Most Awkward Football Interviews Of All Time [Ranked]
· GiveMeSport
From Michael Olise's deadpan non-responses to Roy Keane's fury and Thomas Muller's bad jokes - here are the most awkward football interviews
Across football history there have been countless interviews that have been extremely awkward for whatever reason, and as fans, we've all watched on in grimace.
Of course, 99% of interviews are the typical standard procedure of question and answer about the game, team or manager, which we often just tune out. However, some follow controversial incidents or heated matches and, suddenly, we're all waiting for the magic to unfold.
There are so many different types of awkward interview to consider. Whether it's bad news being given on air, a heated clash between the manager and journalist or a refusal to speak or elaborate fully due to threat of punishment, we've seen all manner of tense interviews.
Following Manchester United's derby day defeat to Manchester City , defender Lisandro Martínez stepped up and gave a very simple, stern and cold interview, calling out VAR that led us to ponder what the most awkward football interviews of all time are.
After two goals and a man of the match performance in the Champions League , Michael Olise barely spoke a word. Asked how easy it is to score from 25 yards, Olise offered: "I dunno."
Pressed, he expanded: "I mean, I shoot and then… it goes in, or it doesn't go in." When the reporter pointed out he was the only one doing it, Olise corrected him — "I'm not the only one who can score a goal" — before being asked, plaintively, what makes him laugh. The answer was a quiet "yeah".
Inter Miami had just lost 3-1 to Orlando City in May 2023 and were sliding down the Eastern Conference. Phil Neville was midway through an answer when a reporter cut across him, and the temperature changed instantly. "Can I finish speaking, or are you going to interrupt? Because I don't interrupt your question, so don't interrupt mine. Show some fing respect."
Then the part that makes it. Neville apologised for swearing, found his train of thought had vanished entirely, and had to ask for the question to be repeated. It's the sheer fact that we've rarely seen such an outburst from Neville that made it so shocking.
The cruellest entry on the list, and nobody's fault. Chelsea had just held out at Camp Nou to reach the Champions League final, and Geoff Shreeves put a microphone in front of Ivanovic and informed him that his booking meant he would miss it.
You can watch the realisation land in real time. Branislav Ivanovic, to his enormous credit, kept answering questions. Shreeves has spoken since about how uncomfortable the moment was for him too. Fortunately for Ivanovic, the Blues went onto lift the trophy.
The template for the modern non-interview. Jose Mourinho , asked about a refereeing decision that had gone against Chelsea, delivered the same line to every question: "I prefer not to speak. If I speak I am in big trouble."
He said calmly, repeatedly, and with the faint smile of a man who knew exactly how much trouble he was causing by not causing any. The interviewer had nothing to work with and roughly 90 seconds to fill in what is an iconic moment.
The man who helped keep Leicester City up had seen his side languishing right at the bottom of the Premier League and Pearson had reached the end of his patience with the local press. Asked a fairly mild question about criticism of the team, he told the reporter: "You must be an ostrich. Your head must be in the sand."
What followed was several minutes of a manager calmly explaining to a journalist that the journalist was a large flightless bird. Leicester, remarkably, went on to survive.
Louis van Gaal had a genius for choosing exactly the wrong word in his third language. Furious that Robert Huth had escaped punishment for pulling Marouane Fellaini's hair, the Manchester United manager informed a room of English reporters that such behaviour was only acceptable "in sex masochism".
Nobody laughed, because nobody was certain he had finished. He had not. He rarely had.
Roy Keane was managing Ipswich Town when a journalist's phone rang in the middle of his press conference. What followed was less an interview than a public execution. "Why don't you turn it off?" Keane asked, and then kept going, at length, while the rest of the room studied their notebooks.
The Irishman later revealed the reporter had apologised to him afterwards, which tells you everything about who held the balance of power in that room.
Bayern Munich 's coach delivered a four-minute monologue in broken German in 1998, attacking his own players by name, that has since entered the language. "Schwach wie eine Flasche leer" — weak like an empty bottle — and the sign-off, "Ich habe fertig", which is grammatically wrong and now completely unimprovable.
It remains the only press conference in football to have been pressed onto a novelty CD.
Gennaro Gattuso 's English press conferences have long been their own genre, and the " sometimes maybe good, sometimes maybe s " line is the one everyone quotes.
The sequel arrived at Hajduk Split, where he responded to a question about Filip Krovinovic by telling the room to do the interview "very quickly" and then adding, with total composure, an instruction to a departing player that cannot be printed here. He said it in his second language and it landed perfectly.
When Sky Sports asked why Emiliano Martínez was left out of the squad amid transfer speculation linking him to Manchester United, Unai Emery repeatedly and bluntly answered only with the name of his backup goalkeeper.
"Marco Bizot," Emery stated. After another question pertaining to the future of Bizot in the number one spot, he simply replied again with his name. Certainly an awkward watch.