The Mad, Mad, Mad World of Soccer

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While many believe that Luis Suarez should have to wear a muzzle when he ends his four-month FIFA ban, he is only the latest in a series of soccer stars that have been shown to have a crazy streak in them.

Step forward Eric Cantona, Roy Keane, Mario Balotelli, Paul Gascoigne, Diego Maradona and George Best as further examples of the mad, mad world of the football superstar.

When the red mist descends, when the moon is full or simply when the Guinness is flowing too freely, stand by for fireworks, kung-fu kicks and assault charges.

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Eric Cantona remains one of the most famous examples of someone who just lost his mind. The Frenchman, launched himself into a famous kung-fu kick at a man in the crowd who had insulted him. He was later gave a bizarre statement about seagulls following trawlers, that very weird thoughts can inhabit the mind of even the best and most famous of footballers.

Paul Gascoigne was a genius on the pitch but sadly for him his mental problems, as well as his drinking and drug addiction, made him a pathetic figure. He suffered from obsessive-compulsive disorder, as well as from bulimia. He was also bipolar, an obsessive gambler and admitted to beating his wife. In 2008 he was sectioned following a suspected suicide.

Roy Keane always had a dark side and claimed revenge on Norwegian footballer Alf-Inge Haaland with a crippling tackle. He never forgave Haaland for a clash between them in 1997, when the Leeds player accused him of faking injury during a game. In fact, Keane had ruptured his knee. The memory of that day festered in Keane’s mind for a long time until the day that he came across Haaland, now a Manchester City player in April, 2001—when he decided the moment of retribution had come. As he later wrote: “I’d waited long enough. I f****** hit him hard. The ball was there (I think). Take that you c***. And don’t ever stand over me sneering about fake injuries.”

Mario Balotelli is nothing like as scary as Keano or as ill as Gascoigne, but that’s not to say he is not right in the head. He later needed the help of the fire brigade after setting fireworks in his Manchester pad.

George Best practically invented the role of the soccer star as drunken womanizer. As he famously said: “I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars—the rest I just squandered”.

Diego Maradona was found guilty of assault with weapon after injuring four reporters outside his Argentine home in 1994. He was later given a suspended jail sentence of two years and 10 months and later had to pay $15,300 to a wounded journalist.

Other Sports Madmen

Soccer does not exclusively hold the rights to sporting madness.

Mike Tyson, for instance, can even put the cannibal tendencies of Luis Suarez to shame. In what must surely still be the best famous sports bite of them all, he took a chunk out of Evander Holyfield’s right ear during the third round of their heavyweight fight in 1997 in Las Vegas. He was also convicted of rape and once said of a rival: “I wanna eat his children”.

Dennis Rodman didn’t just play basketball. He also dressed up as a gypsy woman, wore a wedding dress promote his book Bad as I Wanna Be, had tattoos and piercings and would kick the odd cameraman around. There was also an aborted suicide attempt.

Ice-skater Tonya Harding paid a hit-man $6,500 to take down her top competitor Nancy Kerrigan in 1994. Although it was not a bone-breaking hit, Kerrigan was forced to pull out of the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, successfully securing Harding’s place on the Olympic team.

Tiger Woods turned out to be really a swinger of different kind. His madness was in believing he could keep his sex secret under the covers. When his wife found out she attacked him with a seven iron.

O.J. Simpson also had it all. As an NFL great he was one of the most famous in world sport. I also turns out he was also nuts. After a long trial he was found not quilty of the murders of his wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, but he was then convicted of numerous felonies including armed robbery and kidnapping. He will be residing in jail for most of the next 30 years.