Ryan Giggs, John Terry and 13 Unfaithful Husbands in World Football

And yea, there are few bonds as sacred as the one between a footballer and his WAG. But every once in a while, be it through human temptation, error or the pressures of fame, that sacred bond is broken, and the perpetrator vilified in the tabloids and on Twitter, while still playing and making more money than most of us will see in our entire lifetime, but I digress. 

Here are a baker's dozen tales of marital infidelity from world football history, including, of course, John Terry and Ryan Giggs. If you have any others you'd like to share or discuss, as always, have at it in the comments. 

John Terry

Let's start off with the obvious ones first. 

When John Terry married longtime beau Toni Poole in 2007, he had this to say:

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“I’ve misbehaved and slept with girls behind her back and that’s not right. She knows about it all now and we’re moving on. I’m not going to cheat on her ever again.”

"

Then, in 2010, came the scandal that turned a Chelsea icon and an England captain into a national villain, and first brought the phrase "super-injunction" into the international football lexicon.

John Terry imposed the super-injunction on a Sunday newspaper after hearing it was going to publish a story about his affair with lingerie model Vanessa Perroncel, then the girlfriend of his England teammate, Wayne Bridge. The courts lifted the gag order and the affair was revealed, costing him the England captaincy.

Vanessa Perroncel still contends the affair never happened, and Toni Poole has stood by her husband.

Ryan Giggs

Manchester United star Ryan Giggs married his longtime significant other Stacey Cooke in 2007, and all seemed well in Salford until an over-exposed, highly-discussed scandal involving a Big Brother star and a Twitter account became the talk of the tabloids. 

Giggs (code name: CTB) had put out an anonymous gagging order to prevent the press from leaking details about his affair with Big Brother star Imogen Thomas.

When Giggs' name appeared on a list on Twitter of high-profile people who had taken out super-injunctions. MP John Hemming used parliamentary privilege to name Giggs as CTB and the very social media site he tried to subdue totally blew up. In Giggsy's defense, he seemed pretty remorseful about the whole thing, and he and Stacey have stayed together.  

In addition to the Imogen Thomas affair, Giggs was the subject of speculation about another affair in the summer of 2011, this time with his sister-in-law, Natasha, who was married to his brother Rhodri, manager of Salford City, at the time. 

Wayne Rooney

Roo took Coleen McLoughlin to see Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me on their first date, which may have been the first indicator that his judgment isn't always top-notch. 

When Rooney married Coleen in 2008, his predilection for ladies of the night was known, although he said his admitted past visits to massage parlors happened before the two were serious and settled. But Roo returned to the doghouse and the tabloids after prostitute Jennifer Thompson claimed Rooney had paid for her services (£1,200 a night, says the Telegraph) while Coleen was pregnant with their son, Kai. 

Sir Alex Ferguson contended that the constant media attention Rooney received about the scandal also put a serious strain on his performance on the pitch at Old Trafford, saying "the boy is starting to realise finally, without any question, what kind of focus is on him as a human being."

Thierry Henry

Thierry Henry had it all in the early '00s: a beautiful wife in model WAG Claire Merry, a daughter, a starring role at Arsenal, a house in Hampstead.

But then, not too long after he arrived at Barcelona, he and Merry split, with "unreasonable behaviour" reportedly cited as the grounds.

One possible explanation for the reason would be Henry's links to makeup artist Sadie Hewlett, which blew up in the British tabloids and caused Henry to gain notoriety and lose his wife and an £8 million settlement. 

Oliver Kahn

Call it "fowl play": The Bayern Munich icon drew the ire of fans and the German tabloids when he left his very pregnant wife to court 21-year-old Verena Kerth, who the press derisively called a "pierced party chicken."

Nevertheless, Kahn and his wife stayed married through 2010; he's now with neither her nor the pierced party chicken.

He and girlfriend Svenja welcomed a son, Julian, in February of this year. 

Tommy Docherty

Scottish footballing icon Tommy Docherty, best known for his managerial stints at Chelsea and Manchester United, married Agnes in 1949, and the two had four kids together. 

Twenty-seven years later, it was revealed in the press that Docherty was having an affair with Mary Brown, the wife of a Manchester United physiotherapist. The revelation ended his marriage and his career at Old Trafford, and Agnes never fully recovered from the split.

Five years' after Agnes' death, their son Tom published her diary entries as a memoir. Docherty would go on to marry Mary Brown. 

