5 great players who are poor role models

Despite rival sports having plenty of problems with their own athletes – performance-enhancing drugs, for instance – it’s common for fans of them to sling mud at footballers, stating that the players are bad role models in comparison to athletes from other sports.

Unfortunately, for a lot of the time, they’re right. For every player like Cristiano Ronaldo – who treats his body like a temple – and Juan Mata – who is renowned for his philanthropy off the pitch – there are others who like nothing more than to abuse their bodies off the pitch and abuse the officials and opposing players when they’re on it.

Here are five players who are poor role models for any fans watching.

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#1 Wayne Rooney

The highest-profile British player of the past decade, Wayne Rooney has often found himself embroiled in controversy, both on and off the pitch, and while a lot of the time he comes across like a down-to-earth family man, there are other incidents that leave you scratching your head and questioning his position as a role model.

On the pitch, Rooney’s career has largely been blemish-free in comparison to some of his peers, but he’s still been involved in more than one unsavoury situation. He’s been sent off twice while representing England and while you can almost excuse his red card in the 2006 World Cup against Portugal; his second – brandished for an incident that saw him lash out at a Montenegrin player for no good reason – was ridiculous and saw him banned for the first two games of Euro 2012.

Then there are the issues surrounding his language – the 2010 World Cup saw him captured barking insults into a TV camera at his own fans following a poor performance from England that saw them boo, and then there was the infamous incident in the 2010/11 season that saw him fined for swearing into a TV camera following a goal against West Ham – his 100th in the Premier League for Manchester United.

As for his off-pitch behaviour, where do you start? There are the allegations that he had prostitutes, dating back to his early days at Everton and also in 2010 after he was married with children, and more recently he’s had alcohol issues, photographed in 2016 with wine-stained lips while on duty with England and then charged with drink-driving earlier this year. He might’ve been an incredibly talented player at his peak, but Wayne Rooney has never been a great role model off the pitch.

#2 Luis Suarez

Luis Suarez has bitten opposing players three times

Despite being one of the most talented players in the world for the past decade, Luis Suarez is also one of the most controversial, and his on-field behaviour means that nobody could ever see the Uruguayan international as a decent role model.

Even the tournament that saw him rise to prominence – the 2010 World Cup – saw him embroil himself in controversy, as he handled the ball in the Quarter-Finals against Ghana to prevent a goal. He was sent off, but Uruguay went through on penalties, causing him to celebrate like he’d won an Olympic gold medal. From there Suarez simply went from one controversy to another.

An incident while playing for Ajax in late 2010 saw him bite an opposing player – he was fined and suspended by his club, and the Dutch KNVB suspended him for seven games. During the suspension a transfer to Liverpool was agreed, and while he was brilliant on the pitch for the Reds, his two biggest controversies came during his time at Anfield.

First, there was an unsavoury incident during the 2011/12 season that saw him charged with racially abusing Patrice Evra of Manchester United, apparently using a racial slur on numerous occasions during the game. Suarez was slapped with an eight-match ban, but Liverpool stood by their man, only for him to drop them in hot water again when he bit Chelsea’s Branislav Ivanovic and was hit with another lengthy ban – this time ten games.

2013/14 saw Suarez keep his nose clean for Liverpool, but during that summer’s World Cup he disgraced himself again, biting an opposing player for the third time – this time Italy’s Giorgio Chiellini. Suarez was banned by FIFA for four months for the infraction, and during his time away he engineered a move from Liverpool to Barcelona. He’s been largely clean during his time at the Nou Camp, but with a man of his reputation, it’s surely only a matter of time before he muddies himself again. He’s simply a terrible role model despite his talent.

#3 Jack Wilshere

Jack Wilshere's off-field behaviour makes him a poor role model

Outside of a sending-off for Arsenal’s youth side earlier in this season, the on-field behaviour of Jack Wilshere has largely been fine. Off the pitch, however, Wilshere has proven time after time that he’s a poor role model as he’s behaved like a poster-boy for all of the bad stereotypes about footballers when it comes to drinking, smoking and acting more like a rock star than a professional athlete.

