Micah Richards claims Carlos Tevez once punched Vincent Kompany during a dressing room row at Man City

Micah Richards has claimed that Carlos Tevez once punched Vincent Kompany after a game during a dressing room row at Manchester City.

The details have been revealed in the build-up to the release of Richards' new book titled 'The Game: Player. Pundit. Fan.'

The former City defender has become a fan favourite for his punditry work since retiring, featuring on Sky Sports, Match of the Day and CBS Sport Golazo.

His book is due to be released on October 27 and will include tales from his career on the pitch with one of them being the crazy story of a dressing room bust-up involving Tevez and Kompany.

The incident happened under Roberto Mancini's tenure; a manager whose teams were never far away from controversy. After all, he even came to blows with Mario Ballotelli once upon a time.

Richards wrote about how Tevez came to punch Kompany in the face following a Premier League game.

"There was a league game when he fell out with Kompany once," said Richards, in an excerpt from his book published by the Daily Mail.

Richards claimed Tevez punched Kompany in the face in a dressing room row (Image: Alamy)

"Kompany had criticised him for something and when they got back into the dressing room there'd been an almighty row.

"It looked like they might come to blows, so me and Joleon Lescott and a couple of the other big lads held Vincent back to stop him attacking Carlos.

"We stood in front of him, blocking his path, holding his arms. It was at that point Carlos noticed Vincent was basically powerless, so he walked up to him and cracked him in the face.

"We'd accidentally given Carlos a free hit on his own captain.

Micah Richards (Image: Alamy)

"Kompany was fuming. Not with Carlos; he'd decided that part was quite funny. He was steaming with me and Joleon for restraining him so he couldn't get out of the way."

Tevez went on to revive his City career, playing a big part in the run-in of their famous title win in the 2011/12 season, before enjoying spells at Juventus, Boca Juniors and Shanghai Shenhua before retiring after his third spell at the Argentinian club in June 2022 following the death of his father.

He currently finds himself as manager as Rosario Central in the Argentine Primera Division.

For Kompany, he too went into management after hanging up his boots in 2020. He began at the club where he spent a year as a player at Anderlecht after 11 years at City, followed by a move to manage Burnley in the Championship.

A fan favourite at City, the towering centre-back is a legend at the club after captaining his side to 10 trophies during his time at the club and was rightly commemorated with a statue outside the Etihad stadium, alongside David Silva, in August 2021.