Socceroos captain Mat Ryan certainly does not need any more motivation as he pushes to get back the starting goalkeeper position at FC Copenhagen.
But the man he is looking to usurp, teammate Kamil Grabara, is certainly only adding fuel to the fire by lifting the lid on their less than friendly relationship, in a very public way.
Grabara, who has returned from a long-term injury to replace Ryan in the past two games, seemed to suggest last week that he was partly to blame for the team’s poor results in the Danish Superliga.
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“I don’t comment on my teammates’ performances, this applies especially when I haven’t been in the games,” Grabara told Danish outlet Tipsbladet, per Optus Sport, last week.
“I can only repeat what I have already said – I just have to state that there is a reason why we are in ninth place in the Superliga and that the goals have poured in. It speaks for itself.
“I don’t see any competition for the goalkeeper position. I have every reason to believe that I am the first goalkeeper at FC Copenhagen.
“For some reason we’ve got a new head coach and for some reason we’ve conceded close to the same number of goals as we did all last season. That’s how it is in football. I’m not going to live in the past, but if I sat on the bench at FCK last season and could look at a goalkeeper who performed the way I did, I had to accept that I wasn’t going to play.
“If a team performs while you are absent, you have to accept that you may have to wait to get the chance again, but I can state that FCK is number nine [on the table].”
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Ryan was set to be given a chance to respond on the field when he prepared for football’s toughest challenge, facing off against Manchester City goal-scoring freak Erling Haaland.
Instead, Grabara returned from a facial injury and while City ran out 5-0 winners, he still had 12 saves in the defeat.
Grabara was asked to explain his running battle with Ryan after the game against City and said the pair respect each other but are not close away from the field.
“I gave that interview and I said what I said,” he said, per The Sydney Morning Herald.
“There is no need to repeat that. We don’t have to be best friends, but we train together, and it is in both of our interests that it takes place at a high level. The fact that we are not friends off the field does not mean that we do not respect each other.”
