Manchester United Football Club has always tried to maintain a clean cut image of itself by signing players and officials who carry a clean character slate but every once in a while, the odd duck has managed to deftly slip through the club’s gates, the latest in the list being Swedish superstar Zlatan Ibrahimovic. And so while the world continues to go gaga over Manchester United’s decision to move to Zlatan and such paradigm shifting trivia as to what number the Swedish footballing phenomenon will wear at Old Trafford, we make a short trip down memory lane and take a look at the biggest, baddest footballers to have signed on the dotted line of at the end of a Manchester United contract.
5) Ryan Giggs:
To be honest, this player would not have made the cut for this list had it not been for a couple of legendary goof ups committed by this legend that surfaced out of the blue in 2011. It all started when a revelation came to light that Ryan Giggs had tried to put a gagging order on Big Brother’s Imogen Thomas following the end of a six-month affair between the two. At that time, Giggs was married to his wife Stacey Cooke; the couple separated in 2016.
The best was yet to come though. Following the reports of Giggs’s controversial attempt to shut up Thomas, up stepped one of Giggs’s other flames, surprise surprise: Natasha Giggs, wife of Ryan Giggs’s brother Rhodri. Natasha Giggs spilled the beans to the public about an eight-year relationship between her and her husband’s brother completely tarnishing the clean-cut reputation that Giggs had carefully constructed over the years. The ultimate low was when Natasha Giggs revealed that she had aborted Ryan’s baby just a month before getting married to Rhodri!
Such a shame for the star who built his legacy by making no less than 672 appearances for The Red Devils
4) George Best:
Described by The Irish Football Association as the "greatest player to ever pull on the green shirt of Northern Ireland", George Best started his Manchester United career at the ripe young age of 15 under the tutelage of the boss, Sir. Matt Busby. One of the best dribblers the world has ever seen, Best scored no less than 179 goals for Manchester United and was the club’s top goal scorer in the league for five consecutive seasons.
During his playing career, this genius earned countless plaudits and was always a crowd favourite but underneath all the showboating on the football field hid a very dark side, one of alcoholism, women and controversies aplenty. Quoting George Best on his career, "I spent a lot of money on booze, birds (women) and fast cars – the rest I just squandered.” With Best unable to best his demons, one of the greatest footballing careers that could have been was ended prematurely at the age of 27 in 1974. What is, even more, heart breaking is owing to a lack of fitness and Northern Ireland’s performance in general, El Beatle never got to play in the finals of a major international tournament.
Those who have seen Best play in his prime are today testimony to what the world missed and what could and should have been!
3) Roy Keane:
The perennial bad boy of Manchester United, the former captain of Ireland has had a reckless streak dating to as long back as imaginable. He is one of the few footballers who seem to be getting into trouble even after retiring from the sport. To be honest, he is not really far removed from the sport, at the moment Keane is currently the assistant manager of the Republic of Ireland’s national football team.
Roy Keane’s bad boy moments came at rather frequent intervals, none more so than the blatant foul committed on by him on Alf-Inge Håland in the 2001 Manchester derby. Keane later admitted to fouling Håland on purpose also stating that he felt no remorse whatsoever for his actions. This admission of guilt let the FA to suspend him for five matches while also imposing a fine of 150,000 pounds.
Another of the memorable incidents in Roy Keane’s bad boy diary is what has now come to be known as the Saipan incident. This was a rather public quarrel that took place when Keane was on Ireland duty at the 2002 FIFA World Cup. Keane was the captain of the Irish team in that tournament and the spat which occurred between Keane and then Ireland manager Mick McCarthy in Saipan, Japan (the team’s practice base) ultimately resulted in Keane being sent home without having played a single match.
Long standing spats with opposition players; Patrick Vieira anybody?, criticising home supporters, taking on journalists, the list of controversies in Keane’s career is endless.
A notorious career to say the least but a most entertaining one nonetheless!
2) Eric Cantona:
The ultimate Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde footballer, when Manchester United signed the self-declared Commissioner of football from Leeds what they got was not only a footballer of rare distinguished pedigree but also a walking talking controversy.
A winner of numerous league and domestic titles, Eric Cantona’s life achievements also include multiple convictions for assault. Bust ups with fans, opposition players, coaches and team mates, Cantona has done it all. But the one incident that will probably be forever etched on the memories of every football fan from the 90s is when Cantona used his legs to kick something similarly shaped, but apart from a football: a supporter’s head!
The game in question was an away match against Crystal Palace and Cantona after being sent off for deliberately kicking Richard Shaw, an Eagles defender proceeded to went out his feelings by aiming a kung-fu style kick at Palace supporter Mathew Simmons who had allegedly run down 11 rows of stairs to confront United’s French no.7. Cantona followed up the kick by throwing a string of punches towards the general direction of the crowd.
Rookie mistake Simmons! Should have known better!
1) Zlatan Ibrahimovic
Now Manchester United have gone and signed the one and only Zlatan, the lone footballer on whom bust ups and controversies seem legit. Never one to stand down or mask his thoughts, Zlatan has incurred the wrath of many a face associated with football with his brash, outspoken personality.
Legend goes that when Zlatan was playing in Sweden for Malmo, he came extremely close to signing for premier league giants Arsenal. There was only one glitch. The manager of Arsenal, Arsene Wenger wanted Ibra to undergo a trial with the club, pretty common practice anywhere in football. For any other 17-year-old footballer, this would have been dream news but this is Zlatan we are talking about. The Swedish striker reportedly went up to Arsene Wenger, one of the most respected names in football and said, “Zlatan doesn't do auditions!”, the cheek of it all!
Zlatan has been involved in feuds with managers, players and team mates at regular intervals throughout a career spanning more than fifteen years making him an indispensable part of this list!
It will be very interesting to see what shenanigans Manchester United will get up to when they pull on the Zlatan t-shirt for the 2016-17 season. One things is sure, there’s gonna be fireworks! And a lot of them at that!!
