Some Interesting, Unusual and Bizarre Facts about Football Players - Part Two

# In 1995 Zinedine Zidane almost joined Blackburn Rovers. However, the club chose Tim Sherwood instead, with chairman Jack Walker saying: “Who needs Zinedine Zidane? We’ve got Tim Sherwood.”

# Hull City defender Maynor Figueroa has three toes on his left foot.

# Swedish defender Jan Olsson was the unlucky player that Dutch legend Johan Cruyff made a fool of with the very first and now famous “Cruyff Turn” in the 1974 World Cup Finals held in West Germany.

# Zlatan Ibrahimovic had a checkered past growing up. The son of a tough Croatian mother and hard-drinking Bosnian father, he grew up in the Malmo ghetto of Rosengard. One of the current mega stars of football was a thief when he was a youngster. In fact he stole a lot - bikes, sweets, cars, anything and everything!

# Sir Stanley Matthews never received a booking in his 33-year long career.

# According to Mexico City police, crime rates in Mexico reduce when Javier Hernandez plays football. Additionally, and almost unbelievably, they suggest that more women go into labour than usual when the Manchester United striker plays.

# Fernando d’Ercoli, while playing for Pianta against Arpaxin 1989, got so mad after getting a red card that he snatched the card from the referee’s hand and ate it.

# Similarly in 1984, Mike Bagley of Bristol took the referee’s notebook and ripped out the page with his name on after he had been booked, and ate it.

# No doubt about it, the worst disciplinary record goes to Ricky Goddard of North Warnborough, a small village in North East Hapmshire. By 1992, he had been suspended for five out of his nine years as a footballer. On one occasion, he was banned for six months when he sneaked into the ref's changing-room at half time and urinated over all his clothes.

# Jack Charlton and Bobbie Charlton's uncle was the Newcastle United and England legend Jackie Milburn

# In 2008 Borussia Dortmund striker Robert Lewandoski had agreed to sign for Blackburn but an Icelandic ash cloud cancelled all airline flights, meaning the paperwork couldn't be completed before the deadline.

# While playing for Barcelona Danish legend Michael Laudrup participated in the 5–0 victory over bitter rivals Real Madrid during the 1993–94 season. The following season while playing for Real Madrid he aided in the revenge beating that Madrid gave Barça, the final score also being 5–0.

# Liverpool's Simon Mignolet started his career as a forward, and tried his hand at being a goalkeeper after he was dropped.

# On the other hand, Fernando Torres started his career as a goalkeeper, and later switched to become a striker.

# In 1978 Sheffield United boss Harry Haslam spotted a 17-year-old Diego Maradona on a scouting trip to Argentina and was so impressed that he struck a £200,000 deal there and then. But when Argentinos Juniors demanded more cash the Blades board refused to cough up, and bought Maradona's countryman Alejandro Sabella instead.

# Ryan Giggs' estranged father Danny Wilson is a former British professional rugby league player of the 1970's and 1980's. A Wales international stand-off, he played his club rugby for Widnes, Swinton, Runcorn Highfield and Springfield Borough.

# Dimitar Berbatov’s childhood hero was Alan Shearer, and the former Tottenham & Manchester United striker used to sleep in a Newcastle shirt when he was kid.

# In 1996, George Weah paid for his team-mates kits and expenses so Liberia could enter the African Nations Cup

# Arthur Conan Doyle, the writer most noted for his fictional stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, played as a goalkeeper for amateur side Portsmouth Association Football Club, under the pseudonym A. C. Smith. (This club, disbanded in 1896, has no connection with the present-day Portsmouth Football Club, which was founded in 1898).

# In 1999, Chelsea signed Chris Sutton from Blackburn for £10 million. The striker scored just one league goal and left a season later.

Some Interesting, Unusual and Bizarre Facts about Football Players - Part One

# In 2013 the word "Inmessionante" was added to the Spanish Dictionary which references Lionel Messi. It was chosen because of its similarity to the Spanish word for “impressive.”
It is an adjective which is explained in the Spanish dictionary with two points:

1. Perfect way to play football, an unlimited capacity for self improvement.
2. Describes the best player of all time.

# Johan Cruyff's niece Estelle married Ruud Gullit in 2000, but she walked out on him in 2012 due to his continuous womanising. Estelle was his 3rd wife and Ruud has six children - two from each of his marriages.

# Ryan Giggs never received a red card during his 24 season playing career with Manchester United. He was only once sent off when playing for Wales, on 5 September 2001 in a World Cup qualifier against Norway.

# Mark Hughes once played two games in a single day; In the morning he played for Wales against Czechoslovakia in Prague, drove across the border, and then turned out for Bayern Munich in the afternoon.

# Lille and France International footballer Rio-Antonio Mavuba was born in international waters. Mavuba, son of former Zaire international Ricky Mavuba Ndokia Ndombe - who featured at the 1974 World Cup finals - was born on a boat, off the coast of Angola, on 16 March 1984. His birth certificate does not have a nation listed, it just says “Born at Sea.”

# Former Tottenham Hotspur player and now television pundit and actor David Ginola has an unfortunate tale to tell. His name is an anagram for 'Vagina Dildo.'

# The younger brother of Joey Barton, Michael, is a convicted murderer. He and his cousin murdered their male victim, in an unprovoked racially motivated attack with an ice axe in 2005. Both were given life sentences with Michael Barton given a minimum term of 17 years and eight months.

# Ronaldinho first gained media attention in 1993, when aged 13 his youth team won a game 23-0. Ronaldinho scored all 23 goals in that victory.

# Charles Itandje of Cameroon is the only professional footballer to be sacked for laughing!
That’s what happened to the goalkeeper whilst at Liverpool in 2010. The reason his punishment was so harsh was because he was caught chuckling about something during a memorial service for the victims of Hillsborough.

# Manuel Neuer stars in the German version of the 2013 Disney/Pixar film 'Monsters University’. He provides the voice for the character Frank McCay

# Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro got the name "Ronaldo" after then-U.S. president Ronald Reagan, a favourite actor of his father's.

As a child, Jakub "Kuba" Błaszczykowski, the Borussia Dortmund and Polish international winger witnessed a tragedy, which had a major influence on his life. When he was ten years old his father stabbed his mother to death. After his father went to prison, Błaszczykowski and his brother were raised by their grandmother. Every goal he scores, he dedicates to his mother and can be seen looking up in the sky during goal celebrations.

# There have been many goalkeepers over the years who have fancied themselves as strikers.
Former Manchester United goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel was renowned for going up for corners late into a game and scored 13 times in his career.

# West Ham and Cameroon international Alex Song has 27 siblings – 17 sisters and 10 brothers. His father, who died when Song was two, had five wives.

# Croatian footballer Luka Modrić and former Australian footballer Mark Viduka are cousins.

# Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima commonly known as the Brazilian Ronaldo, never won the UEFA Champions League despite playing for 5 teams that did. Zlatan Ibrahimovic has also never won the UEFA Champions League, despite playing for some of the world's biggest European clubs.

# Liverpool goalkeeper Simon Mignolet speaks 5 languages and has a degree in politics.


*Part Two will follow soon.