Nelson Rivas HeadButts Antoine Hoppenot, Enters Soccer Hall of Headbutting Fame (Video)

by Matthew Averna on Tue, Aug 7, 2012 at 12:07PM

Nelson Rivas took it upon himself to give Antoine Hoppenot a proper introduction to professional soccer, and he just had to deliver a headbutt to get his point across.

Rivas, 29, played for some of the game’s biggest clubs — from River Plate in Argentina to Inter Milan in Italy — before signing with Major League Soccer and the Montreal Impact. A player of Rivas’ stature never likes getting thrown to the ground, particularly by a rookie like Hoppenot.

In the 68^th minute of Montreal’s 2-0 victory over Philadelphia, Hoppenot made the mistake of slinging Rivas over his shoulder while the two grappled for a 50-50 ball. The veteran defender didn’t take kindly to Hoppenot’s toss and didn’t hesitate to deliver his forehead to the young forward’s face.

Rivas’ outburst was just the most recent chapter in soccer’s long history of headbutting.

In the game of the season, Joey Barton utilized the headbutt to finish off his personal hat-trick against Manchester City. Having already elbowed Carlos Tevez and stomped on Sergio Aguero, Barton rounded off his tantrum by attempting to headbutt City captain Vincent Kompany. Luckily for him, he didn’t make much contact.

Of course, the grand-daddy of all headbutts belongs to Zinedine Zidane. The Frenchman called time on his legendary career with a crushing blow to Marco Materazzi‘s chest plate during the 2006 FIFA World Cup final. Of course, Zidane being Zidane, he was still won the golden ball as player of the tournament.

Watch Rivas headbutt Hoppenot in the video below.