Footballer ‘fired after farting’

10 May, 2022 15:47 / Updated 3 years ago
Marcelo passed wind and was later demoted to Lyon's reserve team before leaving the club, according to reports

Veteran center-back Marcelo was fired by Lyon after passing wind in the dressing room and laughing about it with his ex-teammates, according to French media.

As part of a wide-ranging report on the club, L'Equipe claimed that Marcelo was eventually shown the door to Bordeaux when sporting director Juninho Pernambucano felt the player's farting was the final straw. 

The incident allegedly occurred after a 3-0 hammering away at Angers in August last year where Marcelo, who was considered to be one of the team's leaders, scored an own goal.

Reaching his limit with Marcelo's displays on and off the pitch, club legend and free kick expert Juninho, who was one of the main architects behind Lyon's rampant success in the 2000s, cast off his compatriot to the reserve side known as Lyon II for breaking wind in front of him and head coach Peter Bosz.

No further details were given at the time of Marcelo's humiliating demotion, which was initially reported as a "dressing-room incident."

In the most recent winter transfer window, though, the 34-year-old joined Bordeaux until the end of the season.

Life is not much better there for the former Brazil U20 international, however, with his current employers rock bottom of the French top flight and four points from safety as just two matches of the season are left to spare.

Like Marcelo, Juninho also left Lyon mid-season as star player Bruno Guimaraes departed for Newcastle United and helped the newly-moneyed Premier League outfit fly out of the drop zone. 

Given their current standing in eighth five points behind fifth-placed Strasbourg, Lyon are practically guaranteed to miss out on European football next term with L'Equipe claiming that behind-the-scenes drama at the club "should have been filmed."

Later on Tuesday afternoon after the rumors had been spread worldwide, both Marcelo and Juninho took to Twitter to address them.

"Thanks to L'Equipe, after a long time, I have to come back to Twitter to deny all the allegations. Journalism nowadays is a joke!" said Marcelo.

"See, I told you," began Juninho in Portuguese when quote-tweeting his former charge. "A defender has to fart loud, long, and stinky. Yours was only loud, therefore it was weak," Juninho signed off, amid a string of crying-with-laughter emojis.