Tommy_Fent Posted September 9, 2008 Share Posted September 9, 2008 I stumbled across this in another forum 1. Socrates - Brazil's bearded midfielder and one time captain made a fairly big impression on me as a teenager watching the '82 World Cup. An elegant midfielder, who had great vision and was genuinely two-footed, he didn't make his international debut until he was 25 but still managed 60 caps and 22 goals for his country. He has a doctorate in medicine and worked on a masters thesis that proposed football be reduced to nine-a-side in a bid to increase skill levels. He also managed to turn out for Northern Counties League side Garforth Town at 50 back in 2004. This quote from the BBC seems to sum him up fairly well "The chain-smoking former Brazil captain, a member of the Workers' Party and founder member of the movement Corinthians Democracy, became a leading figure in the push for political reforms in his home nation and is widely regarded as one of the most influential civilians to challenge, and ultimately end, the country's dictatorship". 2. Zinedine Zidane Undoubtedly one of the greatest footballers of the last ten years, as with so many greatly talented footballers "Zizou" was a bit of an enigma. I took a while to really appreciate how good he was, with my glimpses limited pretty much to World Cups and occasional European games. The admiration for him rose somewhat when he was shown briefly vomiting prior to dispatching a penalty against England in the Euro 2004 group match. In 2002 he was selected to front a campaign against smoking, which probably went some way to explaining the outrage caused when a press photographer captured him having a crafty fag before the 2006 World Cup semi-final against Portugal. 3. Dino Zoff One of the all time great goalkeeper's smoking didn't seem to affect the length of his career. Dino played at four World Cups and was 40 when he captained the Italian side that won the competition in 1982. Our own David James recently outed himself as a smoker and is currently staking a fairly good claim to be England's number one 'keeper at a very similar age. 4. Osvaldo Ardiles When Ossie and Ricky Villa arrived at Tottenham following their countries triumph at the '78 World Cup they caused a huge stir. At the time there were very few foreign players in the English league and it was very exciting to see two World Cup winners turning out regularly. Glenn Hoddle, then England manager, defended Paul Gasgoigne (who was also famously unmasked as smoker just prior to the World Cup in 1998) saying "Paul's been smoking since he was in Rome with Lazio, six or seven years. If I tried to stop him for three weeks now, it might have an adverse effect. Ossie Ardiles was on 40-a-day when he won the World Cup with Argentina. It didn't bother Ossie and it doesn't bother me". 5. Sylvain Legwinski - Legwinski arrived during the Tigana era at Fulham that was synonymous with fitness, good eating and professional athletes. Tigana had managed Legwinski at AS Monaco previously so clearly had no concerns about his habit. Leggy was something of a cult hero amongst Fulham supporters. His passion and work rate made him one of the hardest working players in the side and helped enable the flair players in the side to work their magic. He eventually fell out of favour with subsequent manager Chris Coleman, and there were suggestions that his smoking was at the root of this, however Sylvain eventually moved on to Ipswich Town where he won the Supporter's and Manager's Player of the Year Award for the 2006/07 and became the only Ipswich player to have scored in all the games against East Anglian opposition (Norwich City, Colchester United and Southend United) during one season. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boboafc Posted September 9, 2008 Share Posted September 9, 2008 our very own john hurst used to smoke in the dressing room and only put it out just as he went down the tunnell . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fleetwood Blue Posted September 9, 2008 Share Posted September 9, 2008 Fabien Barthez, Justin Fashanu smoked a few in his time too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigfinLatic Posted September 9, 2008 Share Posted September 9, 2008 Fabien Barthez, Justin Fashanu smoked a few in his time too. Did you knwo Roberto DiMatteo smoked? I found that our on the roberto dimatteo show Big league Weekend! Vialli also smoked like a trooper... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stitch_KTF Posted September 9, 2008 Share Posted September 9, 2008 I smoke and im the dogs bollocks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rudemedic Posted September 9, 2008 Share Posted September 9, 2008 Steve Whitehall liked a cheeky fag too. As does Wayne Rooney judging by the pics from his stag-do Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leeslover Posted September 9, 2008 Share Posted September 9, 2008 Emerson used to have one in the changing room bogs at half time when he was at Middlesbrough. Oldham player Roger Palmer was also said to enjoy a smooth relaxing after-dinner cigar from time to time, although he probably didn't inhale. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
24hoursfromtulsehill Posted September 10, 2008 Share Posted September 10, 2008 (edited) Fabien Barthez, Les Sealey. RIP. Edited September 10, 2008 by 24hoursfromtulsehill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoytonBlueLad Posted September 10, 2008 Share Posted September 10, 2008 Berbatov too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hometownclub Posted September 10, 2008 Share Posted September 10, 2008 Fabien Barthez, Justin Fashanu smoked a few in his time too. PMSL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest oa_exile Posted September 10, 2008 Share Posted September 10, 2008 Justin Fashanu smoked a few in his time too. Be careful with comments like that you will have the OWTB gay community police after you LeesLover Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kentlats Posted September 19, 2008 Share Posted September 19, 2008 Cruyff allegedly smoked 40 a day at the height of his career! Johan that is not Jordi!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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