Football’s maddest nights out from Adriano’s 18 prostitutes to Gazza benders
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For most people a mad night out constitutes spending too much on shots, getting in at the early hours of the morning and waking up with a filthy hangover.
But for some of the world's best footballers, it can involve a huge bill, prostitutes and even a meeting with the FBI.
Work hard, play hard – that's the old adage. But some of the game's greatest have taken that to a new level and then some.
Football of old was renowned for its drinking culture, which often allowed pros to get up to all sorts of boozy shenanigans.
Although having said that, some of today's players aren't much better either.
Daily Star Sport takes a look at football's maddest nights out, starting with the party king himself, Ronaldinho.
Ronaldinho
Legendary Brazilian Ronaldinho is well known for his love of partying. The 41-year-old isn't famous for any one night out in particular, rather his love of having a good time as a whole.
Indeed, it was reported earlier this year that he even had a "nightclub clause" in his Flamengo contract that allowed him to enjoy two big nights out per week.
In 2020, he was accused of hosting parties attended by group of gorgeous models while under house arrest at a hotel in Paraguay.
While a former team-mate of the ex-Barcelona man once revealed that he would "hop onto his private plane after matches" to party in Cancun.
Ex-Queretaro forward Patricio Rubio, who played alongside Ronaldinho in Mexico, added: "He would come back on Tuesday. I never saw him train on Mondays. He was a top player."
Adriano
Which footballer would you most like to go on a night out with? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
What do you do when you're down in the dumps? Tuck into some ice cream? Watch your favourite film? Cheer yourself up with the knowledge that at least you don't support Tottenham? (Sorry Spurs fans).
Former Brazil international Adriano has a different method of making himself feel better.
According to reports in 2015, the 39-year-old dealt with the disappointment of a collapsed transfer to Le Havre by spending £13,000 on 18 prostitutes. Fair enough.
Taxi gate
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Gareth Barry and Jonny Evans seem like two lovely lads, don't they? Model professionals who fit perfectly in the mould of players you'd bring home to your parents.
That may all be true, but it didn't stop the pair of them – along with Jake Livermore and Boaz Myhill – allegedly nicking a taxi while on a trip to Spain with West Brom in 2018.
The quartet allegedly drove a vehicle away from McDonald’s and left it outside their five-star hotel in the early hours of the morning following a night out.
The vehicle was reportedly returned to its owner and the four men all apologised for the shameful incident and admitted breaking curfew during the trip. Unsurprisingly, West Brom were relegated later that season.
A statement read: "We felt it important we identify ourselves out of respect for team-mates who otherwise could be implicated by association."
Anyone for golf?
Craig Bellamy's iconic golf club celebration against Barcelona in the Nou Camp is the stuff of legend – and it all stemmed from a night out gone wrong.
The Welshman celebrated his goal by swinging an imaginary golf club around – a now brilliant reference to a staggering attack on his team-mate John Arne Riise after an altercation in a karaoke bar.
The Norwegian recalled: "When he grabbed the microphone and said again, ‘Ginge, is coming up to sing.’ I went up to his face and told him clearly I wouldn’t be and to stop it.
"I left and went back to my room. I was rooming with Daniel Agger. When I heard the key in the door I thought it was Dan coming back, but then the lights went on. Next thing I saw was a golf club smashing me on my backside.
"I jumped out of bed and was stood in my underwear while Bellamy was there shouting. He just said, ‘9am tomorrow outside my room.’ I got there for 8.45am and waited until 9.10am, but there was no sign of him."
Liverpool went on to beat Barcelona 2-1 with Bellamy and Riise (who else) grabbing the goals. The former celebrated his finish in style.
Merson and the FBI
Former Arsenal striker Paul Merson had a bizarre encounter with the FBI will while touring the USA with England after the Three Lions missed out on the 1994 World Cup.
Merse told the Quickly Kevin, Will He Score? podcast: "We go Washington, we’re playing cards all night: me, Teddy Sheringham, Carlton Palmer. Then they all went to bed and I went out. So I get downstairs, turn left, bang, in a bar, absolutely para.
