Top 10 Most Hated Football Players Of All Time

Football is a very emotional game. Sometimes it can be as boring as a kayak on a still lake or like other times it can be as raging as a raft on a turbulent river. It is those emotions of exhilaration, joy, distraught and anger that drives the game. The El Clasico, The Milan Derby, The Merseyside Derby and especially The Old Firm have their roots in deep hatred towards the opposition. It is a symbiotic relationship between fans and the player who feed off each other’s emotions to deliver us a spectacle.

Every elite footballer becomes an idol inadvertently, and their actions off the pitch resonate around the society. There is a leeway of tolerance. Many borders on this threshold and some go beyond to insanity inducing hatred towards them. It’s time to delve deep into some of the most hated footballers of all time.

List Of Top 10 Most Hated Football Players Of All Time

10. Sergio Ramos

Sergio-Ramos-Most-Hated-Footballer

[Image Source: youtube.com]

The master of the subtle art of knocking someone out. His depraved actions are elegant. Arms flailing around elbowing accidentally other players. Friend of fortune, for he could have been sent off for another 20 matches. He also added a certain degree of simulation to his game which is not kindly looked upon by anyone. He will get away with a red card and will eventually go on to score a winning goal, this never sets well with supporters.

Ramos was the supreme architect in clinching the Champions League trophy in 2018, knocking Loris Karius that resulted in a contusion and a theatrical fall pulling Mohammed Salah to the ground, injuring him in the process. Liverpool fans will hate him for that sly foul. His honours include 231 yellow cards and 24 red cards for club and country. He's a winner who doesn't accept defeat and will do whatever it takes to drag his team to victory. By hook or crook, he wants to win apart from that he's a gentleman off the pitch.

9. Neymar Jr.

Neymar-Most-Hated-Football-Player

[Image Source: youtube.com]

Neymar Jr. is the prima donna of football awaiting the world to revel in his genius. Though the picture above is from a charity match, it epitomizes what the rest of the world thinks of his skills. ‘Stop humiliating your peers’ or ‘No Showboating’ has been the cries of the football fraternity. He is hated on the pitch for writhing and wailing just for touch from an opponent, hated in all of Spain including the Catalonians of Barcelona for leaving their club and also in France just for being Neymar. Even the Brazilians consider him to be a whiner and to have an ego the size of their country. There is no love for Neymar anywhere.

8. Luis Suarez

Luis-Suarez-Most-Hated-Football-Player

[Image Source: 90min.com]

Bringing in Suarez brought an aggressive wind to Barcelona’s sails. Suarez brought tenacity into that fearsome attack, enabling Messi and Neymar to use the space freed up by Suarez’s constant tormenting of defenders. He is every defender’s nightmare and not without a reason.

Suarez is a serial-biter who carried his trade from Ajax to Liverpool. It was adorable to look at him holding his teeth when Chiellini deliberately raised his shoulders to knock off Suarez’s tooth, according to Suarez’s version of events. He racially abused Patrice Evra and refused to shake his hand after a few years. The FA banned him for eight matches. One of the prime reasons Suarez is hated is for his brave final ditch clearance off the goal line with his own ‘Hand of God’ moment that knocked Ghana out of the 2010 World Cup.

7. Patrice Evra

Patrice-Evra-Most-Hated-Football-Player

[Image Source: theguardian.com]

The mutinous leader of the rebellious coup d'état that tore apart the french national team leading to the Les Bleus bowing out in the group stages of  2010 World cup. The French became the laughing stock of that tournament which angered every governing body in France including the fans. His 5 match ban wasn’t enough to quench the anger of the French.

Patrice Evra was at the receiving end of a racial taunt from Luis Suarez in 2011. In 2017, Evra aimed a kick at a fan arguing beyond the safety of the advertising board.  He aimed a dig at PSG being knocked out of the Champions League by Manchester United using a homophobic comment “Paris, you are queers”. And his quick nature of brandishing the race-card every chance he gets alienated him from their hearts.

6. Diego Maradona

Diego Maradona Most Hated Player

[Image Source: fifa.com]

Maradona was the epicentre of a massive brawl played out in the final of 1984 Copa del Rey in front of the eyes of the entire nation leaving 60 injured including players and staff. There was no love for Maradona in Spain and he moved to Napoli, beginning his descent into depravity. And it is his birthright to be hated in Brazil. 

Diego Maradona 'single-handedly’ inspired Argentina to lift the 1986 Fifa World Cup, a ‘punch’ felt by millions of English fans leaving them fuming for justice for the ‘Hand of God’. The most infamous goal, forever etched in the history of football when he punched the ball into the net calling the moment as ‘Hand of God’ in his post-match comments. He was loved in Italy, especially Naples who worshipped him as a Demigod. That turned sour as well after Maradona scored the vital goal in the penalty shootout that knocked Italy out of the Tournament in Naples. 

