6 of football’s most infamous hair pulls after Vinicius Junior’s Real Madrid red

There’s no shortage of things you can get sent off for on a football pitch. You’ve got your usual ones like violent conduct and denying an obvious goalscoring opportunity, and your rarer ones like, if you’re Luis Suarez, biting.

And recently, there’s been a wave of incidents for a new offence often deemed worthy of a red card: hair pulling.

While no longer an automatic red card, pulling an opponent’s hair will get you sent off if it’s seen as violent conduct – as Vinicius Junior found out this weekend.

Here are some of the most high-profile hair pulling red cards.

Vinicius Junior on Nathan Saliba

Vini Jr went from hero to zero in an instant in Real Madrid’s win over Villarreal on Saturday. He thought he’d doubled his side’s lead when he finished from close range, but VAR had other ideas.

Replays found that Vini had pulled the hair of Nathan Saliba while on the move and so the referee punished him with a red card.

Joao Neves on Marc Cucurella

You can file Cucurella under ‘obvious target’ when it comes to hair pulling. His big curls have always drawn attention.

For example, in the 2025 Club World Cup final, PSG midfielder Neves got his marching orders for a hair pull on the then-Chelsea left-back.

It was the punishment Cucurella felt should have been given to Tottenham’s Cristian Romero for a similar offence a few years earlier, although that one was cleared by VAR.

Jack Stephens on Marc Cucurella

Yep, Cucurella again. This one was half a year before the Neves incident, in a Premier League game between Chelsea and Southampton.

Stephens got sent off for pulling Cucurella’s hair before a set piece. It took a VAR review to come to the decision.

Michael Keane on Tolu Arokodare

There were a couple of red cards for pulls of Arokodare’s hair last season in the Premier League, the first being brandished to Everton defender Keane.

Everton tried in vain to appeal the decision in the aftermath, but rules are rules and Keane’s suspension stood.

Dan Ballard on Tolu Arokodare

If it was starting to look like Wolves had unlocked a cheat code by having a frequent target of hair pulling like Arokodare, any illusions of advantage were shattered by the end of the season when they were relegated.

In fact, they were already down by the time the second incident happened, with Sunderland’s Ballard the guilty party on this occasion.

“It wasn’t violent conduct,” argued Sunderland boss Le Bris. “I understand the rule, and the referee has to execute the rule, but it’s hard to understand in that condition.”

The main argument was that Ballard was trying to gain leverage in a duel and wasn’t intentionally aiming for Arokodare’s hair.

Lisandro Martinez on Dominic Calvert-Lewin

Manchester United boss Michael Carrick had argued similarly when his defender Martinez was sent off for an infringement with Leeds striker Calvert-Lewin earlier in the season.

“It’s not a pull, it’s not a tug, it’s not aggressive, he touches it and gets sent off,” contested Carrick. “Worst of all is he was sent to overturn it as a clear and obvious error. It’s shocking.”