April Fools' Day Special: When footballers and clubs were involved in pranks

Oh, it is that time of the year again! Watch out and don’t trust anyone, and when I say anyone, I do mean anyone. April Fools’ Day is one of those days when even your real friends could turn out to be major heartbreakers. Jokes and pranks give an impression that they are all for fun, but boy, does it hurt when you are a victim yourself.Every year, this very day, human emotions are abused and exploited in the name of April Fools’ day, and the world of football isn’t spared either. From footballers pranking their teammates to tabloids and sports websites trolling football fans all over the world, it is a chaotic state of affairs.Here are five such instances when footballers and clubs were involved in pranks:

#1 Beckham and Rooney get punk\'d by Rio Ferdinand

Former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand played the role of Ashton Kutcher in an adaptation of the American hit show Punk’d where the actor would go on pulling pranks on celebrities. Ferdinand's version of the show was called Rio’s World Cup Wind-Ups, and all of the episodes were filmed ahead of the 2006 FIFA World Cup.

However, instead of Kutcher’s famous catchphrase, where the actor would say You got punk’d! at the end of every prank, the English defender had opted for an alternative version of You got merk'd! instead.

Here is Ferdinand’s prank on Wayne Rooney where the striker would encounter the fake death of a dog at a veterinary clinic with his wife Colleen.

This is not all of it. Ferdinand would pull pranks of a similar magnitude on his other teammates too, from the likes of Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs to David Beckham and Ashley Cole.

#2 Cristiano Ronaldo sold to the Spanish national team for 160 million

“Portugal 'sells' Ronaldo to Spain in £160 m deal on national debt” read the headline in a report published by the Independent on April Fools’ day in 2011.

Even though the logic behind the story was pretty hard to grasp, it was impressive how the Independent editors backed it with an angle where Portugal as a nation were struggling with their debt, and as an escape from it, they would sell Cristiano Ronaldo to Spain for £160 million in order to balance their books.

They also bring in Alfredo di Stéfano and Ferenc Puskás in the discussion, stating how the duo had played for Spain despite having played for different nations before.

"If we are going to buy foreigners we should buy Lionel Messi [Barcelona's Argentinian star]," said one fan. Well, not really. All in all, this was a hoax that was pulled off well with several major websites reporting the same, even though a disclaimer at the end clearly gave away the trick.

#3 Diego Maradona to father Madonna\'s baby

A false rumour that was initiated by a TV station back in 1989 suggested that Argentinean footballing legend Diego Maradona and Pop Queen Madonna were having a baby together, the link between the two perhaps being the fact that their names are similar sounding.

Given the stature of both the two parties involved, things had to go out of hand, especially for Maradona who was a married man then. Subsequently, Camorra, an Italian Mafia crime syndicate intervened, and forced the TV station to issue an apology statement.

#4 David Luiz\'s prank on former Benfica teammate Angel Di Maria

Former Chelsea player David Luiz has always been perceived as a prankster, and this prank on his former Benfica teammate Angel Di Maria is perhaps the best recorded-prank that the Brazilian has ever pulled off.

The clip revolves around Di Maria being arrested for allegedly hitting a woman while reversing his car. Things started getting out of hand when the Manchester United winger tried to kick a pedestrian, who was also an actor, after he taunted Di Maria.

You have to see it to believe it!

#5 Roman Abramovich to manage Chelsea

This hoax was created by TalkSport two years back on the first of April, speculating that Chelsea chairman Roman Abramovich would be taking over the managerial position of the club. Their report also included a video which looked more authentic than most authentic videos those days.

What made the video special was the involvement of former Chelsea player and manager Gianluca Vialli who would go on to say, and I quote, “I spoke to him and he wanted to know a few things about how to become the best manager in the world. He actually wanted to buy his coaching badges, but I said you can’t buy that, you have to go through the process.”

Well, to be honest, it isn’t like the news was very shocking to be just a prank, you know. Yeah, it might have been bizarre, but that is what Roman Abramovich is all about, isn’t he?