Controversial Players:Legends & Newbies-Part 1

FIFA is always trying to induce the Fair Play system in the game and to promote a clean game. While FIFA can hardly control the fair game inside the pitch, it’s impossible for it to control it outside the pitch. A lot of troublesome players, old and new, who caused controversial incidents inside and outside the pitch. Despite of their questionable manners and character, lot of these players have turned out to be legends and have gained the love of many fans. Among the long list, the light is shed on five players from the oldest to newest in time.

Paul Gascoigne “Gazza”: Gazza is known as the tearful player who was able to make whole England including the Queen to cry, the player who was named in the 1990 FIFA World cup All-Stars team, the player who was inducted in the English Hall of Fame in 2002, and the player who had a successful football career. Besides Football, Gazza is known to had undergone therapy for bulimia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, bi-polar disorder, and alcoholism.  Gascoigne had an instable and tragedical childhood where his family lived in a single upstairs room in a council house with a shared bathroom, and moved several times during Gascoigne’s early life. Several sad events had a huge impact on Gazza’s mental life; the death of his friend’s younger brother and his own dad caused lot of mental disturbances for Gascoigne. Shoplifting was one of the things that excited Gazza and alcoholism was one of the childhood friends where he got drunk on a bottle of vodka stolen by a friend at age of fourteen. After retiring from football, Gazza stayed on the front pages of sports papers where he repeatedly threatened to harm himself under the effect of alcohol and he was arrested for this purpose several times as well. On February 10,2010, Gascoigne was retained for questioning after a pub disturbance and the following day, he was arrested for drink-driving.  Football fans will always remember Gazza the football legend but at the same time will always remember the “drunk” Gazza hoping that his seven year old nephew Cameron Gascoigne would revive a better picture for his uncle; Cameron has just signed a contract with Newcastle United after he scored 22 goals in 30 minutes in the Youth League.

Eric Cantona: Still labeled “King Eric” by Manchester United fans, Cantona was known for his short-temper which led him to fight with teammates, opponents, coaches, referees, and even fans! The talented French forward, who led the Red Devils to 9 titles including 4 premier league titles, has done everything from punching teammates to dangerously tackle opponents to publicly trash talk coaches to throwing balls at referees. But during the 1995-1996 season, he was involved in an incident which attracted headlines and controversy worldwide. In an away match against Crystal Palace, Cantona was sent off by the referee for a vengeful kick on Palace defender Richard Shaw after Shaw had pulled his shirt. As he was leaving the pitch after sending him off for brutally kicking crystal palace defender “Richard Shaw”, he attacked a crystal palace fan with a famous “Kung-fu” style kick followed with series of punches. Even after leaving, controversy was never far away; in 2006 The Sun newspaper reported Cantona as saying that Manchester United had lost their soul and that the current players were a bunch of sheep. The Old Trafford idol reckoned the days of maverick entertainers like himself and George Best were gone and feared the Red Devils were betraying their past by putting out boring.

Paolo Di Canio: No one can ever doubt the football skills of the King of Controversies who was a legend in the Italian Club “Lazio”. When he was not busy pushing referees and other players, he was busy scoring magnificent goals and marking his name in the Legends Land. Di Canio had lot of famous controversial moments; he is famous for an incident on the pitch in September 1998 where he pushed referee Paul Alcock to the ground after being sent off while playing for Sheffield Wednesday against Arsenal, which resulted in an extended ban of 11 matches and him being fined £10,000. Another famous series of controversial incidents is the continuous fascist gesture to salute Lazio fans, and again Di Canio was banned for one match game and fined €7,000, but this did not stop him from saying that he “will always salute as I did because it gives me a sense of belonging to my people.I saluted my people with what for me is a sign of belonging to a group that holds true values, values of civility against the standardization that this society imposes upon us.” Despite the “Referees-fighting” and “Fascist-gestures”, Di Canio won the FIFA Fair Play Award after a “special act of good sportsmanship”. In December 2000 and in a game against Everton, Di Canio had a clear chance to score a goal after he skipped past the goalkeeper Paul Gerrard, but Di Canio rejected to score and held the ball instead because Gerrard was lying injured after he twisted his knee when attempting the ball clearance

Antonio Cassano: Cassano was nick-named as Peter Pan as a clear reference to Diego Maradona’s nick name. Cassano has established himself as a great football player at a very young age after he paired with the King of Rome, Francesco Totti, in leading Roma to the Calcio in 2001.  Cassano was also known for his short temper which led him to clash with Roma former manager, Fabio Capello who was known for his strict personality. The two had a very awkward relationship and this began when Cassano stormed out of the team’s practice after his international debut. In 2004-2005 and after many clashes with former manager Cesare Prandelli, he wrangled with the replacement Rudi Voeller for an entire month until the latter resigned due to poor results. But what astonished the football fans was his weird claim that he missed Fabio Capello who he considered to be “like a father”. But this did not appear to be valid when he clashed again with Don Fabio not in Roma but this time in their new club “Real Madrid”. Upon joining the Galacticos, Cassano started to gain weight after pool eating habits which made the management fire him until he regain his playing weight. On October 30, 2006, he was suspended by the team for his “disrespect” to Capello in the dressing room after excluding him from the playing list in the game against Gimnastic. Besides his bad behavior with his managers, Cassano was also known for the bad behavior on pitch and especially with referees. In the final of the Italian Cup against Milan in 2003, he was sent off after protesting against the referee’s decision and he flashed the sign of horns at the referee as he was walking out the pitch. His Red Cards were a main reason behind his continuous clashes with his managers. The trail followed Peter Pan to Sampdoria. In a match against Torino and after being shown the “RED”, he threw his jersey at the referee. This behavior built a raft with Sampdoria’s fans.

Mario Balotelli: Mario Balotelli or Super Mario is leading the new age of Controversy. At the age of 19, he had attracted the sights of football fans and critics with his magnificent abilities and skills which made Jose Mourinho “the Special one” favor him in the first team. But Balotelli also attracted the fans and critics with his disciplinary problems and especially in clashing with Mourinho, and who would dare to do that with the Special One. Mourinho accused the little boy with lack of effort in training stating “as far as I’m concerned, a young boy like him cannot allow himself to train less than people like Figo, Cordoba, and Zanetti.” After the clash, Super Mario was excluded from the next match in the Champions League. In a clear message to Balotelli, Mourinho favored McDonald Mariga who is considered much less than Balotelli in terms of skills. A lot of controversial players were known for clashing with managers, other players, referees, teammates, and even fans, but what was brand new was what Super Mario introduced when he was caught kissing AC Milan’s Jersey, the fierce rivals on Inter, and it is well known in Italy how sensitive the relationship between football rivals and especially in Milan is. He was also caught watching AC Milan’s games several times.  

A lot of players had a controversial history in Football but despite that many of them were able to turn into legends, win awards, and even win Fair Play awards. But on the other side, some players failed to separate their personality and character from football and created their own failure as in the case of Antonio Cassano who missed the Italian National side spot twice. The hope will remain in new players like Mario Balotelli to learn from the mistakes of Cassano or at least learn how to be controversial legend. Do you think controversial football players must be remembered? Do you think balotelli can make it to a controversial legend?