25 Players from World Football Who Have Tripped Themselves Up on Twitter
It was hardly the worst thing he's ever done on Twitter, but Mario Balotelli was at it again during the recent Manchester derby.
When Sergio Aguero put the Italian's former side Manchester City ahead, Balotelli tweeted: "Yeeees city...1-0 OLD TRAFFORD...Stand up and shut up."
And Old Trafford did stand up, as did the Manchester United players—who went on to win the match 4-2.
Balotelli isn't alone when it comes to embarrassing himself on social media, though, and as these players have found out, Twitter can sometimes be an expensive business.
Rio Ferdinand
1 of 25
No stranger to an FA disciplinary panel, Rio Ferdinand has been involved in a couple of Twitter controversies, including one as recently as October.
As detailed by the Daily Mail, the former England defender decided the best way to respond to a fan criticising his performances was to insult his mother, which was never going to go down well.
Ryan Babel
2 of 25
Something of a football Twitter trailblazer, the former Liverpool winger Ryan Babel became the first player to be fined for his comments on the site in January 2011, as detailed here by The Telegraph.
Following a tempestuous FA Cup defeat to Manchester United, which featured a questionable penalty for the hosts and a red card for Steven Gerrard, Babel tweeted a mocked-up picture of referee Howard Webb in a United shirt, something which gave plenty of Reds fans a laugh but also cost the Dutchman £10,000.
Robert Huth
3 of 25
Now, we're a family website, so we won't go too much into detail about what Robert Huth, currently on loan at Leicester City from Stoke City, was banned for earlier this year, but it's available to read about on the Mirror's website.
Huth was also fined £15,000 and ordered to take a mandatory education course following some of his explicit tweets, which probably weren't setting the best example.
Joey Barton
4 of 25
We might as well get Joey Barton over with, as you all knew he'd be coming.
The Queens Park Rangers midfielder has been one of the most vocal footballers on social media for a while, regularly telling his almost 3 million followers about his life and beliefs, plenty of which provoke fierce debate.
You'll all have your favourites, although the recent comparison between Liberal Democrats leader Nick Clegg and shamed former television presenter Jimmy Savile was a particularly notable one.
Jack Wilshere
5 of 25
It's hardly the worst offence and actually shows a level of humility and respect for a fantastic player, but Arsenal's Jack Wilshere didn't exactly please Gunners fans with an homage to Cesc Fabregas.
In case Wilshere wasn't aware, his club's supporters don't actually like the Spaniard any more.
Suso
6 of 25
A tweet from former Liverpool midfielder Suso, now of AC Milan, to his then-team-mate and compatriot Jose Enrique in 2012 ended up costing him £10,000.
Mocking Enrique for getting his teeth whitened, Suso's comments were seen as homophobic by the FA, even if Enrique didn't think so according to the Daily Mail.
Jason Puncheon
7 of 25
After comically missing a penalty against Tottenham Hotspur in 2014, Crystal Palace's Jason Puncheon was taking plenty of stick on social media.
He took most of that well, except when it came to his former boss Neil Warnock, who was on the receiving end of a volley of abuse from Puncheon that ended up costing the attacker £15,000, as detailed by BBC Sport.
Ezequiel Lavezzi
8 of 25
As the Daily Mail relayed in August, Paris Saint-Germain and Argentina's Ezequiel Lavezzi recovered from being on the losing side in the World Cup final by wearing little more than a policeman's hat and relaxing with his partner—and posting pictures of what he was up to on Twitter, as you do.
Steven Fletcher
9 of 25
Sunderland striker Steven Fletcher bought a car in March and people got angry about it.
As reported by the Mirror, Fletcher's new Lamborghini infuriated some fans, who believed the Scotland forward simply didn't deserve to own such a flashy motor, which presumably wouldn't have been an issue had he scored more than four goals this season.
Ashley Cole
10 of 25
The FA's record punishment for an ill-advised tweet is currently the one dished out to Ashley Cole in 2012, with the former England defender slapped with a £90,000 fine.
The reason? We'll let the Guardian take up the story from here, but it's safe to say that he wasn't too complimentary about the people who run the game in England.
Federico Macheda
11 of 25
Homophobic comments on Twitter were the reason behind Federico Macheda's £15,000 fine in March 2012, as reported by the BBC.
The Italian, who was on loan at Queens Park Rangers from Manchester United at the time, requested a personal hearing to try to plead his case, but that didn't do much good for him in the end.
Emmanuel Frimpong
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A man more famous for his Twitter account than his football ability, former Arsenal midfielder Emmanuel Frimpong can amuse and irritate within 140 characters in equal measure.
Among his many highlights include a tweet in October 2013 that claimed he'd be picked to play for the Gunners if he was "white and English," something which caused the type of reaction you'd imagine, reported by the Daily Mail.
Carlton Cole
13 of 25
A player with two separate £20,000 fines for his Twitter activity, West Ham United's Carlton Cole is no stranger to an FA disciplinary panel.
As reported by the Daily Mail, Cole's most recent fine came following a row with a Tottenham fan, following on from comments he made during an England friendly with Ghana in April 2011.
Maybe social media just isn't for you, Carlton.
