5 great players who are poor role models

#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.