The Unluckiest Men in World Football History

Anyone who gets to play football professionally can consider themselves very lucky. However, once achieving this improbable feat, fortune can turn very quickly.

Some footballers can go their entire careers without any stumbling blocks or serious injuries, and without any regrets. Others spend the majority of their careers stuck on the sidelines, or, as we'll see in this slideshow, worse.

Here are 13 of the unluckiest footballers in history. 

Paul Robinson

Let's start on a rather sympathetic yet humorous note.

This was unlucky for a number of reasons. Firstly it wasn't Robinson's fault; the ball bobbled in a way no one could predict. Secondly, after this unavoidable lack of fortune, Robinson didn't play for England for two years.

That's a bitter punishment for someone who didn't really do anything wrong.

Owen Hargreaves

Owen Hargreaves is a very handy footballer, aside from a torn calf muscle, a torn thigh muscle, adductor problems, a broken leg, patellar tendentious and multiple operations on both knees.  

Hargreaves is one of a few players on this list renowned more for their inability to find themselves on the pitch than their actual footballing ability.

Now at Manchester City after leaving United, Hargreaves should really have his own special entrance at Manchester General Hospital. 

Kieron Dyer

A fractured chin, a stress fracture in a foot, knee ligament tears, a torn hamstring, another hamstring problem, a third hamstring setback, a broken tibia and fibula and a prolonged ankle problem.

Do you think Dyer and Hargreaves play medical Top Trumps together while they sit in the hospital waiting room?

Oh, and by the way, guess what? Dyer will now be out until at least Christmas after sustaining a problem in his foot ligaments just six minutes into the season-opener for Queens Park Rangers.

I'm sure if you intentionally played every game trying to get injured you wouldn't have as many problems as Hargreaves and Dyer manage to accumulate.  

John Terry

All Roman Abramovich cares about is winning the Champions League, and all Chelsea care about is winning the Champions League.

You're in the Champions League final, you've taken Manchester United to penalties, you're captain can win you the Champions League with one routinely executed strike from 12 yards.

Remember, that planting foot is just as important as your striking one.

Djibril Cisse

As if not managing to realise that your hair and beard are completely the opposite colour is not enough, just Youtube "Djibril Cisse broken leg". Not only will you find one horrifically grotesque video that will make you reluctant for the next few hours about just standing up and walking, you'll find two of them.

The first, sustained whilst playing for Liverpool, is actually a double break, just to add insult to injury. In the second, sustained whilst playing for France, his foot is stuck to the ground while his body keeps on going.

Not for the feint-hearted.  

The Entire 2011 Arsenal Carling Cup Team Apart from Szczesny and Koscielny

Any time this video is played it really needs the old-school slapstick comedy sound effects accompanying it. It is hilarious.

Arsenal had more possession, more corners, more shots and more shots on target. The only problem was that it was still only 1-1 with these advantageous statistics. The moment all Birmingham and Arsenal fans will remember eternally is the calamitous mix-up between Laurent Koscielny and Wojciech Szczesny (and yes, I did have to copy and paste his name).

The Birmingham player tapping Koscielny on the head as they trot off to celebrate is unsporting, but it does add to the comedy of the moment. 

It just goes to show that every dog can have his day, although it's a lot easier when the favourite places the ball at your feet and leaves an open goal for your striker with one minute left. 

The Entire 1986 English World Cup Squad

I'm English, I'm bitter and I hate Diego Maradona.

Take away this goal and who knows what might have been. You can dare to dream of the possibilities.

Some karmic justice might have been served in the fact that Maradona has become a fat laughing-stock with alcohol and drug issues, as well being in serious debt. But given the scale of his dark deed, it's still not enough. 

Eduardo

Eduardo was finally starting to come into his own and was becoming a fixture on the Arsenal team.

But then, after that tackle, Eduardo has never been the same and has since been off-loaded to Shakhtar Donetsk.

Allan Brown

Back in the days of black and white, the FA Cup final at Wembley was the biggest date on the English footballing calender.

Brown was part of two successful Blackpool teams that reached the final. The only problem was that he never got the chance to play in either.

He was ruled out with a knee injury just days before the first game in 1951, and three years later he broke his leg scoring the winner, ironically, in the quarterfinal.  

Andres Escobar

In a group stage match against the United States in the 1994 World Cup, Colombia defender Andrés Escobar tried to stop a John Harkes cross from finding its intended target, but he knocked the ball into the net with a slide tackle. That goal gave the United States a 1-0 lead en route to a 2-1 win, all but ensuring Colombia's early exit from the World Cup.

Sadly, Escobar was shot by unruly, vindictive, iniquitous drug lords who wanted vengeance for Escobar's own goal.

His funeral was attended by over 120,000 people, and he is the most beloved footballer in Colombia to this day   

Jonathan Richter

Richter is a Danish footballer who player for F.C. Nordsjælland before being struck by lightning during a match in 2009.

Richter was put into a medically-induced coma and eventually had the lower part of his leg amputated to improve his chances of general well-being.