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There are times in life when one does absolutely inscrutable things. Whether a moment of madness or a pre-planned mischief, we are all guilty of doing things which sometimes push the boundaries of law/ convention. And when footballers display their petty sides, it makes the news. Contrary to popular belief, footballers are human and have the tendency to do something that can’t really be explained away.Be it their drunken histrionics or their slightly difficult to believe fantasies, here are some petty incidents involving footballers that were/ are illegal:
#1 Glen Johnson and the prized Toilet seat
Most thieves steal things like gold, diamond, jewellery and so on. Not Glen Johnson – he steals toilet seats.
One would think that a footballer playing at Portsmouth, on loan from Chelsea, and earning £30000 per week doesn’t really need to steal as he has enough money to get what he wants.
However, Johnson, along with then Millwall striker Ben May, thought it was too much of a waste of money to spend so much on a thing as trivial as a toilet seat. But as he is a footballer, he couldn’t have any cheap toilet seats at his home as it would hurt his image.
A big dilemma right there. So what does he do? He puts the toilet seat in a box with a cheaper price tag. That didn’t turn out so well as the ultimate result was what he feared: tarnishing of his image and spending the extra cash as he had to pay an £80 fine.
Added to this, the Liverpool right-back also hid a set of taps underneath a sink – which was on his cart – to avoid paying for them. One could be forgiven for thinking that Johnson wasn’t really at his thinking best that fine day.
#2 Matty Pattison for.not wearing pants
Night-time is fun time for many footballers and Pattinson is – or was – one of them. After a rocking night out, then Norwich player Matty Pattison woke up late and – as one may have guessed by now – was getting late for training.
To avoid the wrath of his manager, he rushed out of his bed to the car and shot to training like a bullet. And like bullets leave their shell-casing right once they are fired, so did Pattison.
He had apparently forgotten to wear his trousers and it wasn’t until a traffic policeman stopped him that he realised that he was caught off-guard, literally. To top this off, the day was Sunday and hence a day off for him. This is why too much partying isn’t good – one not only forgets their trousers, but also the day of the week.
#3 Bradley-Wright Phillips and Nathan Dyer stealing at a nightclub
Footballers go to night clubs to spend money and have a good time with pals or total strangers. An exception to this case is rarer than a statement of humility from Zlatan Ibrahimovic. However, every once in a while, exceptions do occur and in this case it came in the form of then Southampton pair Bradley Wright-Phillips and Nathan Dyer.
The pair stole cash worth up to 85 pounds as well as cigarettes, mobile phones and bank cards from a staffroom at a nightclub. Ian Wright was embarrassed at his son’s conduct just like Justin Bieber’s mom was when she first heard her son sing in auto-tone.
In the end, Nathan Dyer pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 60 hours of community service while Wright got his backside saved by his lawyer who successfully argued that the CCTV images showed him in the staffroom, but they didn’t capture him ‘stealing’ anything. God bless lawyers.
#4 Diego Maradona goes all gangster
Diego Maradona is known for many things: being a genius with the ball at his feet, sh**e with words in mouth, drugs and a temper that sets off quicker than Kim Kardashian at the sight of limelight.
The Argentine legend is not one who is well known for his social skills and when journalists camped outside his home, the former Napoli man had had enough and took out an air rifle and went all gangster against them.
He shot pellets through the gate’s metal bars and was sentenced to two years in prison, but as the law and order situation in Argentina is worse than Bangladesh’s, he is yet to serve his time.
#5 Warren Barton and Rob Lee with their stolen Mercedes
Alcohol is a forbidden drink in some religions and there is a reason for this. Under the influence of alcohol, one can’t differentiate between the Sun and a candle, Lionel Messi and an honest tax payer, Jose Mourinho and a modest man, and Cristiano Ronaldo and a selfless worker.
And it was under the influence of alcohol that former Newcastle pair Warren Barton and Rob Lee stole a luxury car, as they smashed a Mercedes E220 into a van and made the neighbourhood know about their bad driving skills while drunk.
In the end, however, luck was on their side as the owner decided to not press charges. Perhaps the owner was a Newcastle fan.
#6 Bnei Sakhnin players take the \"free\" in Duty-Free literally
As a kid, one would look at Duty-Free shops and think that shopping there is free. And, as a kid, one could be forgiven for that.
However, when grown men do it, it is neither funny nor entirely forgivable. When players from Israel side Bnei Sakhnin saw a Duty Free Shop at the airport en route to Spain for an Intertoto Cup match against Deportivo in 2008, they thought it would be okay to take things without paying for them.
The players were Abed Rabbah, Khaled Khalaila, Mahmud Kannadli, Alaa Abu Saleh and Mosa Sha’ban – and they were all arrested for stealing perfumes worth over thousands of dollars.
#7 Tony Adams driving under the influence
Tony Adams was always known for his love for alcohol. He might have been one tough nut back in his days as a defender, but the former Arsenal man became as soft as a bunny under the influence of liquor.
In May 1990, Tony Adams felt he had had enough of leading a sober life and decided to enjoy a few drinking sessions. When the cops pulled him over after he hit a wall with his car near his house at Southend, they found him four times over the permissible alcohol limit.
He was sentenced to four months in prison and served two months of his sentence before returning to Arsenal and continuing to be the bad-ass captain that he was.
#8 Peter Storey importing porn
A footballer’s life, as we all know it, is great. They have lots of cash, cars, girls and whatnot. However, for Peter Storey, being a footballer didn’t give him enough adrenaline rush and hence he decided to import porn movies.
Yes, you read that right. Back in those days, in 1990, when the internet was not something thought off, Storey decided that people needed sources of pleasure and so imported 20 porn movies.
For this offense, Storey had to serve 28 days in jail – that is more eight more days than the number of movies he imported. Must have been tough on him, those eight days.
#9 Cesar Rodrigues stealing club bonuses
Remember Fast 5? That badass crew that chained a huge safe to two super-quick cars and dragged it all around Rio de Janeiro? One would always wonder from where this idea came to the writers’ mind. Well, look no further: Cesar Aparecido’s heist might have been the seed that allowed this idea to develop in the scriptwriter’s mind.
When CA Juventus’ right-back, Cesar Aparecido learned that the club had $100000 in store for the players as bonuses, he called two of his mates and planned a move that would see the money divided among the three of them instead of the whole squad.
And it worked. The money was successfully stolen and divided among the three. Successful heist, one would say, but the world’s most effective heists are the ones that are never known by people.
While these three had the brains to pull off a heist, they gave in to their materialistic sense when they purchased cars using the same cash they stole. In the end, Cesar had to stay in prison for 4 years and then went on to play for Inter and Lazio – which would definitely have improved his financial situation.
#10 David de Donut
Playing for Manchester United with a weekly wage of 75000 pounds must be enough for any footballer to eat whatever they want. Not for David de Gea.
In 2011, the former Atletico Madrid goalkeeper went to Tesco, took a donut worth £1.19 and ate it to satiate his hunger. Normally, he should have then paid the bill and left. But he thought that the people of Manchester owed him for his awesome performances in goal (which actually weren’t awesome at that time).
At that point in his life, the Spaniard wasn’t at his best. He was struggling to adapt to a new league and the scrutiny on his performances at the club was taking its toll on him. Even his own teams’ fans were getting frustrated and were starting to lose patience.
So what do you do when you are stressed? Eat sweets, say experts, as they help reduce anxiety.
De Gea did just that, but the world is so cruel that it didn’t let him eat a donut without having to pay for it. In the end, the situation caused an uproar on social media and furthered his embarrassment.
