Dirtiest Players All Stars

GOALKEEPERS:

DANRLEI
Jens LEHMANN
Alberto POLETTI


DEFENDERS:

Ramón AGUIRRE SUÁREZ
Júnior BAIANO
Andoni GOIKOETXEA
Marco MATERAZZI
Paolo MONTERO
Kevin MUSCAT
PEPE
Sergio RAMOS
Tomáš ŘEPKA
Ben THATCHER


MIDFIELDERS:

Joey BARTON
Gerardo BEDOYA
Michael BROWN
Nigel DE JONG
Vinnie JONES
Roy KEANE
Felipe MELO
Cyril ROOL
Terry YORATH
Zinédine ZIDANE


FORWARDS:

Luis SUÁREZ
Diego COSTA
Éric CANTONA
PELÉ
Zlatan IBRAHIMOVIĆ
SERGINHO
Omar SÍVORI
Billy WHITEHURST
Robin FRIDAY


__________________________________________________


RESERVES:


GOALKEEPERS:

José Luis CHILAVERT
William FOULKE
Sebastiano ROSSI
Toni SCHUMACHER


DEFENDERS:

ALEXIS
Pablo ALFARO
Fernando AMOREBIETA
Ivo BEGO
Basile BOLI
Kenny BURNS
Ron HARRIS
Norman HUNTER
Eduardo MANERA
Carlos MOZER
Emir SPAHIĆ
Peter STOREY
Steve WALSH
Carlos ZAMBRANO
Flavio ZANDONÁ


MIDFIELDERS:

Frank BARSON
Carlos BILARDO
Billy BREMNER
Lee CATTERMOLE
Edgar DAVIDS
DINHO
Stefan EFFENBERG
Giorgio FERRINI
Gennaro GATTUSO
Johnny GILES
Jermaine JONES
Gary MEDEL
Carlos PACHAMÉ
Carsten RAMELOW
Nobby STILES


FORWARDS:

AMARILDO
Mario BALOTELLI
Sergej BARBAREZ
Craig BELLAMY
EDMUNDO
John FASHANU
Duncan FERGUSON
Mick HARFORD
Joe JORDAN
KLÉBER
Benito LORENZI
LUÍS FABIANO
Ricardo QUARESMA
Wayne ROONEY
Francesco TOTTI









INFO:

What about Romário, Mozer, Fernando Couto?

What makes a player to be among the starters? I mean, the preference is for the dirtiest or for the greatests who was also considered dirty?

I considered all three. Couto especially was a strong option. I have to decide whether they had a worse attitude than the players I chose. The current team is filled with guys who didn't mind to start fights, provoke opponents or break bones.

I tried to have the best players in the starting XI. And let's be honest, a starting team like that would probably end up with 3-4 guys being sent off.

Fellaini in first team is both a joke and an insult, how can you seriously call him a violent player? That's pure bullshit, especially choosing him over butchers like Gattuso or de Jong who had no purpose except for hacking down their opponents
Seriously, there is not a single Leeds player from the Revie generation here who terrorized English football in the 70s but Fellaini and Scholes are here? Bremner, Yorath, Hunter and even Giles were psychopaths on the pitch and yet none of them is here:



There is similar footage for the other guys I mentioned (and some of their team mates), I don't think I've seen anything like that from Fellaini.
Same goes for the reserves: You got multiple suggestions for that team but it seems that you went for the famous ones instead of researching a bit. Otherwise I can't explain why Carlos Zambrano, Özalan Alpay or David Abraham (not even mentioning the other players I told you about) aren't here although their behaviour was certainly way more violent than Marquez or Mexes. Yes those two got sent off multiple times but you can't tell me that the first thing you remember about them is violent behaviour on the pitch.
Btw, Domingos is linked wrong and Big Dunc was CF, not midfielder. Barbarez spent most of his career as SS/CF as well, not in midfield. And as I'm going through it: Gonzalo Rodriguez (who got sent of 19 times in his career) and Emir Spahic are a must for defenders section..

