5 players whose careers have been plagued by off-field controversy 

#4 Joey Barton

Joey Barton is currently serving an 18-month ban for gambling

Joey Barton has never exactly been the sort of person you could introduce to your mother, and his antics on the field have earned him the contempt of several players, managers and fans. However, his life off the field has also seen its fair share of controversy, with Barton making headlines repeatedly over the span of his career.

Joey Barton's first run-in with the law came during a Christmas party in 2004 when he decided that the best place to stub out his cigar was in someone's eye. The eye in the aforementioned incident belonged to a youth player by the name of Jamie Tandy, who started off this series of events by attempting to light Barton's shirt on fire.

This altercation kicked off a fairly disastrous year for Barton, in which he broke a pedestrian's leg while driving through Liverpool at 2 am and then assaulted a 15-year-old Everton supporter during a pre-season game. He also assaulted his Manchester City teammate Ousmane Dabo a few years later, resulting in an arrest. He was bailed out and promptly sold to Newcastle.

In less than six months, Barton was back in the slammer after CCTV cameras filmed him repeatedly punching a man and then assaulting a teenager in the Church Street area of Liverpool. He was sentenced to six months in jail and served 77 days of his sentence before being released.

In 2016 Barton was charged by the Scottish FA for breaking several rules related to gambling. Barton placed 1260 bets over the course of a decade, including 30 bets on the teams he was playing for at the time. He also bet on games in which he played the full 90 minutes. Barton was subsequently banned from football for 18 months on 26 April 2017.