5. Ryan Giggs

Ryan-Giggs-Most-Hated-Football-Players

[Image Source: tin247.com]

Ryan Giggs, perhaps the most celebrated player in the history of Manchester United racking up 34 trophies. But he is not in 5th on this list because of his unprecedented 13 Premier League titles or his illustrious career. John Terry is considered a disgrace for having an affair with his teammate’s wife. If Terry’s act is considered a betrayal, Giggs’s actions are sacrilegious when he bedded his brother Rhodri’s wife, Natasha. 

The Welshman started his eight-year affair when Natasha was Rhodri’s girlfriend and did not stop even after Natasha and Rhodri were married. Giggs convinced Natasha to terminate when she realised she was pregnant, just two weeks before she was due to be married to his brother. When all hell broke loose in 2011 and his brother confronted Giggs with evidence, he justified it as ‘Just sex’. His extramarital polyamorous life overshadows his achievements on the pitch and deserves every bit of hatred that’s lashed at him.

4. El Hadji Diouf

el hadji diouf hated player and gerrard

[Image Source: independent.co.uk]

Mr Senegal is a proper nutcase. The two-time African footballer of the year has chased controversies all his life. Traffic infractions, dissent with referees, brawling at nightclubs, verbal abuse and even a racial abuse towards an Everton ball-boy to which he claimed innocence citing it was the other way around. Add to that his spitting issue, he is undeniably a nuisance on and off the pitch.

His performance in the 2002 World Cup received applause and made into the team of the tournament on merit. It got to his head and still believes he’s bigger than the game spitting at fans, players without any remorse. Neil Warnock refrained from calling Diouf as a ‘sewer rat’ as he thought it “might be insulting to sewer rats”. That sums up who El Hadji Diouf is.

3. Pepe

pepe-kicking-player-most-hated-player

[Image Source: theversed.com]

The gymnast of football. The picture above can easily summarize the gravity-defying tackles that only Pepe has perfected. While Ramos hides his impudence with elegance, Pepe has completely submitted himself to recklessness. His disciplinary infractions of 113 cautions and 6 sending off doesn’t do justice to the insanity he brings to the pitch. Referees have no clue what to do with his acrobatic simulations. 

When Javi Casquero was goal bound and was almost one on one with the goalkeeper, Pepe nudged him off his stride, deliberately swung his leg to catch both the ball and the player, and continued the rampage with another swing to scrap the side of Casquero with his studs. His negligence towards an opponent’s safety is enough to ban him from football. It is baffling that someone allowed him to become a professional footballer.

2. Adam Johnson

Adam-Johnson-Most-Hated-Player

[Image Source: sportbible.com]

Banned to play football in England after he was proven guilty on sex charges involving a minor. Adam Johnson pleaded guilty for one count of grooming and one count of sexual activity with a then aged 15-year-old minor, the legal age of consent in England is 16. He invited the young fan into his car to autograph the shirts and kissed the minor just 9 days after he had a kid with his now ex-wife.

It was later revealed he had several extramarital affairs, which devastated his wife. She was pregnant with another baby of Adam Johnson, but she decided to not bring another child into this depraved situation and went through with an abortion. Adam Johnson served half of his sentence in the prison and was released after 3 years. Making him football’s most hated figure and rightly so.

1. Joey Barton

Joey-Barton-Most-Hated-Football-Player-And-Tevez

[Image Source: telegraph.co.uk]

A bundle of joy is what Joey Barton is if you are a neutral. Barton has a very short fuse and lets the cannon loose very often. If there was a brawl on the pitch, Barton has a moral obligation to preside over it. Such emotions are impressive to the eyes of a neutral in a perverted way, but never to the fans. Barton has problems with authority, squaring up against a referee every chance he gets.

He left Manchester City unceremoniously after stubbing a lit cigar into the eyes of a youth team player and came back to have his revenge on his old club by elbowing Tevez, kneeing Aguero and headbutting Kompany. His altercations go beyond the pitch as well, picking up fights for the hell of it. His most insidious act came when he punched his then-teammate Ousmane Dabo to the ground and struck him multiple times even after Dabo lost his consciousness. Throwing a punch is emotional, but going on a rampage is criminal, earning him the top spot of most hated players.

This is our list of the top 10 most hated football players of all time.

10. Sergio Ramos

9. Neymar Jr.

8. Luis Suarez

7. Patrice Evra

6. Diego Maradona

5. Ryan Giggs

4. El Hadji Diouf

3. Pepe

2. Adam Johnson

1. Joey Barton

Do let us know your opinions and who according to you should or should not be in this list.

 

- By VISHANTH FASTINO


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  • Afaq on

    Amazing article but I was not expecting Neymar to be on this list

  • Elavarsai on

    Interesting article 👍

  • Shashi on

    Short n crispy ..good information

  • Pooja on

    Good information

  • Rashmi.c h on

    Insightful.. very nice article


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