World football is full of larger-than-life characters—men who never seem to be too far away from the back pages for all the wrong reasons. Here is a list of top "Bad Boys" who have more or less succeeded in football.
10. Wayne Rooney
Rooney has been one of the most important and prolific players for both Manchester United and England’s National Team in the last couple of years. His football style is aggressive and unpredictable, while his speed and reaction on the field have often left his opponents mesmerized. Much like on the field, Rooney has proven the same temper in real life, with numerous scandals and public fights over the years.
From being convicted for drunk-driving and subsequently fired by Everton FC to being involved in several sex sandals outside his marriage, Rooney meets all the essential characteristics of a bad boy. His latest achievement is a monumental fight with his wife after losing over £500,000 in a local Casino. This was not the first time when Rooney admitted to losing substantial amounts of money by gambling, while several Casino employees confirmed him as a regular VIP Member and definitely not a pokies free amateur.
Rooney has hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons this week after social media was flooded with images of him getting close to a woman in a nightclub and injuring his player with a crunch tackle on the training ground.
9. George Best
"Maradona is good, Pele is better, George is the best."These words engraved on the coffin of George Best, who died in 2005, sums up perfectly the popularity of English and not only in Britain. Manchester United player with great talent, Best was also a heavy smoker and alcoholic.
He also said before his death: "In 1969, I stopped with women and alcohol; it was the hardest of my life.
I had a house next to the sea, but to reach the beach you had to pass by a bar…I never saw the sea." Undoubtedly the baddest bad boy
8. Eric Cantona
The "King" has earned a great reputation!
Throughout his career, Eric Cantona has multiplied the catastrophes: from the kick to a spectator, to the "scumbag" yelled at Henry Michel, the sticker made a show! Well built, provocative look, collar turned up, "Canto" is a master in the field. And obviously Manchester United likes it!
7. Zlatan Ibrahimovic
Just like Eric Cantona, Zlatan Ibrahimovic knows how to be arrogant. Whether in Sweden, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain or France, the Scandinavian giant has the same strategy putting humiliation at the center of everything.
A renowned, unmatched bad boy!
6. Paul Gascoigne
Arguably the finest English footballer of our generation but it all went wrong for Gazza after the tears at Italia '90.
He has endured many problems with alcoholism and has spent a series of spells in the Priory, before being sectioned under the Mental Health Act in 2008.
The future looks bleak for the once-great hope of English football.
5. Luis Suarez
Atletico forward Luis Suarez is another divisive player you either love or hate.
The Uruguayan's career has been checkered with negative moments dating right back to when he bit another player while playing for Ajax.
Since then, he has been accused numerous times of diving, committed a rather blatant handball in a World Cup quarterfinal and was engaged in a very unsavoury war of words with Patrice Evra where he was accused of racially insulting the Manchester United defender.
On 21 April 2013, Suarez bit the arm of Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic whilst Liverpool were hosting Chelsea at Anfield in the Premier League. Suárez was given lengthy bans for all three incidents, with his latest – on Italy international Giorgio Chiellini at the World Cup of 2014 – being the most severe of all. A ban for four months of all footballing activity was the jury’s verdict.
His talent is undeniable, but then so is his ability to court controversy.
4. Antonio Cassano
The list of footballers who have indulged themselves with a playboy lifestyle is endless – but Antonio Cassano perhaps tops the lot.
A self-destructive hothead with a penchant for food and sleeping with women, as well as an array of questionable quotes, Cassano lived the high life until the luxury took an explosive toll.
Well apparently, the Italians have really bad temper! After Gattuso and Balotelli, Antonio Cassano comes to fill our list of Bad Boys. Constantly stopped by the police and always at the heart of huge controversies, the former Milan player could find a much better career if he had been less tempered. However his talent still allowed him to play at Real Madrid.
3. Adam Johnson
While for some others on this list of football's bad boys there is some levy or some sympathy for living a wild life, there is not a lot of compassion for Adam Johnson. Although some believe he did get an overblown jail sentence.
Once regarded as one of England's brightest talents, earning a transfer to Manchester City in 2010, the winger has sunk to the deepest depths. In 2014, while married and his wife pregnant, the now 33-year-old went to meet with a 15-year-old female fan and subsequently kissed her in his car. The police later even found animal pornography on his computer.
A court psychiatrist for the defence found Johnson to be "socially and psychologically immature" and stated that there was no evidence that Johnson had a sexual attraction to prepubescent children. Making his case all that more peculiar.
Johnson was sentenced to six years in jail although he was released in 2019 after serving half his sentence.
2. Joey Barton
Well known to our dear and loving Ligue 1, Joey Barton is a real Bad Boy.
Red cards every time, irritating to his opponents, anger attacks against his teammates ...
Something is not quite right up there. At Newcastle, the former Marseille squeezed a lighted cigar into the eye of Ousmane Dabo. Oh lord…
1. Mario Balotelli
There’s no way Mario Balotelli could have escaped this list among the "Bad Boys" of soccer! Since the beginning of his career, the Italo-Ghanaian is more popular for his behavior than for his talents on the field.
Fireworks lighted inside his house, arrows thrown at the youngsters of Manchester City, fights with his teammates ...
Balotelli knows how to entertain us, that's for sure. A bad boy that has not yet managed to find balance between his character and skills.