"I leave the bar and there’s two geezers arguing in the middle of the road. I go up to them and go, ‘Come on, lads, let’s not start fighting.’ They’re looking at me like I’m an absolute nutcase. I just walk off to bed.
"I get up in the morning and we have a big meeting with the FBI. They get us all down, the FBI have all got their caps on and everything and they go, ‘Whatever happens, you’re in the capital of the world of killings, do not come out of this hotel at night and turn left.’
"The night before I’m breaking up a fight in the middle of the street. How I never got shot I do not know."
Gazza
Legendary England star Paul Gascoigne was at the centre of perhaps the famous night out in the history of English football – and one of the chief architects of the famous Dentist Chair celebration.
Terry Venables gave the Three Lions squad permission to enjoy themselves in Hong Kong following a tour of East Asia before Euro 96.
Big mistake. "Bryan Robson was standing there with a pint, and he was wearing one of those shirts with a round collar, and someone grabbed it and ripped it,” goalkeeper Ian Walker told That’s Mag.
"All he had left was the little round collar: the rest of it had gone. And he just carried on drinking like nothing had happened!
"He was supposed to be looking after us, so from then on it went a bit mad. And then someone found a dentist chair in another room.
"So of course – bang! – straight away we’re on it. I think Gazza went on first, then I had a go, then Teddy Sheringham. Then it all went off, just bedlam."
Pictures of that infamous night soon made their way onto the front pages of English newspapers, accompanied by more than a few verbal lashings from the public at large.
But all was forgiven just a few months later after Gazza scored one of England's greatest goals of all-time against Scotland at Euro 96 – and the dentist chair celebration was born.
Joe Cole
Chelsea star Joe Cole was left with a black eye after allegedly being beaten up at a party hosted by Page 3 model and FHM babe Keeley Hazell in 2006.
It all started after Jose Mourinho had given his Blues players two days off to rest and relax as reward for their punishing Christmas schedule.
Cole, John Terry and West Ham pair Bobby Zamora and Anton Ferdinand decided to meet up and go to the West End Embassy club.
While there, Cole encountered a group of glamour models, including Keeley, who invited Cole and the others to carry on their partying at her home.
According to guests at the party, Cole was asleep when an unnamed assailant is alleged to have beaten up the England international.
One person in attendance alleged the winger was assaulted by a man who mistakenly believed he and Hazell were in a relationship, while others claimed he was struck by a West Ham upset over his decision to join Chelsea.
Either way, there was never any suggestion Cole did anything wrong and he returned to training after the incident wearing a woolly hat to mask any injuries he may have sustained.
Ronaldo's transvestite mistake
In April 2008, Brazil great Ronaldo was caught up in a scandal involving three transvestite prostitutes he had met in a nightclub in Rio.
The star claimed that when he found the trio were all legally male, he offered them money to leave. One of the prostitutes then tried to blackmail Ronaldo with claims they had sex and took drugs in a motel room.
Police inspector Carlos Augusto Nogueira later said: "There was no drugs or sex that night." He added that the three "said that they invented it all because they failed to receive the money they intended as extortion".
In an interview with O Globo in 2008, Ronaldo revealed his regret over the whole episode.
"I've cried a lot," he said. "It's an unbelievable embarrassment and an incredible disappointment. It was a big mistake in my personal life. We all make mistakes and I've made a big one."
Derby car crash
Derby County's team bonding night out in September 2019 led to club captain Richard Keogh getting the sack and Mason Bennett and Tom Lawrence pleading guilty to drink driving.
The Championship club had arranged a night out for their players, but the Rams had also provided cars for players to be driven home – an option not all of them decided to take up.
Bennett and Lawrence both made the ill-advised decision to drive themselves home, with Ireland international Keogh in the latter's passenger seat.
Lawrence's car careered into into the back of Bennett's, before continuing across a roundabout and hitting a lamppost. Keogh, who now plays for Blackpool, sustained a knee injury that ruled him out for well over a year.
- Premier League
- Paul Gascoigne
- Arsenal FC
- Ronaldinho
- Derby County FC
- England Football Team
- West Bromwich Albion FC
- Liverpool FC
- Chelsea FC
- West Ham FC
- Tottenham Hotspur FC
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