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12th Dec 2013

And the world’s dirtiest footballer is…

According to the lads on a Spanish football site, these are the baddest men to ever lace up a pair of boots. And yes, Roy Keane does feature…

JOE

According to the lads on a Spanish football site, these are the baddest men to ever lace up a pair of boots. And yes, Roy Keane does feature…

A Spanish football site called El Gol Digital has trawled through the archives to select their top 10 dirtiest players ever to play the game.

Their definition of dirty is based solely on on-field violence and on that criteria, it is very hard to see past the man at the top of this list.

Kevin Muscat had a long career in England and back home in his native Australia, and he is now a coach, Still, he is best known for his frequent horrendous tackles and the one that finally ended his career, a brutal assault on a player called Adrian Zahra in the A-League, is the reason he tops this pile.

Muscat also earned 123 yellow cards in his career.

Second on the list is Real Madrid’s Pepe, mainly for his crazy actions against Getafe a few years ago.

And third is Spaniard David Navarro, who is best known for his part in a brawl with Inter during his time with Valencia, the highlight of which was when Navarro, an unused sub in the game, ran on the pitch and punched Nicolas Burdisso in the face, breaking his nose.

The Butcher of Bilbao, Andoni Goikoetxea, is next, Luis Suarez comes in fifth and midfield firebrand Gennaro Gattuso is sixth.

Our own Roy Keane is seventh, with El Gol Digital saying that the Cork legend’s nickname was ‘Psycho’ or at least that is what Google Translate tells us. News to us.

Mark van Bommel, a truly divisive figure, is eighth, Zinedine Zidane’s tormentor Marco Materazzi is ninth and rounding out the list is Nigel de Jong, mainly for his chest-high kick on Xabi Alonso.