Footballers earn a lot of money. They also have a lot of free time. Chuck in a bit of fame and you have a heady concoction that is bound to lead to somewhat disreputable behaviour now and again. And thank god it does because otherwise fans like us wouldn’t have anything to read and write about. In celebration of footballers’ wild antics, sport.co.uk takes a look at the top ten sex scandals to have rocked the football world
1. Wayne Rooney & the ‘Auld Slapper’
Let's admit it, we've all got a thing for Coleen McLoughlin...she's gorgeous. So this sordid debacle was both bemusing and hilarious in equal measure. Rooney, enjoying a bit of R&R in Liverpool, decided to go and ‘relax’ by having sex with a 52 year old PVC clad mother of 7 (and grandmother to a further 16) in a Liverpool brothel. Bizarre doesn’t even come close. Of course Coleen stuck by her man (I wonder why…) whilst Patricia Tierney brought a libel suit against The Sun after she claimed she was simply a receptionist. Of course she wasn’t as she was in fact an ‘auld slapper’ as The Sun so brilliantly named her. Wayne Rooney...hero?
2. Ashley Cole & Aimee Watson
Cole, recently married to Cheryl Tweedy, decided that his millions in the bank, pop star wife and all round charmed life wasn’t good enough. He just had to have more. So one night he went out and chatted up hairdresser, and single mother of one, Aimee Watson. Details soon emerged about Cole’s infidelity, much to the public’s amusement. He was sick in the car on the way home, telling the owner that she should feel ‘privileged’ that he had thrown up all over her upholstery. He later had to interupt their ‘romp’ half-way through to be sick again. What a classy fellow. Miss Watson still seemed impressed however as she was quoted as saying “He knew exactly what he was doing and was pretty good, despite not being very big.”
3. David Beckham & Rebecca Loos
Perhaps the biggest of all football sex scandals, although nobody is quite sure if it happened or not. After his move to Real Madrid, Becks hired bi-sexual temptress Rebecca Loos as his 'Personal Assitant.' Posh wasn’t happy in Madrid and had been spending a lot of time in London working on her ‘music’ ‘career’ leading to, according to Loos anyway, a whirlwind 4 month affair that included ‘text messages of a sexual nature’. Ooooh, saucy. Loos of course went to the papers and carved out a media career from the story, a highlight being masturbating a pig on Channel 5’s ‘Celebrity Farm.'
4. Sven Goran Eriksson & Faria Alam
You always have to keep an eye on the quiet ones as they say, and it was thought that they didn’t come any quieter and more conservative than then England managerSven Goran Eriksson. Sex pest Alam conducted affairs with both Sven, and FA Chief Exec Mark Palios, which lead to the resignation of the latter in August 2004.
5. Stan Collymore ‘dogging’
It emerged in 2004 that Stan “International Lover” Collymore had a penchant for engaging in sexual activities with strangers in car parks. He was caught out by two undercover tabloid reporters and subsequently admitted he had been ‘dogging’ over a dozen times in 2 years. His representative asked for forgiveness saying that “he is not a bad egg and he is not an evil individual." No, just a perverted one
6. Ronaldo & The transvestite prostitutes
Recovering in Brazil after another lengthy spell out injured, World Cup winner and three time World Player of the Year Ronaldo decided to pick up 3 prostitutes on his way home after dropping off his girlfriend at home (lovely!). It all turned sour however, when at the motel, Ronaldo discovered to his horror that the women with whom he was going to have sex with were actually men. The (wo)men then tried to extort money from the crocked superstar and it must be said that he actually came out of the whole fiasco relatively unscathed as it was generally accepoted that he had only been trying to ‘amuse’ himself and that he had in fact been the victim of extortion. At least we know why he’s injured so much now….
7. Dwight Yorke, Mark Bosnich & the cross dressing orgy
Why oh why, when you are two famous footballers indulging in behaviour like this, would you video tape it? Furthermore, to then chuck the tape out without destroying it first. It beggars belief and goes beyond the realms of stupidity, as a video tape was ‘discovered’ (no doubt by those pesky undercover sun reporters again) in Yorkes dustbin showing in graphic detail an orgy involving Yorke, Mark Bosnich dressed in a skirt, 4 women and a variety of S&M equipment. Bizarre doesn’t even come close.
8. Martin Edwards & the toilet cubicle
Chairman of newly crowned European Champions Manchester United, Martin Edwards was one of the most powerful men in the world game. This however, didn’t make him immune from the law. In what can only be described as one of the most pathetic, but amusing, sex scandals in football, he was cautioned by police for spying on a lady in a Cheshire health club toilet cubicle.
9. Gary Lineker’s divorce
The ‘Mr Nice Guy’ of football getting a divorce from wife of 20 years Michelle? Surely not. Surely yes in fact, as she was granted a quickie separation from Gary Lineker, ending 20 years of marriage in 70 seconds. Rumours of infidelity with a number of women were rife, yet the reason cited for the divorce was Linkers ‘unreasonable behaviour’ and the ‘stress & anxiety’ he caused Michelle. I wonder if the settlement included a yearly provision of Walkers crisps…?
10. Joe Cole & Keeley Hazel
Joe Cole was left shirt-less, phone-less, money-less, covered in blood & brusies and wandering the streets of London in a daze after he was involved in a fracar with a love rival for glamour model Keeley Hazel. Cole “feared for his life” and he even had to get his dad to pay for his taxi home, proving once and for all the all footballers are just big children really.