Nasri conduct proving me right, claims Gallas

William Gallas has re-ignited his rivalry with Samir Nasri and insisted that the Manchester City midfielder’s poor behaviour at Euro 2012 proves he was not the bad guy during their long-running dispute.

Nasri is facing a two-year ban from international football after the French federation’s sponsors decided to withhold a €600,000 payment because of their disgust at the players’ behaviour. Nasri was a contrary figure throughout the tournament, with his ‘shut-your-mouth’ goal celebration against England and foul-mouthed tirade directed at a French journalist after France’s quarter-final exit to Spain.

And for Gallas, with whom Nasri fell out at Euro 2008, it came as no surprise. “I am not going to say I’m happy about it, but people can now see for themselves who the real Samir Nasri is — and I was not even in Ukraine or Poland!

“He never stopped trying to make people think I was the bad guy and that hurt my image. You know, I got a lot of stick. It was always my name in the press or elsewhere, I was always singled out, while many in the football world know Nasri’s character.”

Nasri refused to talk to Gallas after the Tottenham defender wrote in his book, La Parole est a la Defense, that Nasri had deliberately sat in captain Thierry Henry’s seat on the team bus at Euro 2008.

Once Gallas had moved to rivals Spurs, Nasri made waves by refusing to shake Gallas’s hand before a match.

Gallas explained that the relationship actually broke down after a row during a Champions League match for Arsenal in 2009. “Before the book came out, I even talked with him. We took a walk at Clairefontaine and I told him I was going to talk about the affair on the bus without naming him and he had no objections. But then we had a game in Rome, with Arsenal, where he lost a ball. I showed my disappointment, but nothing more, and he called me all sorts of names on the pitch. We had a serious disagreement in the dressing room at the end of the game. I put him back in his place and told him he was not at Marseille any more!”