Taking recreational drugs such as cocaine or marijuana may not have a positive effect on the performance of a football player but it is still illegal and often leads to punishment from the players’ club, in addition to the governing body of the league or country in which they play.
These cases don’t always come to light. A 2010 study by Sporting Intelligence noted that of the four players banned for marijuana use by the English Football Association between 2004 and 2010, just one was named. A further eight warnings were handed out to unnamed players without further punishment.
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But some haven’t been quite as fortunate. Here are five footballers who were punished for smoking marijuana.
#5 Bernard Lama
Bernard Lama enjoyed a successful career, winning a league title, two French Cups and the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup with Paris Saint-Germain and making over 40 appearances for France at international level.
But the goalkeeper lost his place at the club after receiving a two-month ban from the French Football Federation in 1997 following a positive test for cannabis prior to France’s friendly against Netherlands in February of that year. In doing so, he became the eighth French footballer to have tested positive for marijuana in a two-year period.
After his ban and a brief time at West Ham at England, Lama returned to PSG and regained the number one jersey for a couple of seasons before seeing out his career at Rennes.
#4 Chris Armstrong
Then-Crystal Palace striker Chris Armstrong became the first ever Premier League player to fail a drugs test when he tested positive for cannabis in March 1995.
He was given a four-match ban by his club and was checked into a rehabilitation program before returning to action a month later. Any suggestion that his career prospects would be harmed by his indiscretion was dispelled when he joined Tottenham Hotspur for £4.5 million that summer.
#3 Ibrahim Tanko
Ibrahim Tanko was just 17 when he made his league debut for Borussia Dortmund, but the Ghanian forward was unable to kick on from there to become a regular and it was a positive drugs test in late 2000 that brought his career at the Bundesliga side to a close.
Tanko, then 23, tested positive for a compound of tetrahydrocannabinol, an active ingredient of marijuana, after a German Cup match against Dortmund’s local rivals Schalke 04. By the time the result was confirmed following the analysis of a second sample, he had moved on to Freiburg, where he served the four-month ban (in addition to a fine of $7,000) handed out to him by the German Football Association.
The Kumasi-born player was never able to live up to his early promise thereafter. Injuries and a goal-shy record of five goals in 106 matches for Freiburg eventually saw him drop out of contention before retiring from the game at 30.
#2 Mbulelo Mabizela
So impressed were Tottenham Hotspur by the performance of Mbulelo Mabizela in a pre-season friendly defeat to the South African side Orlando Pirates in 2003 that they immediately signed him up. A couple of months later, he scored his first goal for the club in a 2-1 league victory over Leicester City.
But that was as good as it got for him in England, as he was released a year later after missing a number of training sessions among other unnamed disciplinary infractions.
Two years later, Mabizela found himself back in his native South Africa with Mamelodi Sundowns and it was there that he was banned for six months and fined $6,900 after testing positive for marijuana use in December 2006.
Further troubles followed, leading to his release from the club in January 2009, three months after he had been dropped from the national team setup after going AWOL in the build-up to a match against Malawi. Controversy has never been far from him since.
#1 Wilder Medina
Drugs, gangs and violence provided the backdrop to Wilder Medina’s adolescence, and drug problems would plague a career that perhaps should have delivered more for a striker whose eye for goal always guaranteed him suitors despite his off-field issues.
Medina was just 18 when he first tested positive for marijuana during his time at Colombian second division side Rionegro. In 2011, 12 years later, he was banned for three months after a positive test at Deportes Tolima. He had barely returned to action when another positive test led to a one-year ban and a $1750-fine from the Colombian league.
Then, in September 2012, with that ban coming to an end, he was sacked by Deportes Tolima after testing positive for cocaine and marijuana use during an internal test at the club.
Luckily for Medina, Santa Fe and their president Cesar Pastrana were willing to take a chance on him. They provided him with the support he needed and were rewarded with over 30 league goals in two spells between 2013 and 2014.
He has had no further positive tests.
