April Fools' Day Special: When footballers and clubs were involved in pranks

Oh, it is that time of the year again! Watch out and don’t trust anyone, and when I say anyone, I do mean anyone. April Fools’ Day is one of those days when even your real friends could turn out to be major heartbreakers. Jokes and pranks give an impression that they are all for fun, but boy, does it hurt when you are a victim yourself.Every year, this very day, human emotions are abused and exploited in the name of April Fools’ day, and the world of football isn’t spared either. From footballers pranking their teammates to tabloids and sports websites trolling football fans all over the world, it is a chaotic state of affairs.Here are five such instances when footballers and clubs were involved in pranks:

#1 Beckham and Rooney get punk\'d by Rio Ferdinand

Former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand played the role of Ashton Kutcher in an adaptation of the American hit show Punk’d where the actor would go on pulling pranks on celebrities. Ferdinand's version of the show was called Rio’s World Cup Wind-Ups, and all of the episodes were filmed ahead of the 2006 FIFA World Cup. 

However, instead of Kutcher’s famous catchphrase, where the actor would say You got punk’d! at the end of every prank, the English defender had opted for an alternative version of You got merk'd! instead.

Here is Ferdinand’s prank on Wayne Rooney where the striker would encounter the fake death of a dog at a veterinary clinic with his wife Colleen.

This is not all of it. Ferdinand would pull pranks of a similar magnitude on his other teammates too, from the likes of Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs to David Beckham and Ashley Cole.