Football players, even very talented ones, are ordinary people outside the field with their own set of weaknesses and vices. They can get drunk and drive, addicted to drugs and even carry out a terrorist attack.
Fortunately, like ordinary people, they are caught and tried for this, but prison sentences often give the minimum due to competent lawyers.
Today we’ll talk about 10 players who seriously violated the law and were punished for it.
10. Edmundo
The Brazilian striker for his wild temper received the nickname "Cattle", which quite accurately characterized him.
He did not achieve great success in his career, but still played 42 matches for the national team and even scored 12 goals, and at the club level he played with Napoli, Fiorentina and several teams in his homeland.
In 1995, he drunkenly got behind the wheel, exceeded speed and shot down 3 people who died as a result. The attacker himself escaped with a slight fright and several bruises.
The punishment for such a crime was incredibly lenient: only 4.5 years in prison, in which he only spent the night. That is, during the day he was allowed to train with the team and play, and at night he went to the cell.
9. Breno
Borjis Breno showed himself well in his native São Paulo, where he was spotted by the scouts of Bavaria and he moved to Germany. He could not gain a foothold in the base, or at least become a rotation player, and his career began to decline.
Being very depressed and even more intoxicated, he set fire to his own house when he was inside.
Escaping light burns and a slight carbon monoxide poisoning, he hoped to hide the crime and get $ 1.5 million in insurance, but "it didn’t work, it didn’t fortunulo."
He was taken to clean water and sentenced to 3 years 9 months, after serving which, he continued his career in Brazil.
8. Diego Maradona
The legendary Argentine became famous not only for his game, but also for scandals, which were almost always associated with litigation.
Everyone knows that he had problems with the law due to drugs, alimony and taxes, but this is not a complete list of his “pranks”.
So, he was sentenced to 4 years (later the sentence was changed and given 2 years 10 months probation) for the fact that he shot a journalist with an air gun.
He also once rested in the company of the beauty queen of Polynesia, who allowed herself to speak unflattering about his daughter, for which Diego immediately broke a beer glass on her head. The girl got 9 stitches, but the matter did not reach the court, as the parties managed to settle the conflict.
7. Joey Barton
The Englishman was always quick-tempered: it was enough to look askance at him and he could already climb into the fray if he was out of sorts. Nevertheless, Manchester City took a chance and signed the player, which was subsequently greatly regretted by everyone.
First, he beat Usman Dabo's teammate, sending him to the hospital and received 4 months probation, a fine, and 200 hours of community service.
The club disqualified him and sold it to Newcastle, where Barton also did not play quietly for long: in 2007 he beat 2 people in the center of Liverpool in the company of friends (the incident fell on video surveillance cameras) and was sentenced to six months in prison, eventually serving only 77 days.
6. George Demetradze
A Georgian football player managed to play for Dynamo Kiev, Russian Lokomotiv and Alania, and even for Spanish Real Sociedad during his career, but in 2010 he was arrested for having connections with the thieves' world (there is such an article in Georgia) .
He was imprisoned for 6 years, but he left after 2.5 years, as his partner in the national team, Kakha Kaladze, became the country's Minister of Energy and, thanks to new connections, managed to help George gain freedom.
5. Rene Igita
The Colombian goalkeeper, who loved to perform the “scorpion kick”, was imprisoned for 7 months in 1993 because of his participation in kidnapping.
People drug lord Pablo Escobar kidnapped the daughter of Carlos Molina in order to obtain a ransom, the transfer of which was engaged in Rene Igita.
For his “work” he received $ 64,000 and a prison term, which was clearly not worth the gain.
4. Peter Storey
The footballer who played in England in the 60-70s and even won the national championship and cup as part of Arsenal, then went into business not so legal.
First, he served 3 years for forging gold coins, and then, having been on a football pension for a long time, he tried to import 20 video tapes with pornography into the country. For this he was sentenced to 28 days.
3. Alexander Kokorin and Pavel Mamaev
Some of the best Russian football players got into trouble last year, when several people were beaten while relaxing in the company.
Especially left was Denis Pak, who got hit by a chair. As it turned out later, he is the head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, and the conflict began because someone compared him with the singer PSY, which he did not like. This detail brought a touch of racism to the scandal, which gave it even more publicity.
Now there are hearings in the case, the sentence has not yet been passed.
2. Tony Adams
The English defender, who demonstrated a terrific game in the early 90s, could have become a real legend, if not for his love of booze. This is not to say that alcohol broke his life, but clearly ruined his reputation.
In 1990, he drove a drunk car and drove into the wall of his own house, escaping with just a couple of scratches. A test for blood alcohol showed that it was 27 times more than normal, so there was a trial and punishment in the form of 4 months in prison (released after 2).
1. Nizar Trabelsi
A Tunisian footballer who played for Standard from Liège and several German clubs ended his career in 1995 and his name was forgotten, as he was never a world-class star.
He became famous in connection with other, more sad events. In 2000, he met Osama bin Laden, whom he began to admire and call his second father.
Al-Qaeda members easily put the necessary ideas into Trabelsi’s head, so without hesitation he agreed a year later to become a suicide bomber in the name of Allah.
On September 13, 2001, 2 days after the attack on the Twin Towers in New York, Nizar was supposed to blow himself up in a truck with almost a ton of explosives, stopping at an American military base in Belgium. According to unconfirmed information, nuclear weapons were stored on it, which was the purpose of the explosion.
Fortunately, the secret services managed to arrest him along with accomplices before he realized his plan. After receiving 10 years from a Belgian court, he was later deported to the States, where he was waiting for a life sentence.