Surely Pepe should feature in this list and high up too ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ Luis Suarez, Eric Cantona, Roy Keane and Maradona... who makes the top 10 villains list of the beautiful game? By Adam Crafton After Luis Suarezs four-month bite ban, Sportsmail reviews footballs all-time top 10 villains Manchester United legends Roy Keane and Eric Cantona feature Joey Barton, Duncan Ferguson and Kevin Muscat are included After Luis Suarez confirmed his status as the pantomime villain of world football, Sportsmail takes a look at some of the most controversial characters that the game has produced. From the Butcher of Bilbao to the Brazilian ‘animal’, it’s a quite frightening list of misdemeanours. But who comes out as the number one pariah 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, as Manchester United discovered in a 3-1 defeat in Brazil at the FIFA Club World Championship in 2000. 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 Bilbao’ 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 dont 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. Three bites and you’re out, Luis.
Posted on: Sat, 28 Jun 2014 14:42:49 +0000
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