Footballers Who Smoked

England’s smoking ban came into effect today, banning smoking in all enclosed public places.

Good news I say, a filthy habit that never helped anyone’s game and turns your teeth yellow. But there have been more than a few footballers who enjoyed the occasional nicotine rush, so what better time to name and shame them?

Most recently, and most famously, Zinedine Zidane was spotted cigarette in hand before the France vs Portugal 2006 World Cup semi-final. A little odd as he’d fronted the European Union’s “Feel free to say no” campaign in 2002.

Paul Gascoigne was famously outed as a smoker in 1998 in the run up to 1998 World Cup, with Gazza claiming he smoked to keep his weight down. Glen Hoddle wasn’t impressed, but backed the midfielder with these words: “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, and there’s a fellow called Gianluca Vialli at Chelsea too. It didn’t bother Ossie and it doesn’t bother me.” Big words, but Hoddle even more famously dropped Gazza from his ‘98 World Cup squad and England went out in the second round.

In 1998 the somewhat bizarrely pro-smoking group Forest put together an all star eleven of smoking footballers: Dino Zoff, Socrates, Gerson, Jack Charlton, Frank Leboeuf, Jimmy Greaves, David Ginola, Osvaldo Ardiles, Malcolm Macdonald, Bobby Charlton, Robert Prosinecki. Sub: Gazza. Coach: César Luis Menotti. Not too shabby.

Other players who (according to my Google based research) smoked and played include Johan Cruyff, Diego Maradona and Michel Platini (who all should have made that Forest all star team, surely) as well as Fabien Barthez and Slaven Bilic. Possibly the most prolific smoker of all time was QPR maverick Stan Bowles, who apparently managed 80 a day in his prime.

But it’s a different game now. Even the most talented players need to operate at full capacity, particularly in fast-paced leagues like the Premiership, so lighting up is probably not a good idea. There’s also a lot more public pressure on players to be role models now. They may not always live up to it, but there’d be outcry if say Manchester United’s new number 10 turned out to be an 80 a day man. The days of smoking footballers may be over.

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Category: England, English Premier League, World Football