The Hardest of the Hard

By: Martha | January 8th, 2008

Don’t make me beat you senseless with your own arm, bitch. There’s something of an art to being a hard footballer — it’s more than just periodically scything down an opponent, or karate kicking a supporter, or hiding something incredibly dirty behind an angelic smile. To be a true hardman in a major league, there’s got to be a method to the madness, and a productivity to the football; running around kicking people just isn’t enough. [Insert unpleasant Marco Materazzi comment here.]

Following that line of thinking, after what were surely months of careful study, The Sun this morning published their list of the 10 hardest footballers of all time (and, yes, Roy Keane is on it).

The only active player on The Sun’s list is John Terry, who probably earned his place at #10 just by being ferociously kicked in the head and making it back to the locker room in time to celebrate — no matter who you are, that hardness deserves some recognition.

Joining Terry on the list are most of the usual suspects from England: Keane, Vinnie Jones, Stuart Pearce, Chopper Harris, Dave Mackay and Norman Hunter. Alongside them are two particularly hard foreigners — Italy’s Romeo Benetti and Spain’s Andoni Goicoechea — and rising above them all, at least as far as The Sun are concerned, is the one and only Graeme Souness, who deserves special mention for his broadly international asskicking, having done damage in Scotland, England and Italy.

What do you think? Anyone missing? And what on earth does it mean that more than half of the 10 have spent time in management?

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Category: English Premier League, Europe, Scottish Premier League, Serie A, Spain La Liga, World Football

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Ron Harris

Gattuso is a fairy. Chopper Harris is number one.
Martha

I was going to point to Gattuso as the obvious miss, but the fact that he's so damn nice is the reason I didn't -- he ain't no Vinnie Jones, right? He is, however, tough as hell.
Ian

I agree with Roberto - Gattuso seems like a pretty obvious choice. Maybe he's too nice of a guy to be considered "hard", but if we're talking about play on the pitch, he has to be on the list.
Daryl

I always had a lot of time for Stuart Pearce. He was known for being hard, but you never saw him do anything you'd call dirty.
Martha

I think they've got sort of mix on the list -- Terry's definitely there for being able to take a hit, but some of them, yeah, did a lot of dishing.
Daryl

I feel like The Sun have confused "hard" with "dirty." To me "hard" means you can take it a hit, as opposed to being known for dishing it out.