10 of football’s best pranks: Balotelli, Schmeichel, Gazza, Holloway and more
Mario Balotelli returned to his car after Manchester City's two week summer tour to find that his team mates had put a holdall full of kippers in there before they'd left. This time honored tradition of training ground pranks has produced some hilarious stories, as you'll find out here...
PETER SCHMEICHEL GETS A BOILING KETTLE IN HIS CROWN JEWELS
Standing in the showers after a day's training at Manchester United's old training ground The Cliff, goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel was unaware of any approaching danger to his buttocks (don't worry, we're not going there!). Nicky Butt, red hot kettle in hand, was sneaking up behind Schmeichel preparing to press the scorching metal to the Dane's backside. "At the same time Nicky had the audacity to put the kettle forward," Jaap Stam recently said, "Peter turned around to see what was going on and got the hot kettle against his ****!" Schmeichel grabbed a towel and took off after Butt. "Nicky had to run for his life as Peter chased him all around The Cliff a few times, leaving us in tears from laughing. Unforgettable!"
GAZZA USES A KETTLE TO UPGRADE GLENN ROEDER'S CAR AND TEACHES MIRANDINHA ENGLISH
A prank involving yet another kettle, this time involving Paul Gascoigne at Newcastle...
NEWCASTLE'S FORMER LEFT BACK JOHN BERESFORD IS MADE TO LOOK A CLOWN
"When I joined Barnsley, they used to have a reception at the start of every season," recalls John Beresford. "Just a few drinks with the lads, I thought, but Steve Agnew told me it was fancy dress. I was a bit wary but he showed me his policeman's uniform so I went and got a full clown's outfit. Of course, the whole thing was a wind-up. So there I am dressed up as a clown and the Lord Mayor turns up. It was a full civic reception. The next year we did it to Mark Robinson. He pranged his car on the way out, the police turned up and he's had to give them his details dressed as Al Capone."
A FEW YEARS LATER JOHN BERESFORD TAKES ON ALAN SHEARER...
"Me and Rob Lee once let Alan Shearer's tyres down, so he covered my car in crap and, though he denies it, I'm sure he put horse dung down the grill so that when I turned the heating on it reeked. I once covered Lee Clark's BMW in flour. But instead of driving away and letting it all blow off, he decided to wash it. All the flour turned to dough and it was ruined."
GAZZA FOOLS GINOLA ON HIS FIRST DAY AT Everton
Nearly every footballer has a funny story about Gazza, including this one David Ginola told talkSPORT...
IAN HOLLOWAY SETS UP A BOXING MATCH WITH HIS OWN STRIKER
Holloway's time at QPR as both player and later manager was shared with Danny Maddix, who remembers this particular tale: "I remember when we played at Burnley and... I can’t remember the name, but we had a big striker from France. At full time ‘Ollie’ was raving at everyone and he said to him, ‘You’re a big boy but you don’t push your weight,’ and stuff like that. And he said, ‘On Monday, me and you are going to have a fight’. I came into training on Monday, it was pouring with rain, and he’d got the apprentices to make a ring on the pitch. And he’s got a pair of shorts, some boxing gloves and no T-shirt on. He was in the ring going mad, sparring on his own, it was hilarious. It broke the ice and they made up from there. He was just mad."
GAZZA USES A BUCKET OF WATER TO FULL EFFECT
Apparently this was one of Gazza's best mates...
BRISTOL Rovers' APRIL FOOLS DAY KIT GETS THE THUMBS UP
In a bid to truly wind up their fans, Bristol Rovers used April Fool's day to unveil the new 'shocking pink' kit on their website. Surprisingly, the strip caused such a positive stir that the club really did introduce it as their third kit, with some of the proceeds going to charity.
Rio Ferdinand MERKS GARY NEVILLE
Rio produced a whole load of TV pranks to play on his footballer mates including Ashley Cole, Peter Crouch and David Beckham, but just because we take pleasure in Gary Neville's grief, here is his...
Blackpool FAN MAKES FUN OF Preston North End ON COUNTDOWN
Preston North End must have been waiting for their neighbours' retaliation after North End hung a 'forever in our shadow' banner over the M55 at the end of 2009/10 season, visible to the Blackpool players and fans as they travelled to the Championship play-off final. So the following season, during the match that saw North End relegated to League One, Blackpool fans flew a 'We are Superior Love Blackpool FC' banner over their ground. Soon after the plane returned with a new banner stating 'Poor little Preston, enjoy League One', but that wasn't the end of it. One of the producers on Channel 4's Countdown is a life-long Blackpool fan and rigged the programme's final conundrum to say 'PNECRISIS'. It's your roll, Preston...