Jamie O'Hara
14 of 25
Remember Jamie O'Hara? The midfielder was once touted for an England call-up following impressive displays for Tottenham and on loan at Portsmouth, but it seemed that humility wasn't one of his qualities.
As reported by Metro, when playing for Wolverhampton Wanderers in 2012 O'Hara was forced to quit Twitter after his tweet bemoaning the difficulties of his £35,000-a-week lifestyle. Must have been tough, Jamie. At least you're earning much less at Blackpool these days.
Darren Bent
15 of 25
Back in 2009, the power of Twitter was still unknown to many, but Darren Bent felt its full force when he was fined £120,000 by his club at the time, Tottenham, for a furious rant directed at Spurs chairman Daniel Levy.
As detailed by the Daily Mail, Bent let rip with the now immortal words: "Do I wanna go Hull City NO. Do I wanna go Stoke NO do I wanna go Sunderland YES so stop f------g around levy."
It worked, though, and he moved to Wearside that summer.
James McClean
16 of 25
Republic of Ireland international James McClean has been a magnet for Twitter controversy throughout his career, with former club Sunderland banning him from the site in 2013.
According to the BBC, McClean attracted controversy after naming an Irish rebel anthem by the Wolfe Tones as his favourite song. "The Broad Black Brimmer" tells the story of a man who is killed fighting for the IRA, and McClean, who has also attracted negative attention for refusing to wear a poppy on his shirt during matches taking place around Remembrance Sunday, received plenty of online abuse for it.
Michael Chopra
17 of 25
Pictured here with Alan Shearer in 2005, Michael Chopra has a history of financial issues and was once loaned £250,000 by his then-club employers, Ipswich Town, in 2011 in order to pay off gambling debts.
As reported by the BBC, Chopra deleted his Twitter account two years later just minutes after posting a photo of a large bag of cash along with the hashtags "cash," "skint," "lol" and "lendmeafiver."
Vladimir Weiss
18 of 25
The Celtic-Rangers rivalry doesn't need Twitter to stir it up, but that's what it got when former Rangers midfielder Vladimir Weiss tweeted about Celtic's being reinstated to the Champions League in August, as reported by Metro.
The Slovakia international received some pretty colourful replies, although not surprisingly, he's also now fondly remembered at his former club.
Jose Enrique
19 of 25
Once the butt of a joke that got former Liverpool team-mate Suso in hot water, as discussed earlier, Jose Enrique was also making Twitter waves back in his Newcastle United days too.
Seeking a way out of the club in 2011, he launched a scathing attack on their transfer policy, as relayed by the Daily Mail, claiming that Newcastle would never finish in the top six if they continued to sell their stars.
He subsequently moved to Liverpool and finished eighth in his first season with the Reds. Newcastle came fifth—in other words, the top six.
Wojciech Szczesny
20 of 25
It's back to the Daily Mail for our next one, and Arsenal's Wojciech Szczesny making a less than flattering observation about the appearance of team-mate Aaron Ramsey.
Replying to a tweet showing Ramsey in a tank top about to play golf in January 2012, Szczesny remarked that the Welshman "looked like a rapist" in an apparent attempt to be funny.
Some senses of humour are strange.
Cesc Fabregas
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Even the very best players aren't immune to tripping themselves up on Twitter, as Cesc Fabregas showed when he was still in Arsenal colours in 2010.
The Telegraph reported that Fabregas went on a rant about the inconsistency of Premier League referees following a match at Wigan Athletic, in which Arsenal were denied a late penalty, even including the words "I'm not complaining at all" in his tweets.
Which is, of course, exactly what people say when they are complaining.
Eljero Elia
22 of 25
When Southampton fans found out their club was signing Eljero Elia in January, they were also given a warning about his off-field misdemeanours by the Daily Mail.
They include offending supporters with a controversial tweet before playing a match for previous club Werder Bremen, and he also insulted fans on Facebook.
Benoit Assou-Ekotto
23 of 25
The FA's second-biggest fine for misuse of Twitter belongs to Benoit Assou-Ekotto, who weighed in to the debate surrounding the whole Nicolas Anelka "quenelle" incident in December 2013.
The Guardian reported that Assou-Ekotto was fined £50,000 for effectively congratulating Anelka on the salute, which is seen as hugely anti-Semitic.
Kyle Walker
24 of 25
Kyle Walker wound up Manchester City fans in January 2012 when he tweeted in anger after Spurs suffered a 3-2 defeat at the Etihad Stadium.
As reported by the website footballaway.co.uk, Walker challenged City fans to come back and talk to him at the end of the season, when he'd see where both Spurs and City would finish in the table.
City won the league and Spurs came fourth, but they missed out on the Champions League because sixth-place Chelsea won that season's competition.
Mario Balotelli
25 of 25
We'll finish how we started, with Liverpool's gaffe-prone Mario Balotelli.
Always entertaining and often controversial, the Italian was banned for one match and fined £25,000 after tweeting an Instagram post that he believed to have an anti-racist sentiment in December last year.
As the Guardian points out, the post had anything but, and the whole situation was just another episode in the career of a player whose behaviour continues to baffle.
