20 Footballers Who Should Be on "Dancing with the Stars"

Television celebrity dance competitions have been a surprisingly welcoming place for footballers. Former Premier League icons Peter Schmeichel and John Barnes have appeared on Strictly Come Dancing in the UK, and now the always-colorful Robbie Savage can be seen on the show this season. Diego Maradona even tried his hand at the Italian version of Dancing With the Stars.

Combine the professional footballing world's love of showy goal celebrations and need to be good with one's feet, and you have the makings of a perfect combination. Here are 20 footballers who would be excellent competitors on Dancing With the Stars, complete with video so you can watch them bust a move.

If you have favorite dancing athletes you'd like to see try their hands at the competition, as always, have at it in the comments. 

Ronaldinho

Ronaldinho is one of the greatest entertainers the game has ever seen, and has captivated just as many fans with his mad samba skills on and off the ball as his gameplay.

In fact, his samba skills have become so iconic that when Nike launched their "Write the Future" ad campaign for the 2010 World Cup, a fake commercial for a Ronaldinho "Samba-Robics" exercise DVD was one of their spots. 

Kevin-Prince Boateng

At AC Milan's Scudetto celebration at the end of last season, midfielder Kevin-Prince Boateng broke out some classic King of Pop moves, glove and all. Rumor has it he will be moving away from the San Siro to join that new Michael Jackson tribute Cirque du Soleil show. 

Bas Savage

As one YouTube commenter so brilliantly pointed out on this video, for Brighton & Hove Albion's Bas Savage to effectively moonwalk on grass and in cleats is a feat in and of itself. If he can do that under those conditions, imagine what he's capable of on the dance floor with Bruno and Carrie Ann watching. 

Pepe Reina

The Liverpool keeper was one of a number of players to participate in Spanish musician Huecco's "Dame Vida" charity song campaign—David Villa, Sergio Agüero and Dani Alves are among the other participants—but Pepe looks like he's having just the best time alongside Huecco.

And on DWTS, when you're a celebrity dancing to cheesy music and wearing some outlandish getup, being able to have a good time with it is pretty much essential. 

Dani Alves

If there's one thing Barcelona's Brazilian right-back loves to do more than prevent his opponents from scoring, it's bust a move on the sidelines. There are plenty of other videos on YouTube of Dani Alves dancing, but this one is a nice sampling of his best moves. 

Roger Milla

The Cameroonian hero of the 1990 World Cup may be long since retired, but he will forever go down in move-busting history for his tendency to enjoy some gyration of the hips upon scoring a goal for his country. 

Emmanuel Adebayor

The only thing Emmanuel Adebayor seems to love to do on the pitch more than score goals or enrage Arsenal fans is get his dance on. Here he is alongside former Gunners teammates Emmanuel Eboue and Thierry Henry in—shall we say—happier times.

Nevertheless, his love for the dance and larger-than-life personality make him a perfect candidate to dance with the stars. 

Peter Crouch

The itinerant English striker is perhaps as well known for his trademark goal celebration of doing the robot as he is for scoring the goals themselves. If all you had to do to compete on Dancing With the Stars was do the robot, Crouchy would win for sure.

Serious props for whoever decided to set this video to James Brown. The Godfather of Soul goes well with everything, including Robo-Crouch.

Joe Hart

When he's not stopping the attack for Manchester City, Joe Hart sometimes likes to unwind by dancing ridiculously in front of a webcam with no shirt on. Just like the rest of us.

What is that move Hart is even doing? Is he pretending to be a salmon traveling upstream to spawn? I don't even know. But it's still thoroughly entertaining. 

Didier Drogba

The Chelsea star would be perfect for Dancing With the Stars; as we can see by this video, he's already proved he's literally comfortable dancing with the stars alongside African pop star Akon.

Then there's this awesome "swing-your-partner" celebration move with Shaun Wright-Phillips. Clearly, Drogba has quite the repertoire of moves. His versatility would most certainly make him an asset in this competition. 

Emmanuel Eboue

Like his former Arsenal teammates Emmanuel Adebayor and Thierry Henry, with whom he was seen earlier in this list, the Gunners' Emmanuel Eboue loves to move the crowd. And being able to dance with a football on your back and work juggling into your choreography is certainly worthy of applause from the crowd. 

Neymar

Why yes, that is sought-after teenage Brazilian superstar Neymar doing the lambada on national television—which indicates a promising future on Dancing With the Stars, but also begs the question: How does Neymar adapt so quickly to a dance that was at its peak of popularity probably before he was born?

Anyone else feel old?

Iker Casillas

While on tour of Africa before the 2010 World Cup, Spain keeper Iker Casillas stopped to dance with some locals in Mali. He caught on to the choreography rather quickly, which is good, since he had to miss the rehearsal. 

Nwankwo Kanu

The Nigerian master is known to occasionally shake his groove thing upon the scoring of a goal. Here, following a goal for Portsmouth in a 2008 FA Cup match, Kanu and teammate Sulley Muntari wiggle it—just a little bit—for the cameras. 

Gerard Piqué

Although, we suppose you'd have to learn to dance just in order to keep up if your girlfriend was international pop superstar Shakira. Here, Barcelona centre-back Gerard Piqué tries out his best moves on his then-ladyfriend while she serenades the crowd. 

David Wheater

Wheater, then at Middlesbrough, entertained fans all over the UK when this video of him doing a spirited rendition of Queen's "Don't Stop Me Now" went viral. Freddie Mercury he may not be, but hilarious he certainly is. 

Robinho

Sometimes, the best choreography can be found on the pitch in the midst of a match. Even when his performances at Eastlands left something to be desired, Robinho was still impressing with his fancy footwork, leaping and side-stepping over the ball.

Carlos Tévez

And then this happened.

Nigel Reo-Coker and Anton Ferdinand

I don't think Dancing With the Stars has a section for stars who can Crank Dat Soulja Boy, but if they did, Nigel Reo-Coker and Anton Ferdinand would be netting perfect scores every week.