John Hartson Bumps into Eyal Berkovic…17 Years After Shoeing Him in the Face

For any of us who are old enough bastards to remember; former Welsh striker John Hartson shocked the football world in 1998 when he leathered his own West Ham United teammate Eyal Berkovic in the face, during a training ground bust-up which proved to be nothing other than a PR nightmare for the Hammers.

Astonishingly, the pair recently bumped into each other in Berkovic’s native of Israel in a Haifa cafe. The former colleagues posed for a photo (although Berkovic looks the least impressed of the two) which Hartson later tweeted; ‘Just caught up with this little play maker… Nice lunch in Haifa! Mr Berkovic.’

Berkovic is said to have taken down his sunglasses in Hollywood-style fashion as he approached Hartson’s table, asking: ‘Recognise me?’, before the pair shared words and posed for the picture.

The Welsh hard man, who bagged an impressive 167 goals in his professional career, spoke of his deep regret of the incident back in 2010.

“The Eyal Berkovic incident really blighted my career. It’s something I deeply regret. Eyal is a terrific fella and he made a lot of my goals at West Ham. I get asked about it all the time, even though it happened 12 years ago.”

It’s nice to see players of the past letting bygones be bygones in an era where footballers past and present are tripping over themselves to twist a knife or two to move a few of their autobiographies off the shelf. We’re now waiting for the Keane/Fergie social media man-hug with something like an; ‘I’ve missed this wee scamp’ tweet from the Scotsman, but we’re not holding our breath for that one.

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