Dirty Players in Football: Part 1
Football, the Beautiful Game as so many call it owing to the smoothness of flow and the silkiness of touches. The game is a poetic depiction of nature for a diehard fan.
But ironically, the dark side of the game has been well documented more often than not with divers, thugs, cheaters and even instigators. Let’s take a look at some of the best known thugs of the game in the present so it makes Roy Keane
and Vinny Jones miss out as they have retired a huge sigh of relief for many players around!
Paul Scholes
The Manchester United man is the most controversial player in this list. Fact is that the red head from Manchester has been making very stupid tackles for over 16 years now with one tackle that made the former England international miss
the Champions League final in 1999 when the Red Devils completed a treble. But his tackles are not accidental. Scholes, whenever he slides, has no intention of taking a player down but almost every time the little man slides the balls never there but instead
the poor opponent is.
After he retires, Paul Scholes would be remembered as the greatest player ever to grace football but it would have been great if Sir Alex Ferguson had taught him how to tackle.
Gabriel Heinze
The Argentinean is one of the worst defensive players in recent memory. Back in 2006, when he was playing for Manchester United, Gabriel Heinze was a pretty decent defender but after his move to Real Madrid, the Argentinean somehow perfected
the art of getting the man and not the ball to keep from getting smoked by a player. Heinze usually scores a goal sometimes but his irritable player shoving puts him on this list.
Thierry Henry
One of Arsenal’s all-time greats, Thierry Henry made a reputation of a diver in the English Premier League along with the best ‘I’m innocent’ expressions that always got sympathy from the referees. But all this was well before the Frenchman
became a symbol of hate in Ireland when his blatant hand ball put Ireland out of the World Cup 2010 qualifying.
The former Barcelona man now plays for MLS outfit New York Red bulls but the two incidents, one of diving and then pleading not guilty and the other one, virtually handing France a World Cup place in South Africa, make the striker one
of the dirtiest players in the game.
Steven Gerrard
Steven Gerrard can be widely considered as the best player of the 2000s for both England and Liverpool. But the talismanic midfielder has a reputation of being the dirtiest tackler and a diver in the game.
Diego Forlan
The Uruguayan was the stand out performer of the World Cup in South Africa this year but both in Spain and at the International level, the former Manchester United man is famous for going down on the slightest of touches.
The player comes from a long line of going down too easily/ flopping strikers from Argentina (Forlan is originally from Argentina) and has a habit of going down easily and lying on the ground as if he had received one of the worst tackles
ever.
Arjen Robben
The bald assassin, Arjen Robben is currently one of the most talented players on the planet, a fact that infuriates fans and players alike even more when he gives the impression that rather than going for the Golden Boot, the Dutchman
is working his way up for an Oscar. His antics at the World Cup 2010 in South Africa proved this.
Being a notorious flopper can be tolerated to some extent but his love of getting in the ears of the referee when the Bayern Munich man doesn’t get a call infuriates everyone. His theatrics have been the bane of so many opposition fans
and rightly so, the Dutchman deserves to be on this list.
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