Professional footballers can get themselves in the headlines for their off the field acts just as well as for their on field acts. At times these off field acts can be crazy and outrageous, and they show the fans that footballers can be an entirely different breed. In a soccer scoerboards feature, I have taken a look at some of the footballers’ craziest acts from recent years:

Ashley Cole
Chelsea’s defender managed to get himself in the news for shooting, and not with a camera! Now you must be wondering ‘How is that possible?’ Well, Ashley Cole was said to be larking around with a .22 caliber air rifle, and he shot a Loughborough University student, Tom Cowan. This is not the first time that Cole has got himself into serious trouble. He drew negative attention to himself when he was caught cheating on his celebrity wife and when he almost crashed his car after being extremely frustrated when he was offered a measly £50,000.

Long Awaited Revenge
In 1997, when Manchester United was losing to Leeds United, Roy Keane tackled Haaland hard, but in the process severely hurt his own knee ligaments. As Keane lay on the ground suffering with acute pain, Haaland criticized Keane and shouted at him to get up and stop faking an injury. Little did he know that those words would haunt him four years later. In 2001, Keane smashed Haaland on his right knee and while Haaland writhed in agony, Keane bent over him and shouted a tirade of abuse which he mentioned in his autobiography. Keane was fined heavily and Haaland wasn’t able to play again to the same level after the injury.

THE Head Butt
Zidane is one of the greatest football players ever. He was a graceful and highly skillful player, but sadly his image was severely damaged in the final of the 2006 World Cup against Italy. Zidane head butted Italian defender Marco Materazzi in the chest just when the match was in its final moments. Zidane was red carded and Italy won the World Cup in the penalty shoot out. Till today nobody knows what led Zidane to such a violent outburst, however later Zidane claimed that he was provoked with racist taunts.

The Kung Fu Kick
Fans can be crazy. They support and love their teams and players immensely, but at the same time are known to intensely hate the other team, players and their fans. One way of showing this hatred is to verbally abuse the teams or players. This is exactly what happened at Crystal Palace in 1995 when a fan, Matthew Simmons, verbally abused the French midfielder Eric Cantona after he was had received a red card and was walking off the pitch. Cantona reacted instantly and launched his attack on the fan. He jumped into the crowd and unleashed his kung fu kick followed by a few punches. Like the Zidane incident, it still remains a mystery as to what the fan actually said.

For more information, go to:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Cantona