FAMOUS SPORTS RIVALRIES

The world of sport is one of action, legends, competition, and tales of heroic achievements and moments. Nowhere is this more evident than in the herculean battles that shaped many a sport and gave birth to some of the most enduring rivalries of all time.

WORDS MICHEL CRUZ PHOTOGRAPHY © SHUTTERSTOCK

The Lazio end of the Stadio Olimpico V irtually every sport has its epic clashes that raise it to another level and capture the imagination of the public. They can take the form of personal battles or the pride of entire towns or regions, and often such competitions have social, cultural and even political undercurrents. Perhaps the rivalries that mobilise the largest numbers of people and rouse the greatest passion among them are the classic football challenges between leading national teams.

THE FOOTBALL DERBY

The Rome derby – one of many classic sports derbies around the world

The derby is a classic phenomenon: a rivalry between opposing teams from the same city or region, as in the case of Arsenal-Spurs (London), Real-Atletico (Madrid), BenficaSporting (Lisbon), FlaFlu (Rio de Janeiro), Milan-Inter, Man UtdMan City (Manchester) or Liverpool-Everton. The best derbies pitch the top clubs from large cities such as these against each other, the intensity of the occasion fired on by the passionate club loyalties of entire families and suburbs. But it goes beyond mere sports competition and local pride, as football clubs often reflect their century-old origins and represent the communities that support them.

Rangers fans brandish Union Jack designs

This can pitch working class teams against middle class ones, clubs from different immigrant backgrounds (as is often the case in Brazil or Argentina), as well as Catholic versus Protestant. Perhaps the world’s most famous derby, Glasgow’s Old Firm between Celtic and Rangers is fired up by a decadesold rivalry between the city’s sectarian communities, and while it sometimes brings out the worst in sport followers, you cannot deny the intensity of the occasion. The same is true of perhaps the scariest of all derbies: Boca Juniors-River Plate, which lays bare the rivalries in Buenos Aires society.

The classic Roman colours of AS Roma

Of course, a derby can be regional too, as in the case of Newcastle Utd Sunderland, Leeds UtdSheffield Wednesday or Athletic Bilbao-Real Sociedad, or indeed between major cities. Man Utd-Liverpool is often considered to be English football’s top encounter. In Italy it may well be Juventus versus AC Milan or Inter Milan, in Holland Ajax-Feyenoord, for Germans generally Bayern MünchenBorussia Dortmund, in France Paris St Germain-Olympique Marseille, in Portugal Benfica-FC Porto and in Spain the greatest classic of all: Real Madrid-Barcelona. The latter says it all when it comes to the city, regional and political/ cultural rivalries that make such matches a huge spectacle.

Celtic fans bear Irish colours

SUPERFAST RIVALRIES

British playboy he may have been, but James Hunt was also supremely talented

Not all such encounters involve a ball. Over the decades of epic battles fought by Formula One racing drivers, some legendary rivalries have taken shape, both on a team and personal level. The greatest of these is the struggle for dominance between Ferrari and McLaren, best personified by the iconic personal dice for glory between racing legends Niki Lauda and James Hunt on the one hand, and Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost on the other. Football duels have also transcended club level to involve stars of the sport, as currently seen in the friendly race between Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, which is as much about style and personality as about sport.

The legendary Austrian precision and class of Niki Lauda

BIG PERSONALITIES

Chris Evert

Some of the most memorable challenges of will, skill and charisma have pitted tennis players against each other, and few are more inspiring than the battle of female champions between Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova, sometimes described as the pitting of elegance versus athleticism, but this would do neither of these two great players justice. The same is true of the three-way engagement between Bjorn Borg, the golden boy of tennis; Jimmy Connors, the playful gentleman of the sport; and John McEnroe, then a wistful, whining but also supremely talented and fascinating child genius. Not even the beautiful clashes between Federer, Nadal and now also Djokovic are as bewitching!

Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal

Sports thrive on such big and colourful personalities as much as they do on their athletic achievements. Take boxing, a sport that rides on the ebb and flow of such characters as Mike Tyson, who famously bit the ear of Evander Holyfield. The greatest of all was Muhammad Ali, born Cassius Clay, who really stood unchallenged for a long time, but whose ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ against fellow great George Foreman produced one of the most legendary and singular sports events of all time. This boxing match attended by 60,000 people in Kinshasa, Congo DRC (then Zaire) in 1974, will not likely see its equal – if only because Ali was something of a one-off phenomenon. This led to the third and decisive bout with Joe Frazier, Ali’s greatest rival in the ring, known as the ‘The Thrilla in Manila’.

Ali and Foreman reunite at the 1997 Academy Awards for the Best Documentary Feature When We were Kings

NATIONAL PRIDE

The Ryder Cup famously came to Sotogrande in 1997

Major battles of this kind also have a national context, taking the form of national pride and grudge games between England and Scotland, Holland and Germany, France and Italy, Brazil and Argentina in football, major encounters featuring the top nations in rugby, ice hockey battles between the USA and Canada, women’s field hockey games between Germany and Australia, and men’s encounters featuring India and Pakistan. The latter two also want to avoid defeat at all costs in one of the most epic fixtures in cricket, a sport in which the Ashes represent one of the oldest, longest-running rivalries between two ‘foes’ – in this case England and Australia.

The boat race: Oxford versus Cambridge

Now mythical, this gentlemanly competition dates back to the 1882-83 test series between the two nations, heralding in a keen competition that stretches all the way back to the Victorian colonial era. Another such rivalry sees Oxford and Cambridge universities set against each other in the annual boat race, or golf’s most keenly contested competition, the Ryder Cup, which pits teams from Europe and America against each other. The 1997 edition was famously held on our own doorstep, at the Real Club de Golf Valderrrama, where Europe beat the USA in a particularly thrilling instalment of one of the all-time classic sports rivalries.