Ten of the weirdest things you’ve ever heard about players at this summer’s tournament in Brazil.
As the old saying goes, football is a funny old game, and here we aim to prove that saying is still very much relevant despite its overuse. Of all the players travelling to South America for the tournament this month, these teen players have perhaps the strangest stories in the game.
10. Charles Itandje – Cameroon
Did you know that the Cameroonian custodian is the only professional footballer to be sacked for laughing?
That’s what happened to him whilst at Liverpool in 2010, though the reason his punishment was so harsh was because he was caught chuckling about something during a memorial service for the victims of Hillsborough. However, he was shipped out to Greece, where he flopped, before making the move to Turkey where was a resounding success and replaced Carlos Kameni as his country’s first choice goalkeeper.
9. Dejan Lovren – Croatia
Did you know that Croatia defender Dejan Lovren runs his own fashion label?
Well, we say fashion label when what we really mean is he sticks a logo onto shirts, hats and hoodies and promotes them by taking grainy iPhone snaps of his teammates whilst wearing them. Luka Modric and Franck Ribéry have been the most prominent customers for Lovren’s Russell Brown brand, whose symbol is an owl. Apparently, the bird stands for “power and perfection”.
8. Carlos Salcido – Mexico
Did you know that Carlos Salcido once partied with a transsexual hooker?
There are many ways a player could have celebrated Mexico’s victory over Colombia four years ago, but canoodling with a transsexual prostitute in a Monterrey hotel room was probably one of the dumbest. Salcido, then at Fulham, was fined $50,000 (£30,000) for his troubles, yet he fled London for Mexico in 2011, claiming a robbery at his house made his family feel unsafe. Priorities, man!
7. Jason Davidson – Australia
Did you know Australia’s Jason Davidson used to get physically beaten at training?
Yep, that’s what happened whilst at Japanese club Seiritsu Gakeun, where he spent three years during his formative years. The punishment for not bowing to club officials properly was to be struck in the face, and once when a player reported late to training he and the rest of the squad were forced to have their heads shaved.
6. Memphis Depay – Holland
Did you know Memphis Depay nearly turned his back on football for a career in rap music?
When he was first making his breakthrough into the Eredivise club’s starting line up, the young winger was so into his rap music (apparently, he is a very talented MC) that then manager Fred Rutten ordered him to make a choice between a career in music or a career in football. Luckily he chose the latter.
5. Reza Ghoochannejhad – Iran
Did you know that the Charlton Athletic striker has ambitions to be part of a philharmonic orchestra when he retires?
Where most footballers are into rap and RnB, the Iranian star has taken a decidedly different route when it comes to his aural tastes. Known as “Gucci”, he and his family left Tehran for the Netherlands when he was just eight years old, where he learnt to play the violin, which he now does every day with the ambition of becoming a classical musician when he retires.
4. Park Chu-young – South Korea
Did you know that Park Chu-young is not so much a talented footballer but just a good chap?
Usually players make it to the World Cup sweating, bleeding and crying their way through seasons with hard graft and sometimes a spot of luck. However, despite featuring much at all this season, Korea’s Park Chu-young has made it into the squad for being, well, a bloody nice bloke. When quizzed how he could justify choosing a footballer who had played just seven minutes of league football for Arsenal in three years, the Korea manager, Hong Myung-bo, said: “He gets on well with the rest of the squad.” Well fair enough then.
3. Carlos Bacca – Colombian
Did you know that Carlos Bacca nearly walked away from the game at an early age?
Every World Cup must have a rags-to-riches story and the Sevilla striker’s is compelling to say the least.
Just seven years ago, at the age of 20, the Colombian had hung up his boots to divide his time between his two jobs as a bus conductor as a fishmonger on the seafront. However, a team called Junior de Barranquilla sought to offer him a trial and a chance to get himself back up the ladder. “Thank God they took me”, said Bacca.
2. Albert Adomah – Ghana
Did you know that Adomah was once paid for by the BBC’s favourite commentator.
As a bored 15-year-old, Albert Adomah wandered down to Ravenscroft Park in west London where he asked if he could get involved “The Streetwardens Football Project”. After a short stint with Barnet, where the BBC’s most famous voice John Motson sponsored him, he rose through the ranks to become a key figure in Ghana’s qualifying campaign and will now get to strut his stuff at the biggest tournament on earth.
1. Fabian Schar – Switzerland
Did you know that Fabian Schar has a taste for numbers?
Football is full of stereotypes, whether perpetuated on purpose or by a media that doesn’t quite understand the culture of a country, but in Switzerland’s case it is most definitely a self fulfilling stereotype. FC Basel defender Fabian Schar may be a tainted centre-back, but he is also a a qualified banker and but for being plucked from fourth-division obscurity by Basel, would probably be behind his desk now offering somebody some sound financial advice.
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