One of the most common criticisms of footballers in the modern era is that they receive too much money and fame at too young of an age, and Wilshere certainly fits that bill – he broke into the first team at Arsenal back in 2008 as a 16-year old, and his prodigious talents saw many observers label him as the future of English football; his passing and dribbling abilities in the creative midfield position saw him compared to Paul Gascoigne, even.

But he’s had a myriad of fitness issues that have seen him struggle to live up to his potential, and many of them could be linked to his off-field behaviour. We’ve seen Wilshere in hot water more times than can be counted for drinking and smoking off the field, and he’s even been in trouble with the law as well.

The summer of 2010 saw him arrested for his part in a post-nightclub fracas, and in 2011 he received a police warning for spitting at a taxi driver wearing a Tottenham hat. And in Arsenal’s 2015 FA Cup winning celebration parade, he got on the mic to sing obscene anti-Spurs songs.

In a nutshell, he’s a fantastically talented player on the pitch who’s also a poor role model off it, and his off-pitch lifestyle may well have affected his physical abilities, too. Perhaps those Gascoigne comparisons were fair ones indeed.

#4 Diego Costa

Diego Costa is a master of football's dark arts

In defence of Diego Costa, we know very little of his lifestyle off the pitch. Unlike the afore-mentioned Wilshere and Rooney, he isn’t renowned for behaving more like a rock star when he isn’t playing, and in fact, his Wikipedia page doesn’t even have a ‘Personal Life’ tab. That isn’t a bad thing. But on the pitch, the Brazilian-born Spanish striker is the master of football’s dark arts, loving nothing more than a confrontation – whether that’s with opposing players, the officials, or even his own teammates or coaches.

A physically-imposing player on the pitch, Costa is known for a tough-tackling, hard-hitting style, but realistically there’s nothing wrong with that – unless you’re an opposing defender. But he’s also well-known for haranguing officials – one of the most unsavoury sides of the modern game and something that turns a lot of observers away from the game – and has been embroiled in plenty of controversy for diving and stimulating, too.

He’s also an apparently poor sportsman – he was criticised in 2014 for taunting Everton’s Seamus Coleman after the defender scored an own goal, and in January 2015 he found himself suspended for three games following a pair of stamping incidents against Liverpool – incidents that the majority of observers thought could’ve easily been avoided.

Throw in the fact that in 2016, he attempted to arrange a move away from Chelsea to the Chinese Super League for seemingly greed-related reasons – only to fall out with boss Antonio Conte and find himself shipped back to Atletico Madrid instead – and he’s just not a good role model even if he’s largely a non-entity off the pitch.

#5 Franck Ribery

Franck Ribery shamed himself in 2010

Recognised by fans and pundits alike as one of the most talented attacking players of the past couple of decades, French international Franck Ribery has had a relatively quiet career on the field when it comes to controversy, rarely embroiled in the sort of unsavoury incidents that have marred the careers of the afore-mentioned Luis Suarez or Diego Costa. But off the pitch is a whole other story.

The warning signs may well have been there from an early age – a youth player at French club Lille, he was released not for his on-pitch skills, but for his behavioural issues off the pitch.

Undoubtedly, the low point for Ribery was the 2009/10 season. In April 2010 it was reported by a French television station that four French internationals were being investigated for their roles as clients to a major Parisian prostitution ring, one that was also being accused of using underage girls as prostitutes.

It eventually emerged that Ribery – supposedly happily married with children – was involved in a relationship with a prostitute who was just 16 at the time, although Ribery denied knowing her age. Quite why he was involved in the first place was a mystery though, of course.

Despite that disgusting incident hanging over him, Ribery still went to the 2010 World Cup with France – where he further muddied his reputation by supposedly “freezing out” fellow midfielder Yoann Gourcuff and falling out with coach Raymond Domenech. France crashed out during the group stage after three terrible performances, and Ribery ended up suspended by the French FA for three games for his questionable behaviour. He retired from international football in 2014 for “personal reasons” and despite his talents, I don’t think many French fans would’ve minded – after all, for his off-field behaviour he’s a terrible role model.