Football's madmen..and a woman

We can call them players with ‘problems’ or just plain crazy. Their antics have attracted worldwide attention and the word ‘eccentric’ seems to be an understatement to describe them. Let’s take a look at these footballers:

El Hadji Diouf: a.k.a The ‘Spit King’ – he had a habit of spitting on opponents and even the opponent team’s fans.

One fine day, whilst playing for Liverpool, a few Celtic fans mocked him just enough to get spat on. A couple of season’s later, it was on an 11 year-old boy at a Boro game; and he was reprimanded for it only to repeat it a few days later against another unfortunate person. No wonder then, that Neil Warnock thought this guy was worse than a sewer rat.

Rene Higuita: Crazy, yet simply awesome. From Scorpion kick saves to scoring goals over free-kicks, the Columbian goalkeeper has done everything in a career spanning more than 25 years.

He has even scored 25 goals in his club career and has often rushed forward in attempts to put his name on the scorecard- albeit making tons of blunders in the process, most notably in a match against Cameroon in the 1990 World Cup where he was dispossessed by Roger Milla and … well, you know the rest. His antics earned him the name El Loco (The Madman) by fans and media alike. But all fun and craziness apart, he was undoubtedly a talented player.

Luis Suarez: Another Liverpool man. As crazy as anyone can be.

His eccentricity as well as talent came to light in the 2010 World Cup. Eccentricity, more prominently. His famous goal-line “save” against the Ghanians cost Uruguay a penalty and earned him a red card. But that did not stop him from laughing his head off when the resulting penalty was missed. And since then, he’s followed it up with one shenanigan after another. Of course, his history of nibbling on opponents’ shoulders and ears aren’t such a mystery either. Sheer juvenile rage.

Eric Cantona: “When the seagulls follow the trawler, it’s because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea.”

To this day, I haven’t understood (and I think many others) what the hell Eric Cantona was saying when asked to justify his kung-fu lunge on a Crystal Palace fan. He’s only too notorious for his antics and nothing much needs to be said. This guy defines crazy.

Elizabeth Lambert: If you think women are soft, your thoughts will vanish quickly after watching this.

It looks as if a raving dog bit her and she is out to spread the disease. Kicking, pulling the hair of opponents, kicking, punching and kicking some more; BEWARE!

Of course, with all due respect to these men and the woman, and though I haven’t mentioned them, Pepe, Balotelli and Joey Barton will still always occupy the place in my heart for the craziest footballers ever.