Franz Beckenbauer

Yep, even Der Kaiser isn't safe from finding a spot on this list. Although the German icon may be one of the best defenders to ever play the game, he wasn't particularly adept at defending his relationships from falling apart. 

As a teen, Beckenbauer was barred from the West German youth squad after it was revealed he had gotten his longtime girlfriend pregnant but wouldn't marry her. 

Later on in his career, well into his marriage to his second wife, Beckenbauer got a very belated Christmas gift: he admitted to his wife that he had gotten another woman pregnant at the Bayern Munich Christmas party. Not exactly what one would expect from a secret Santa. He went on to marry Heidi Burmester, his mistress. 

Royston Drenthe

The Everton holding midfielder and aspiring rapper's life resembled a chapter of R. Kelly's Trapped in the Closet when it was revealed he was canoodling with Playboy model Malena Gracia while his wife was pregnant with their second child. 

Perhaps best summing up Drenthe's philosophy on fidelity is this little incident: When asked how often he had sex, he responded, "With my wife, you mean?" Wow, dude.

Michael Ballack

It seemed like the kind of fairytale athlete-WAG relationship complete with the fairytale athlete-WAG wedding in the foothills of the Bavarian Alps. Former Germany captain Michael Ballack wed his sweetheart, Simone Lambe, in 2008, accompanied by their three beautiful kids. 

But last year, Ballack reportedly found himself in an, erm, John Terry-esque situation. In 2010, Ballack's former Germany teammate, Christian Lell, accused Ballack of impregnating his girlfriend, Daniella Aumann. Lell has stayed with his girlfriend and Ballack with Lambe, but the story hasn't done any favors for Ballack's reputation or team unity among Die Mannschaft. 

Carlos Flores Murillo

What do a Peruvian football star and the late Anna Nicole Smith have in common? They've both claimed to have had encountered ghosts. 

Although Anna Nicole's ghost-sex claim was likely out of pure madness, Kukin's was more of a cover-up. The International Gas Deportes player was running through the streets of Huamanga in the buff after some women of the night he had gone to see had robbed him. Not wanting to break up his marriage, he blamed it on the supernatural. 

As Kukin explained the incident:

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"I didn't want my wife to be suspicious about ladies so I just told her it was a ghost. She failed to believe me."

"

Franck Ribéry

French international and Bayern Munich star Franck Ribéry seems on paper like a devoted husband and father: he was so committed to his wife Wahiba that he converted to Islam before marrying her, and the two have two children together. 

Then in 2010, a supposed "birthday present" for Ribéry ended up being more trouble than worth. Ribéry, along with French national teammates Karim Benzema and Sidney Govou, was charged with having sex with prostitute Zahia Dehar before she turned 18. If convicted, Ribéry would face a £40,000 fine and up to three years in prison, but a verdict seems to have not been reached and he can still be seen at the Allianz Arena. 

Ashley Cole

Much like his Chelsea and England defensive teammate John Terry, Ashley Cole was cast as the ultimate villain by the British tabloids after being implicated in a series of extramarital affairs.

At first, the Chelsea star and his girl-group alumna WAG seemed the heirs apparent to the Posh and Becks football power couple throne. But then, the first allegations of infidelity came in 2008, from models Coralie Robinson and Brooke Healy and hairdresser Aimee Walton, leading to a rocky relationship and Cole suing the Mirror newspaper group for a breach of privacy. Nevertheless, they tried to keep it going. 

When new allegations emerged in 2010, the couple split in December, and not soon after, Ashley Cole was linked to American model Kayla Collins. And at the end of that year, he was voted the 'Most Hated Man in Britain' in a poll of 3,000 UK women—John Terry finished second.

Garrincha

Mané Garrincha was an absolute legend on the pitch, a man who helped bring the Selecão to great glories alongside Pelé, a graceful figure with the ball and a passionate player. He also had a penchant for booze, birds and excess to rival the late, great George Best's (and sadly, as with Best, it would cost him his life all too young). 

He married his childhood sweetheart, and she gave him eight children before he left her in 1965. He would go on to have an extramarital affair and later marry samba singer Elza Soares, for which both parties were vilified in the Brazilian press.

Throw in a few more affairs, including one with showgirl Angelita Martinez and fathering at least 14 children through marriages and affairs alike (although some sources speculate the number is somewhere in the thirties), and you have the makings of a larger-than-life sporting playboy.