Fellaini was sent off at least twice for headbutting an opponent. Yes, the one on Agüero was controversial, but the one on Shawcross was clear and earned him a three-game ban. We can argue that there have been players who showed similar or worse attitude more frequently. But I wouldn't call a player non-violent at all if he had no problems headbutting opponents a few times.



I analysed all these players except Yorath. I was supposed to have at least Hunter in the list but I forgot to add him.



I also analysed all the players that you and the others suggested. Márquez and Mexès may have not been butchers, but the Mexican surely wasn't the fairest of players and once headbutted an opponent while playing in MLS which he never regretted or apologised for, and Mexès was quite temperamental and easy to start fights with opponents.



I didn't choose the players solely based on red cards, otherwise the team would've been "most red cards all stars". I have to check out Spahić, but I don't recall Rodríguez being so violent. Using this criteria, then I should've added Matteo Contini as well, who was sent off 20 times. But he wasn't exactly violent, he was just a bad player to be honest.

I can agree with this, he uses his elbows a lot and he pulled Guendouzi's hair once but I don't remember many violent tackles. Not like the others in the first team.

Bremner and Hunter seem like obvious inclusions. I'm surprised they were left out, especially Hunter who is one of the most famously violent players. Ron Harris and Nobby Stiles are other players I'm surprised were left out. Graeme Souness also threw out some really nasty tackles. A hilarious example:



Of course, every country has their players known for being dirty. It's hard to find them all without looking at the media in different languages. For example, I know that Jusuf Hatunic was a brutal monster on the pitch but I only know that because of what I've heard from those who know about Yugoslav football. I could name 50 British players that were famous for being violent but it's hard to say if they were more dirty than those that are famous in other countries.

I'm also not sure if red cards are a good metric, outside of obvious outliers like Bedoya and Ramos. You could get away with murder in the 60s and 70s with no card. And Vieira got more red cards in the PL than Keane or Ferguson but certainly wasn't as violent.

By the way, I'm not sure Javi Navarro was more violent than Pablo Alfaro. But that must be one of the scariest defensive partnerships ever.

I made some changes. The thing is: it's not easy to choose a certain number of players unless you add 30 names for each position to the reserves.
If you check info and, if available, footage about all the players who already were in the reserves, you'll see how physically dangerous all of them could be.

I didnt want to post it because it was made by myself but if this doesnt save a spot for Mozer in the team, I dont know what would be considered rough tackles.

If you want I can help translating the testimonials about Mozer in the video too. They are a bit shocking.

https://youtube.com/shorts/AwPmVeCVP04? ... XxJckVCwlV

There are other testimonials like these about him and plenty other tackes scenes too but I had to choose just a few to edit a short on youtube.

I read and watched a bit of Mozer and I agree that I can be added. But who would you take off to make a spot for him?

One more player I think deserves a mention: Basile Boli, he finally ended Van Basten’s career and headbutted Stuart Pearce (you have to be really crazy to do this).

Maybe Woodburn and Zandoná can be replaced? Woodburn was banned for life after a headbutt which was kinda understandable given that he was fouled badly to his injured knee. The ban was even lifted three years later, which was too late anyway. And Zandoná is there for punching Edmundo and a fan as far as I know, but there are many other players who did similar things in a worse way.

I guess Domingos da Guia can be out.

One more thing. If the main criteria is dirtiest players. Junior Baiano has to be in the starters. Before being coached by Tele Santana at Sao Paulo, Junior Baiano used to punch and tackle like scisor style the opponents all the time. Flamengo's supporters used to even have a song for his violence in the field.

Probably, if you ask a Brazilian who was the dirtiest Brazilian player he ever saw, half of them would choose Junior Baiano.

Someone in Argentina who is known to be far more violent than Zandoná is Óscar Ruggeri; way dirtier (still a legend, though)

What about Juanito?