KRYPTONITES

Players who just seem to haunt a certain opposition.

In football, every club has that one player who always seems to get the best of them every time they face each other. It’s like shadows that these teams just can’t seem to escape. If you’re superstitious, you’d be tempted to believe that such things are written in the stars, and you wouldn’t be at fault for that, given just how regularly these things happen. Here are but a few teams and their banes of existence.

1. FC BARCELONA

Iago Aspas (Celta Vigo), Vedat Muriqi (RCD Mallorca), and Alexander Sørloth (Atletico de Madrid) have haunted Barcelona over the past few seasons. Sørloth, more so in the recent past, has bagged in the last four games against the Blaugrana. Aspas, though, is the one who lives rent-free in Culers’ heads for how long he has broken their hearts. Ask a Barça fan what nightmares personified look like, and they’ll probably describe Iago Aspas.

2. ATLETICO DE MADRID

Cristiano Ronaldo was a thorn in Atleti’s side every time he laced his boots against them. I mean the countless clutch moments he had against the Rojiblancos are as clutch as they get. From the two hat tricks he scored against them in 2017 to the hat trick against them in the 2019 Champions League, CR7 will forever be a mortal enemy to Atleti fans.

3. ARSENAL

Back in the day, Didier Drogba was Arsenal’s enemy number one. Any chance he got to dunk on the Gunners, he utilized fully. To date, Arsenal fans hate on Didier for the trauma he caused them. In recent years, Roberto Firmino of Liverpool took the baton from Drogba and tormented Arsenal.

4. REAL MADRID

Luis Suarez was Real Madrid’s arch nemesis. He always had something up his sleeve for Los Blancos. El Pistolero was the man for the Clasico; he scored many goals and had many clutch performances. His most iconic performance for me was in the 2019 league Clásico at the Camp Nou.

5. BORUSSIA DORTMUND

For Die Schwarzgelben, their Kryptonite was someone very close to home, Robert Lewandowski. I’m sure this one hurts the Dortmund fans a lot, seeing as the Pole used to lead their attack. Ever since he left BVB on a free to Bayern, their bitter rivals, Lewandowski went on a rampage against them. Robert has scored 28 times against Dortmund in 26 games, with his most recent goal coming in the 24/25 UCL campaign.

These are just a few examples of clubs who have been terrorized by players in their history. Feel free to tell me more in the comments.