The top 10 most hated men in football.
Football is a game of heroes on villains and though the ‘hero’ depends of who you ask, there are ten names that inspire hatred amongst fans across the whole spectrum. Some of the names are still playing, whilst others work mostly as pundits. One commonality that binds them all, though, is that they have all had fairly respectable careers in the game before public opinion turned against them.
10. Mark Lawrenson
A former Liverpool legend, the defender came back into the public’s consciousness as a pundit on BBC’s Match of the Day following a failed stint at management. He ensured that MOTD’s moustache quota was topped up when Des Lynam walked away, but his sour demeanour and overly cynical attitude towards his job quickly got people on his back. His biggest crime is often declaring how bored he is when commentating on games, well step aside, Lawro, because we’d all do it for free! Luckily, though, he’ll be taking more of a backseat on the Saturday night programme from now on.
9. Mauro Icardi
The Argentine striker was busy building himself a career as one of Europe’s hottest strikers a few years ago, then he met Wanda Nara. Nara was the then wife of Icardi’s teammate and compatriot Maxi Lopez, and the pair were busted having an affair right behind the former Barca striker’s back. He moved to Inter, but followed that up by marrying Nara, appearing in adverts with her and then having her children’s names tattooed on his arm. This flagrancy has angered many fans and critics alike and showed a blatant disrespect for a fellow professional and someone he used to be able to call a friend.
8. Paolo Di Canio
A self confessed fascist, the former West Ham and Celtic striker landed himself in hot water when he gave a Nazi salute to the Lazio crowd after a particularly fiery Rome derby. This of course came after he shoved a referee to the ground during a clash with Arsenal in the late 90s. He’s since continued to make enemies as the manager of both Swindon and Sunderland, with many criticising his man-management style and his attitude towards his opponents. However, at this stage he will be lucky to get another job in a hurry.
7. Emre
The Turkish international has had a long list of accusations of racist abuse levelled against him stretching back to 2005 when he was involved in a brawl in the tunnel against Switzerland. Already earmarked as a live wire he set his terrible work into motion after being accused of using racist abuse against black members of the Everton squad, which he quickly followed up by abusing Bolton’s El-Hadji Diouf. His foul mouth caught up with him earlier this year, after he was sentenced with a four-month suspended prison sentence for racially abusing Didier Zokora during a Turkish Super Lig game back in 2012.
6. John Terry
The Chelsea skipper will probably never recover from his list of crimes. He was unceremonially stripped of the England captaincy for racially abusing QPR’s Anton Ferdinand, which only intensified the hate he received for sleeping with then teammate Wayne Bridge’s girlfriend. He’s managed to keep his head down recently, but he still can’t escape his past, and if Craig Bellamy can take the moral high ground when talking about you then you know you’ve done something wrong.
5. Cristiano Ronaldo
Despite consistently proving himself as one of the the World’s two greatest footballers, some just can’t a seem to give him a break and confuse him pantomime villainy with his real personality. At times he can be brash and cocky, which can sometimes make him look rather foolish, but despite trying to get Wayne Rooney sent off at the World Cup in 2006, he hasn’t actually ever done anything that bad, and even then that was tame compared to what others here have done.
4. Robbie Savage
The former Wales international has been a troll of the highest order since his career began wingding up opponents whilst in the Manchester united youth team. Blessed (or cursed) with an innate ability to get crowds on his back from the start he was frequently the target for fan backlash during an underwhelming playing career that took him to some of the Premier League’s scrappiest clubs. Since retiring he has taken pride of place alongside his fellow discredited professionals on Match of the Day, where he ill-informed rants and capacity for stating the obvious have dug him deeper into the country’s seething hatred.
3. Joey Barton
There is a brain in there somewhere, but it’s a shame he couldn’t engage it when he was younger instead of stubbing cigars out in the eyes of youth team players or attacking teammates on the training pitch. After emerging from prison he hired disgraced PR guru Max Clifford to overhaul into a Smiths-listening-Nitchze-quoting moral outlaw polluting Twitter with his confused rants about whatever happens to be in the news at the time. Got himself into trouble for calling Thiago Silva a ladyboy, but followed that up for speaking out for gay rights in football. So there is either an intelligent man who plays by his own rules, or an idiot that can’t keep up with his own outbursts.
2. Luis Suarez
It’s such a shame that one of the World’s best strikers routinely undoes all the great work he does on the pitch by letting himself down with a series of outrageously bizarre incidents. This summer saw him bite his third opponent during his short career, causing him to land a hefty ban from all football activity. Those bites only served to vilify him even more following the racial abuse he dished out to Manchester United’s Patrice Evra. The world waits to see what he will do next in an attempt to drag Barcelona’s name through the mud.
1. Sepp Blatter
From suggesting that black players get over racial abuse with a handshake, to routine calls of corruption and sexism, the man in charge of organised football has overseen it suffer and fall to its lowest ever ebb thanks to all those reasons and more. Still heading up FIFA, he is a man so clueless that the mere mention of his name is enough to inspire some heart broken fans into a rant of epic proportions.
SEE MORE: Top 100 players in the world.