Gabigol is one of the great characters of Flamengo. In countless ways, Mengão’s number 9 manages to be under the spotlight in Gávea.

A born scorer, he has already broken several marks and established his name in the history of the club (needless to mention what he did against River Plate in Montevideo). Mocky, he lives provoking opponents and rivals, being hated by many fans.

And there is another side that also makes Gabriel Barbosa a subject in Brazilian football: his indiscipline.

Since 2019, there is no player in Brazil who has been expelled more often than the striker. After just over 200 games with Flamengo’s shirt, he has no less than seven red cards.

The curiosity is that only one was due to a fault committed. In the 2019 Libertadores, he made a frontal tackle in the duel against Peñarol-URU and ended up being expelled. After that, ALL the other six were for disrespect.

On five occasions, the referees reported on the scoresheet “Unsportsmanlike Attitude”, followed by reasons such as “disrespecting the referee”, “provoking rival fans”, “offense to the referee”, “applauding ironically for the referee” and “light aggression — kicking the ball on top of the opponent” (the last of the expulsions, recently, against Ceará, for the Brasileirão).

To complete the list, there is an expulsion for complaint in the 2020 Carioca Championship, against Fluminense.

It’s not just Gabigol

Gabriel is not the isolated leader of this ranking nor one of the only ones with a handful of expulsions in recent years in Brazil. In fact, he has a player with as many expulsions as the number 9.

We’re talking about Allan, today at Atlético-MG. In the same period, he adds the same seven expulsions, six by Galo and one by Fluminense.

Quintero (Fortaleza), Gustavo Henrique (Santos and Flamengo) and Thiago Heleno (Athletico-PR) appear together in the sequence with five expulsions each since 2019.

The undisciplined of 2022

Gabigol leads the Brasileirão 2022 in yellow cards received (there were 10), and just like him, there are a lot of other players who are giving work to arbitration this season.

Bruno Silva, from Avai, is an example of this. Like Gabriel, he has already been warned 10 times (both also received a red card, as a result of the second yellow card).

In addition to them, João Lucas (Cuiabá) and André (Fluminense) have already reached double digits in this year’s Brasileirão.

With nine cards received we have a list with:

• Renzo Saravia (Botafogo);
• Rodrigo Fernández (Santos);
• Richardson (Ceará);
• Hayner (Atlético-GO);
• Richard (Ceará);
• Brayan Ceballos (Fortress);
• Gabriel Mercado (International);
• and Jádson (Youth).

It is worth mentioning that, when we talk about teams, Ceará is by far the one that receives the most warnings, with 83 yellow and six red only in the 2022 Brazilian Championship.

Juventude is not far behind and with 80 yellows and eight reds, it is one of the most undisciplined teams so far.

Avai also has 80 yellow cards, but “only” four red cards. São Paulo already has 77 yellow and two red. Who closes the top 5 is Goiás, who received 75 yellows and three reds.

Among the least warned teams in Brasileirão 2022 are rivals Palmeiras and Corinthians. Verdão only received 43 yellow cards and one red card, while Corinthians received 45 yellow cards and one red card.

Atlético-MG, which saw its players being warned “lightly” on 56 occasions, is the only team in the championship without any expulsion.

Leagues with the highest average cards per game

Championship	Country	Division	cards per game
Serie C (Group B)	Italy	3rd division	6.45
First Division	Bolivia	1st division	6.36
First Division	Uruguay	1st division	6.28
First League	Portugal	1st division	5.98
First Division	Costa Rica	1st division	5.88

European teams with the highest average number of yellow cards received per game

Team	Country	Championship	cards per game
mallorca	Spain	La Liga	5.20
guimaraes	Portugal	First League	4.83
Prostejov	Czech republic	FNL	4.38
Vizela	Portugal	First League	4.17
raise	Spain	La Liga2	4.00

How to bet on card markets?

Above 3.5 in the Brasileirão

The Brasileirão is a championship where, on average, the games have a lot of indiscipline from the athletes.

Avaí and Ceará lead the average of yellow cards per game with 3.00, while Palmeiras appears as the least warned with 1.62 average per game. The vast majority of teams average between 2.00 and 3.00.

Therefore, two good card market options for the Brasileirão are above 3.5 and even above 4.5.

A careful evaluation of each game will show which of the two alternatives is more likely to come out, but the fact is that both are among the most likely, statistically speaking.

Eye on Avai, Ceará, Juventude and São Paulo

The averages of yellow cards received by these four teams in 2022 are very high, so there is always a good chance of being able to place good bets on the markets related to the athlete/team warning with them.

Europe’s “violents”

European football usually has a paradox: the referees whistle fewer fouls, but that doesn’t mean the matches are more violent.

However, in some leagues, the “fight” happens and the athletes do not go unpunished. That said, there is a list of teams in the main leagues that have been suffering from an excessive average number of cards per game, they are:

• Manchester United;
• Nottingham Forest and Fulham in the Premier League;
• Ajaccio and Olympique de Marseille in Ligue 1;
• Stuttgart and Hoffenheim in the Bundesliga;
• Verona, Atalanta and Salernitana in Serie A;
• Mallorca, Getafe, Rayo Vallecano, Sevilla, Almeria and Elche in La Liga.

Curiosity: Mallorca, incidentally, holds the record for cards in Europe, with 26 in just five games.

The card collectors

Whenever you want to bet on a player to be booked, take into account the context of the match (if he is suspended and the next game is important, who will he score in the match) and how his disciplinary performance has been.

Also keep an eye on those athletes who, for different reasons, always tend to receive cards. Among some of the “branded” names in Brazil, we can mention:

• Gabigol (Flemish);
• Fagner (Corinthians);
• Bruno Silva (Avaí) and André (Fluminense).

In Europe, we can give the following players as an example:

• Sergio Ramos and Marco Verrati (PSG);
• Casemiro (Manchester United);
• Antonio Sánchez (Mallorca);
• Granit Xhaka (Arsenal)
• and Djibril Sow (Eintracht Frankfurt).