Nastiest football stars with longest match ban
01:50Unknown
Sometimes,
great talent brings with it humility and statesmanship ability to deal
with all the pressures of fame and fortune. At other times, that
adulation sends players spinning off the rails as it did with these
group of superstar.
After Luis Suarez confirmed his status as one of World Cup most
controversial and world football nasty, Saturday Sport Mania takes a
look at some of the nastiest characters the beautiful game has witness.
From
the Butcher of Bilbao to the Brazilian ‘animal’, it’s quite a
frightening list of misdemeanours. But who comes out as number one in
this infamous list in football history?
10. Harald Schumacher
Arguably guilty of the worst foul
in World Cup history, the West German collided with Patrick Battiston,
the French defender, leaving him unconscious at the 1982 World Cup in
Spain. The Frenchman also lost three teeth in the incident. Bizarrely,
the referee awarded the free-kick to Germany.
9.Eric Cantona
A misunderstood philosopher or plain
nasty? Certainly, there were a couple of screws loose in the mind of
this Manchester United legend, who was banned for nine months and
ordered to do 120 hours of community service after launching a kung-fu
kick after being verbally abused by Matthew Simmons, a Crystal Palace
supporter, during a match at Selhurst Park in 1995.
The Frenchman was dismissed six times in the Premier League for Manchester United, averaging a red card every 24 games.
8.Edmundo
The
man nicknamed as ‘The Animal’ must go down as Brazil’s most
controversial player. The striker was sent off an extraordinary seven
times in 1997 alone and in a career littered with scuffles, feuds,
manslaughter charges and a brief prison sentence, Edmundo earned a
reputation as one of football’s greatest villains.
His relationship at Vasco de Gama with strike partner Romario constantly
hit the headlines, with the two always squabbling but forming a potent
partnership.
In October 1995, Edmundo was involved in a brawl as a South American Supercup quarter-final ended in an ugly brawl.
Flamengo were 3-0 up against Velez Sarsfield of Argentina in injury time
on Tuesday night when Edmundo - who had scored one goal and set up
another - slapped defender Zandona after being struck by the
Argentinian's elbow in a challenge for the ball. Zandona responded with
another slap and then punched the Brazilian striker to the ground.
Within seconds, the match degenerated into a fight with players and
coaching staff from both teams swapping punches and kung-fu kicks.
Dozens of police separated the two sides before the referee, Ernesto Fillipi, ended the match.
In
1999, he came under fire from animal rights organisations after he
hired a circus to perform in his back garden and served whisky and beer
to a chimpanzee called Pedrinho.
7.Andoni Goikoetxea
‘The Butcher of Blibao’ scythed down a young Diego Maradona when playing for Atheltic Bilbao against Barcelona in 1983.
The
dreadful lunge severely damaged Maradona’s ankle and it is alleged that
the Basque defender keeps the boot that committed the crime in a glass
case at home and that he would wheel it out at parties to show guests.
6.Roy Keane
A serial winner but also a serial offender,
there were moments of shocking lunacy that verged on that of a
sociopath. The knee-high smash into Alfe-Inge Haaland and the stamp on
Gareth Southgate were startling as the red mist descended on the
Irishman. The assault on Haaland was a response to an incident several
years before when Haaland had stood over Keane as the United man
suffered a cruciate knee ligament injury.
Keane, who also left the World Cup in South Korea in 2002 after a
furious showdown with manager Mick McCarthy, wrote in his
autobiography: ‘I f****** hit him hard. The ball was there (I think).
Take that you c***. And don't ever stand over me sneering about fake
injuries.’
5.Duncan Ferguson
Perhaps the most uncompromising (and
frightening) centre forward that English football has seen, ‘Big Dunc’
was convicted of assault four times, the most famous being his headbutt
aimed at Raith Rovers’ John McStay in 1994, for which he received a
three month prison sentence.
He also butted a policeman, beat up a supporter on crutches and an
assault on a fisherman at a hotel. He has since reinvented himself as a
pioneering coach and he is working closely with the Everton first-team
under Roberto Martinez.
4.Joey Barton
Displaying his backside to Everton fans at
Goodison Park, stubbing out a cigar in the face of Manchester City
youngster Jamie Tandy and not forgetting a 74-day prison sentence for
assault, Barton is Britain’s most highly-charged footballer.
He also brought shame on himself in a QPR shirt when he lashed out at
Carlos Tevez and Sergio Aguero, for which he was banned for 12 games.
Now rehabilitated as ‘football’s philosopher king’, to quote David
Dimbleby, Barton was recently invited to be a panellist on BBC’s
Question Time.
3.Diego Maradona
The Argentine has always been one of the
most divisive figures in world football. The Hand of God, that
horrendous kick on an Athletico Bilbao defender and the mad gaze into a
television camera at the 1994 World Cup, Maradona was always one to
attract controversy.
He was suspended for 15 months in 1991 following a positive test for
cocaine while playing for Napoli and handed a suspended jail sentence
for shooting journalists with an air rifle in 1998.
2.Kevin Muscat
The former Millwall and Wolves defender was sent off 12 times in his
career and was forced to come to a £250,000 agreement at the High Court
with former Charlton midfielder Matthew Holmes in 2004.
Holmes
suffered a broken tibia after a tackle by then Wolves defender Muscat in
an FA Cup game in February 1998. The no-nonsense Aussie became known
for his brutal reducers and was described by Birmingham City defender
Martin Grainger as ‘the most hated man in football.’
1.Luis Suarez
The shoulder-munching Uruguayan has become
the pantomime villain of world football, biting three players – Otman
Bakkal, Branislav Ivanovic and Giorgio Chiellini – in the space of four
years.
Throw in the racist abuse aimed at Manchester United’s Patrice Evra (and
Suarez’s subsequent refusal to shake the Frenchman’s hand) and it makes
for a rather unpleasant character.
Luis Suarez however admitted for
the first time that he deliberately bit Italy defender Giorgio
Chiellini during the World Cup and tender apologies for his actions.
Suarez went on to bullet point his stance:
• I deeply regret what occurred
• I apologise to Gieogio Chiellini and the entire football family
• I vow to the public that there will never be another incident like this
The
admission of guilt, which was entitled "My apologies to Chiellini",
comes after he was found guilty by FIFA and given a four-month ban from
all football, a suspension that includes playing club football, plus
nine international matches and a (£65,000) fine.
As it stands he will miss 13 Liverpool matches, including nine Premier League games.
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