10 Funny Stories Involving Footballers and Football Video Games

There are three things common to every professional footballer: They have a lot of downtime after training, they are required to have plenty of rest and they have competitive personalities. Hence, it naturally follows that they love playing video games. 

EA Sports' FIFA franchise is among the most popular titles among professionals, with Wojciech Szczesny making headlines this week for admitting he sold himself in the game to fund a purchase of The Mighty Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

The Arsenal keeper's virtual sale leads our list of 10 most amusing stories involving footballers and their video games.

Wojciech Szczesny Taking One for the Team

While showing a Polish camera crew around his opulent home, Arsenal goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny picked up with a FIFA 15 game he was playing. It revealed that he had actually sold himself to Manchester United for £18.5 million (which seems like an awful lot!) in order to fund the purchase of Zlatan Ibrahimovic. 

Now that's taking one for the team. 

Andrea Pirlo's PlayStation Praise

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Andrea Pirlo is a man of culture, skill and luscious facial hair. However, the Juventus midfielder is also a football video game obsessive. 

The Italian enjoys his PlayStation so much that he described it as the second greatest invention of all time, behind the wheel. And presumably ahead of the game of football and wine. 

In his magnificent autobiography, Pirlo describes the FIFA duels he would have with former Milan teammate Alessandro Nesta:

"

Pirlo v Nesta was a classic duel back in our Milanello days. We'd get in early, have breakfast at 9am and then shut ourselves in our room and hit the PlayStation until 11. Training would follow, then we'd be back on the computer games until four in the afternoon. Truly a life of sacrifice.

"

Adebayo Akinfenwa's Pace Protestation

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Despite playing in League Two with AFC Wimbledon, Adebayo Akinfenwa has developed something of a cult following within the FIFA franchise. It's because the bulky forward is rated as the strongest player in the world, leading many fans to play with The Beast to take advantage of his power stats.

However, Bayo's power comes at the cost of speed, with the man himself admitting that he doesn't actually play as himself because he's "pretty slow and it's frustrating."  

David James' Electronic Excuse

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During his career, David James earned the nickname "Calamity James" for some isolated high-profile gaffes. While at Liverpool, James blamed a dip in form on spending too much time with a game controller in his hands. 

"I was getting carried away playing Tekken II and Tomb Raider for hours on end," he said after a shoddy performance against Newcastle United. 

Leyton Orient

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The power that video games can hold over professional footballers was brought to the foreground in October 2013, when Leyton Orient banned their players from enjoying FIFA 14.

After winning the first eight matches of the season, The O's suffered a drop in form when the addictive video game was released. The club put two and two together and duly removed the game from the team bus and implemented a blanket ban on matchdays. 

Ryan Babel's Bonus Broadcast

Ryan Babel didn't play a single minute as the Dutch stormed to the final of the World Cup in 2010, but the former Liverpool star did manage to keep himself entertained with a Pro Evolution Soccer marathon.

To cater for folks who like to watch grown men sitting on the edge of a bed for prolonged periods of time, Babel live streamed a two-hour gaming session from his South African hotel room, featuring Nigel de Jong, Gio van Bronckhorst, Robin van Persie and a slightly worse for wear Khalid Boulahrouz.  

Fernando Torres' Expensive Addiction

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In the period during which he was good at his job, Fernando Torres was given the honour of gracing the cover of a Pro Evolution Soccer game. 

This certainly would have pleased Nando, who is a self-confessed video game addict. In fact, while at Liverpool he spent a whopping £35,000 kitting out a dedicated gaming room in his home. 

Paul Pogba's Foray into Football Manager

Footballers with future managerial aspirations are likely to indulge in a spot of Football Manager.

During the World Cup, a video shot by the French Football Federation showed Paul Pogba indulging in the management simulation game. The Juventus star chose to manage Chelsea, and if you look very hard at around the 97-second mark in the video above, you will see that he actually signed himself. 

It's almost certainly not unusual for a player to use themselves in a video game, but this harmless action promoted a flurry of transfer rumours. 

PES 2015's Robson-Kanu Snafu

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With each new football video game release, there are typically one or two players who look absolutely nothing like themselves in the game.

The latest to emerge is Reading winger Hal Robson-Kanu, who looks rather different in the new PES game.  

Rio Ferdinand's Ratings Rant

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Rio Ferdinand once complained that morale was lowered in the Manchester United dressing room when some of the team's biggest stars found their ratings in the FIFA game series to be unflattering. The veteran defender went as far as accusing the game's developer of bias against the Red Devils. 

When asked recently about FIFA 15, Rio complained that his character wasn't quick enough—perhaps not realising that art was very much imitating life. 

"Can you please put the right stats on the Man Utd players and also now I'm at QPR can you elevate their stats to the right level," he said, surely with his tongue lodged firmly in his cheek. 

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