly fraught; Ronaldo reportedly refused to play under Benitez at one point. But ego clashes between top players and managers aren’t unusual, right? At least Benitez was getting the best out of the squad?
Not quite. His tactics often seemed scattered. He reportedly even told Luka Modric to stop using ‘trivellas’—outside-of-the-boot passes—believing they disrupted his teammates.
Rafa Benitez a great coach, but told Modric not to use the outside of his foot when he was at Real Madrid. Should be tried for an attempted crime against football. https://t.co/PmAQYq7xvl
— Nick Stoll (@NickStoll) June 22, 2021
Tensions between Benitez and Real Madrid reached a peak when they suffered a 4-0 Clasico defeat to Barcelona at the Santiago Bernabeu (yes, October 2024 wasn’t their first humiliation). Just weeks later, despite a 10-2 victory over Rayo Vallecano, Benitez was sacked.
Most recently, he managed Celta Vigo in La Liga, until he lost his job in January of this year.
