Tevez buggering off to Argentina to play golf for a few months has been mentioned, but the incident that set the whole thing off was just as impressive. Flat out refusing to come off the bench when Mancini tried to sub him on, I don't think I've ever seen that happen before or since. Oh, well other than Kepa refusing to come off the pitch I guess.
Not on the bench per se, but it was reported in 2001 that Scholes refused to play against Arsenal. According to the report, he was dropped for a game against Liverpool due to poor form. Convinced it was the wrong decision, he refused to play in a weakened (only Yorke and Phil Neville were from first team) United side against Arsenal in the league cup. His punishment was a fine, and started the next game. Scholes has since confirmed that this is the case. I think he got off lightly myself. He should've been forced to get down on all fours and crawl to that infamous tree from 40 yards whilst the United faithful chanted 'shame' in Klingon.
As for the Kepa example,
apparently Messi refused to come off positioning the manager to take Neymar off instead, According to
this report, Messi had just come back from Asia, where he made appearances for Argentina against Brazil in China and in an away game against the Hong Kong national team. Barcelona also face Ajax in the Champions League on Tuesday before heading to the Bernabeu to face Real Madrid on Saturday. Some staunch supporters of Messi have claimed the video footage is actually evidence of the manager asking if Messi is okay to carry on after being fouled on the pitch. Moreover, some Barca fans have claimed it was actually Neymar that was refusing to come off the pitch leading to the frustration in Enrique's body language, and it was coincidental that the camera panned to Messi as he was communicating with Suarez.
Now, in terms of my own contribution to the thread title, the first player that came to mind was
Gallas. Forced a move to Arsenal.
Threatened to score own goals, get sent off, and deliberately make choices which would put Chelsea's defence into jeopardy. Its worth remembering that Arsenal had just finished second. It was certainly not Chelsea's prerogative to strengthen a contender for the title. Gallas would later be stripped of the captaincy as an Arsenal player due to his relationship with players in the dressing room viewing him as a primadonna.
I remember hearing from Ian Wright that Arsenal players were calling in sick to avoid training in Wenger's final years, resulting in people showing up at doorsteps to force them to train.