Tottenham's record signing Richarlison has hit back at Callum Wilson and fellow podcast host Michail Antonio after the pair joked about his celebrations. Newcastle United's number nine and the West Ham striker recently discussed the Brazil international's unfortunate habit of being booked for celebrating goals later ruled out by VAR.
Richarlison has registered three goals and four assists since his £60 million move from Everton last summer, with the 26-year-old forced to settle for a bench role for much of the campaign. The forward has however been booked four times in the Premier League, with three of these being for removing his shirt while celebrating strikes which were subsequently chalked off.
The comments from the Footballer's Football Podcast were put to Ryan Mason, who admitted he did not like to see fellow professionals criticise one another. The reponse of the interim Tottenham boss created headlines, with Antonio and Wilson both addressing the controversy in a later episode.
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Wilson started by saying their words had 'obviously' been taken out of context, before Antonio went on to explain his own view. He said: "He was a player, at the end of the day we're players. Players have banter with players, it is what it is.
"We have not said he is not a good footballer. We have not said anything about his stats. All we said is he's scored four goals [in the Premier League], he's been offside for three of them.
"I said I rate him, the fact he he does it [celebrate with his shirt off] every time. Nevertheless, he's been off the last three times. Like me, I stopped celebrating because mentally in my own head I'm like, I don't want to be running off celebrating and I'm offside. VAR rules it out and I'm out there doing the worm."
Wilson then added: "I think that it's a little bit unnecessary even needing to comment on it, but the positive to come out of the situation is that people are listening to the podcast!"
However, Wilson and Antonio's attempts to clarify their comments have evidently failed to defuse the situation, judging by Richarlison's response to the latest clip on the BBC's TikTok. The forward replied 'how many goals do both have in the World Cup?'.
Richarlison netted three times in four appearances in Qatar, before Brazil bowed out at the quarter-final stage with a shock penalty shootout defeat to Croatia. Wilson made two substitute appearances in the group stages for England, providing an assist for Jack Grealish in the opening rout of Iran, while Antonio did not feature as Jamaica did not qualify for the tournament.
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