He likes to hit people and pretends to be fractured any time a player reciprocates (to be fair to Madridistas, he’s a more irritable version of Dani Alves).
The Portuguese defender took it to new heights, however, on Sunday when he kicked his own teammate, Alvaro Arbeloa, when he tried to help Pepe up. He then shoved him again as an angry Arbeloa tried to pull him off the ground.
The best part is after Pepe realizes its Arbeloa, instead of apologizing, his embarrassment takes the best of him and leads to more anger, and the subsequent shove.
If seen by the referee, the kick Pepe gave to Arbeloa could have been punished with a red card. It wasn’t because Arbeloa didn’t do the typical soccer thing and dive to imply Pepe’s kick had done any damage. He just showed the typical annoyance a mother shows to his five year-old throwing a fit in a toy store.
Pepe is out of hand. As is Angel Di Maria, who decided to take on the entire Valencia team. And for that matter, so is Jose Mourinho for refusing to ever attend a press conference when he loses. But Di Maria and Mourinho aren’t causing anyone harm.
Mourinho didn’t feel the need to discipline Pepe when he stepped on Messi’s hand, so he clearly won’t when Pepe hits his own player. Cristiano Ronaldo and Xabi Alonso are already a yellow card from suspension (if they don’t purposely get one against Atletico Madrid, they could risk missing the clasico on April 21) and Pepe is one kick toward the right drama queen to get an ejection that would keep him out as well.
If Madrid wants to keep itself from a complete meltdown after having the league in its hands, it needs to control its temper. It needs to start with the biggest problem: Pepe.
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