With Inter 'bad boy' Mauro Icardi back in the headlines once again, we rank the most controversial characters that the game has ever seen. Have we left anyone out, though?
Let us know in the comment box below.



10. MARIO BALOTELLI | One of the saddest things in life is wasted talent, so it is genuinely heartening to see signs that the gifted but troubled Italian striker is getting his career back on track at Nice. Indeed, for many years, Balotelli was more famous for incidents off the field:
car crashes; driving into a women's prison to "have a look around"; throwing darts at a youth team player; and setting off fireworks inside his own home, to name but a few!



9. ERIC CANTONA | The Frenchman was the key component in Manchester United ending their title drought and subsequent emergence as a major force in world football but he is probably best remembered for his kung-fu kick on Crystal Palace fan Matthew Simmons in 1995. Cantona was banned from all football for eight months and forced to serve 120 hours of community service after pleading guilty to common assault - even if he felt that he had been tried by the media: "When the seagulls follow the trawler, it's because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea."



8. EL HADJI DIOUF | For some, spitting is the lowest offence in football. If so, then Diouf is the lowest of the low, as the Senegalese striker has thrice been involved in spitting incidents, twice at Liverpool and once at Bolton.
He also provoked further outrage while at Blackburn when he verbally abused Jamie Mackie while the QPR striker was writhing in agony on the Ewood Park pitch with a broken leg.



7. JOHN TERRY | The Chelsea captain may be one of the finest centre-halves England has ever produced but he is loathed even more than he is loved. At Stamford Bridge, he is a living legend - but this is in spite of the fact that he has been fined for mocking American tourists in the aftermath of 9/11, banned by the Football Association for racially abusing Anton Ferdinand and caused uproar by having an affair with the former girlfriend of ex-Blues team-mate Wayne Bridge.



6. PAOLO DI CANIO | The outspoken Italian forward achieved infamy in England for pushing over a referee, which resulted in an 11-match ban, but it was in his homeland where he generated most controversy. Indeed, Di Canio's use of the 'Roman salute' while playing for Lazio provoked uproar, as did the claim in his autobiography that the notorious fascist dictator Benito Mussolini was "deeply misunderstood".



5. LUIS SUAREZ | It is still staggering to think that the Uruguayan has been found guilty of biting an opponent on three separate occasions, with the most recent attack, on Giorgio Chiellini at the 2014 World Cup, earning him a four-month ban from the game. Remarkably, this wasn't even the most shameful moment of Suarez's career, as in 2011 the former Liverpool striker was suspended for eight games for racially abusing Manchester United's Patrice Evra.



4. RENE HIGUITA | Long before the term 'sweeper-keeper' entered the footballing parlance, 'El Loco' was effectively playing as a deep-lying defender for Colombia.

The man responsible for 'The Scorpion Kick' was just as unpredictable off the pitch, though, as aside from the cocaine use and disturbing plastic surgery he underwent in 2005, Higuita was also jailed for seven months in 1993 for profiting from his work as an intermediary for drug barons Pablo Escobar and Carlos Molina in a kidnapping case.



3. EDMUNDO | The Brazilian's nickname, 'The Animal', was most apt, as this was a player whose appetite for goals was as insatiable as his lust for life. Edmundo's wild, off-field antics are often remembered fondly, such as the allegations that he plied a chimpanzee with whiskey and beer at his son's first birthday, but it is often forgotten that the former Fiorentina forward also served time - albeit not much - after being found to have been over the limit when tested by police following a car accident that resulted in the deaths of his three passengers.



2. JOEY BARTON | Few other players divide opinions like the Liverpudlian, who is championed as a reformed character as some and dismissed as a loud-mouthed thug by others.

Whatever the truth, the facts are that Barton once stubbed out a lit cigar in the eye of a Manchester City youth team player, spent 77 days in prison for assaulting a man and a teenage boy and was later given a four-month suspended sentence for attacking one of his own team-mates, Ousmane Dabo.



1. DIEGO MARADONA | Arguably the greatest player of all time and undeniably the most controversial. From the 'Hand of God' goal against England to cocaine use to doping to allegations of tax evasion to befriending Fidel Castro to shooting journalists with an air rifle, Maradona has never been out of the headlines for long over the past four decades.