Everybody loves a mum, especially their own. The next best thing though – and we think you’ll agree – is the assertive mother of a professional footballer. With reports breaking today that Mama Messi attacked one of young Lionel’s ex-girlfriends with a frying pan, Football Burp thought it would be a jolly opportune moment to cobble together a list of our favourite footballers’ mums. Who made the Top 6? Read on, McAnuff…
1.Mother Messi
Macarena Lemos, a 20-year-old model from Rosario and a former flame of The World’s Best Footballer, claims that the Barcelona and Argentina forward’s mother came at her with a frying pan and a barrage of abuse. Why? “She seems to think I said something to a magazine, but I never did. They are confused.” Click here to read more about this.
2. Mother Onuoha
While negotiating a new contract for her son Nedum, Dr Anthonia Onuoha sent an email to Manchester City’s CEO Garry Cook and football administrator (whatever that entails) Brian Marwood explaining that, although she was “ravaged with cancer”, it would not prevent her from representing her son. She then received an email from City addressed “Brian”, which read: “Ravaged with it!!……..I don’t know how you sleep at night. You used to be such a nice man when I worked with you at Nike. G”. Oops. The ensuing furore ultimately led to Cook’s resignation, before which he had tried to blame the unpleasantness on some manner of prankster. Can’t blame a guy for trying, eh?
3. Mother Konchesky
It’s fair to say that current Leicester City left-back Paul Konchesky’s spell at Liverpool last year was not quite an unqualified success – but, nevertheless, his mother Carol saw fit to admonish those supporters who had been criticising the player’s performances. After the Reds lost 2-0 at Stoke City, she updated her Facebook status to “the Liverpool scum don’t know class when it hits them in the face”, before going on to variously make references to Liverpool being “s**t”, their fans “living in the past” and that the family wouldn’t be moving up north to live closer to Paul as “we don’t like the way they talk”. Naturally, she Kopped the wrath of the Anfield faithful and her Facebook profile was promptly removed.
4. Mother Reyes
When a 20-year-old Jose Antonio Reyes left boyhood club Sevilla for Arsenal in 2004, he became so homesick that he brought over his mum Mariana to live with him in his Cockfosters mansion, where she would cook Andalucian meals, watch Spanish satellite channels and crank the heating up to 80 degrees in order to create what the player referred to as “a little corner of Spain”. However, this led to him being ditched by his girlfriend at the time Remedios Rivas – you can get to know her a little better here, although bear in mind it is NOT safe for work – who became fed up of Jose’s mummy’s boy tendencies. She said: “He fears his mother’s reactions. He fears to tell her that he wants to live his life and become independent. His mother controls his life and controls all his money. He does not even know how much he has in the bank. Reyes has no personality. I do not know if he will find a woman soon but I think any woman with him would face the same problem. His mother will always be in the middle.” Ouch.
5. Mother Riise
Berit Riise doubled up as her son John Arne’s agent, overseeing his 2001 move to Liverpool, funnily enough snubbing his current club Fulham in the process. However, perhaps after being teased mercilessly about it, he ‘fired’ her shortly afterwards, explaining: “I prefer her in the role as mum only, not as agent-mum. The reason for this is that I want to separate work and family.” Mummy Riise said at the time: “John Arne has felt that it’s been a burden for him that his mother is his agent. He doesn’t fancy the ‘cry baby’ label. It’s a natural process that he wants to separate career and family. It’s nothing more dramatic than your kids wanting to move from home when they grow up.”
6. Mother Terry
Does shoplifting £800’s worth of clothes and dog food qualify as being assertive? There’s got to be an argument for it.