Ghosts, goats, ladyboys and pierced party chickens: Top 10 foreign football sex scandals which make John Terry look tame

By Steve Anglesey in Football Banter

Published 18:00 02/02/10

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John Terry, we can all agree, has been a busy lad. But he'd have to go some to equal these great foreign football sex scandals of the past...

When a paunchy, wild-eyed Diego Maradona entered a Cuban psychiatric clinic in early 2004 to combat his drug addiction, the football world breathed a sigh of relief. It took a sharp intake of breath a few months later when photos emerged of the 43-year-old in rehab, one showing him snorting cocaine and another depicting the Hand Of God cheat having sex with 19-year-old Cuban girlfriend Adonay Fruto, in front of several admiring onlookers.

It says something about the shock value of the first two snaps that a third, showing the tubby handballer dressed up as Osama bin Laden and wielding a toy machine gun, caused nary a raised eyebrow.

9) Rosicky's pricey warmdown

After losing a European qualifier 2-1 to Germany in 2007, Arsenal player Tomas Rosicky showed endurance he has rarely displayed at the Emirates by partying until 5.30am at the team hotel with five Czech Republic team-mates and six hookers.

The Czechs were rumbled when a female undercover reporter knocked on his door early in the morning, posing as an fan, and noticed players "drink and hugging prostitutes" as midfielder Jan Polak gave his his autograph at the door. Rosicky, who said he had a "clear conscience", explained that the sexy knees-up was in honour of married defender Tomas Ujfalusi's birthday.

8) Oliver wants some more

Oliver Kahn's resemblance to 1970s softcore star Robin Askwith has long been noted, and for a few exciting weeks in 2003 it appeared the German stopper was starring in his own movie, Adventures Of A Randy Goalkeeper.

Always a polarising figure in Germany, the gifted but arrogant Kahn managed to united the country in revulsion in 2003 when he left heavily-pregnant wife Simone and took up with a 21-year-old nightclub hostess, Verena Kerth, whom tabloids dubbed "the pierced party chicken". The country's most popular magazine, Stern, lived up to his name by dubbing Kahn a "third-class adulterer" while Bayern commercial manager Uli Hoeness said made the story made him "vomit".

7) Beckenbauer's wurst of times

While Sir Bobby Charlton spent his off-field moments rearranging thinning strands of hair across his spartan pate, his German equivalent occupied himself with more carnal matters. Der Kaiser has outraged German morality on several occasions, ex-team-mate Paul Breitner admitting: "He did everything that a German is not supposed to do. He got divorced, he left his children, he eloped, he had tax debts, he left his girlfriend."

Beckenbauer's first brush with scandal came in 1963, when he got his girlfriend pregnant but refused to marry her. The 18-year-old Franz was banned from the West German youth side and only reinstated when he agreed to share a room with coach Dettmar Cramer

In 2000, Beckenbauer apologised to his second wife Sybille after fathering a child conceived during Bayern Munich's Christmas party. He was 55, his girlfriend 33. "It's not such a great crime," he said - but three years later he left Sybille and married mistress Heidi Burmester.

6) The Iron Lady and Benjani

In 2008, Zimbabwe took a brief break from scandals involving the vile Robert Mugabe to enjoy a scandal involving Henrietta Rushwaya, chief executive of the country's FA. Newspapers claimed she had been involved in "naughty social episodes" with three players, including Manchester City striker Benjani.

Reported a shocked Zim Daily: "Rushwaya is reportedly in the habit of cowing coach Jose Claudinei Valinhos into sanctioning the departure of some players from camp to moonlight in secluded night spots and even to have a brief encounter off the blankets with her."

Benjani later had a fist-fight with former Zimbabwean striker Peter Ndlovu over the latter's unwanted interest in his girlfriend, while Rushwaya has become embroiled in controversy over costly upgrades to her office, which now features - according to one shocked report - an "LCD high definition television set accompanied by a SSTV satellite dish, a teak wall unit with leather swivel seat, a couch and brass coffee tables and a small fridge which she packs with an assortment of beverages."

5) Ronaldo's toothsome threesome with ladyboys

Buck-toothed Brazilian Ronaldo admitted to weeping in April 2008 after taking three ladies of the night back to his hotel room and then discovering they were transvestites.

"This will stain my life forever," admitted the double World Cup winner, who claimed things had turned ugly after the trio demanded £15,000 hush money. But his companions insisted he had known they were ladyboys all along, had had sex with two of them and had joined them in snorting cocaine.

Said Carla Tamini, 23: "At the love motel, Ronaldo treated me with caresses and called me Princess. "He was well mannered and gentle. But I've had sex with more handsome men."

4) Peruvian led by his ghoulies

Carlos 'Kukin' Flores of Peru's Inti Gas Deportes caused a sensation in December last year when, stopped by police while running naked through the streets of Huamanga, explained that he could not stop as he was being chased by a ghost.

Alas, the midfield master of deception later fessed up that he had been mugged after "engaging with dirty ladies", admitting: "I didn't want my wife to be suspicious about ladies so I just told her it was a ghost. She failed to believe me."

3) Butt-Love on video

Brazilian 'gonzo porn' queen Pamela Butt was outraged in 2008 when a video of her having sex with CKSA Moscow striker and sometime Manchester City and Everton target Vagner Love emerged online.

"It's appalling," she moaned. "I'm very well paid to have sex on camera, but I earned nothing for this."

2) Israel's overenthusiastic warm-up

Coach Shlomo Scharf resigned, pronouncing himself "dumbfounded" after an Israeli team ranked 26th in the world slumped out of the Euro 2000 play-offs with an aggregate 8-0 defeat to Denmark. But light was shed on the surprising exit when it emerged that some players had invited call girls to their Tel Aviv hotel the night before their 5-0 home thumping on the Saturday, then entertained them again before setting off for the return leg in Copenhagen on Sunday morning.

Chambermaids had tipped off the press after discovering a "a large number of condoms" in the players' rooms. Stars then refused to co-operate with private investigators or take lie detector tests demanded by the Israeli FA and four unnamed players received indeterminate bans.

1) Garrincha's samba sweetheart

In the Brazilian national affections, the World Cup hero of 1968 and 1962 ranks as highly as Pele, if not higher. Yet it's unlikely that the 'Little Bird' would ever had needed recourse to Viagra.

The right winger was alleged to have lost his virginity at age 12. To a goat. He went on to father 14 children and, on his deathbed in 1983 with cirrhosis of the liver, was still reported to be drinking heavily and bedding his nurses.

Not surprisingly, the prodigiously well-endowed Garrincha's appetites sometimes caused problems even with his adoring public. He became embroiled in two famous scandals, the first after getting a Swedish girl pregnant while touring the country in 1959. On his return to Brazil he was confronted by an angry mob and in the confusion, ran over his own father.

In 1965, shortly before a World Cup in which he barely featured, Garrincha left wife Nair Marques and their eight daughters for a fling with samba singer Elza Soares. The couple stayed together for 15 years, but Soares was widely viewed as a footballing Yoko Ono and sudden unpopularity, coupled with a dehabilitating knee injury, set Garrincha on the road to his squalid death at just 49.

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