Top 10 Players With The Highest Number Of Red Cards In Football History

Football is on of the games in the world of sport that never stops to amaze the fans with all the entertainment and passion involved in it. Indeed, it is incredible how football fans around the globe religiously follow the game.

This means that it is not just the fans that are insanely passionate about the game. The sport passion and adrenaline flow crazily among the footballers on the pitch too.

The same passion involved in the game especially on the pitch, has it that footballers have had a reputation for losing control when the game is on.

Football is a must win game, and with all the intensity involved in the it, it so sometimes happens that players lose control over themselves. Sometimes, one could easily said that it is in the form of physical confrontation which eventually leads to their sending off. Some football players have been known to go into some rough tackles and pose a risk to opposing players.

The former Manchester united player Roy Keane has been tipped as one of the most passionate footballers on the pitch during his time but at the same time, his tackles were quite intense and risky. But unfortunately, the former Irish international is not on this list of footballers being sent off.

This is to say that sometimes, even the calmest players on the pitch loses their head in the cauldron of passion that is a football game and get into a diabolical challenge that leaves the referee with no option but to send the him off.

Again, maybe sometimes two serious fouls by a player lead to two consecutive yellow cards and the player is shown the dreaded red, at other times, the seriousness of the action mandates a straight red according to the laws of the game.

On that note, we take a look at the players who have been sent off the most number of times in Europe’s top five leagues in the 21st century. Or maybe one could also say that some of the actions that lead to a straight red in a football game include spitting on an opponent or another person, denying an obvious goal-scoring opportunity unfairly and excessive verbal abuse.

In the red card section of football, history of the game is littered with famous red cards such as David Beckham losing his head and getting sent off in the World Cup for kicking out, or Roy Keane taking out Alfe-Inge Haland as part of an ongoing feud that Keane knew would end in red but didn’t care.

In a general term, the showing of a red card remains a rare occurrence in football and it is always considered a game-changing moment. As for the rest of the ten players on the pitch who follow, though, getting a red card wasn’t that rare an event. Behold, the mist tended to descend a little too frequently one would assume.

Vinnie Jones is a British and most talented man on this list, who had a pretty distinguished football career and represented Wimbledon, Leeds, Sheffield United, Chelsea, Queens Park Rangers and also the Wales national team.

Just like most footballers, Vinnie Jones’ football career lasted for 15 years. The former English international then went on to capitalise on his hard-man image on the football field to become an actor in iconic films such as Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. As a matter of fact, Jones was also good at one more thing, which is getting red cards. Indeed, Jones, was the ‘hard man’ defensive midfielder got sent off 12 times during his career.

Mauricio Pochettino is one of the most respected names on this list, this is because he won two Copa del Reys during his playing career with Espanyol. Looking at Pochettino as a football player, he also played in France while representing his nation Argentina in the 2002 Fifa World Cup. From the presented facts, one could say a good career on the pitch become an even more successful one off it as Pochettino rose to prominence as one of the most astute modern managers of the game. The Argentine was most recently in charge of a revitalised Tottenham Hotspur team whom he took to the 2018-19 Champions League final.

Mauricio Pochettino who was ones a judo fighter, possibly took that fighting instinct he acquired from learning martial arts into the game of football, becoming a tough-tackling centre-back who got 13 red cards during his career.

Felipe Melo has had a pretty illustrious football career, but it is safe to say, he isn’t the most ‘mellow’ footballer you will find. Melo, had a record which he captains Palmeiras and has had spells in Europe with Fiorentina, Juventus, Inter Milan and Galatasaray, among others.The South American defensive midfielder also played for Brazil in the 2010 World Cup in which the Selecao were knocked out in the quarter-finals. Away from that, he won the 2009 Confederations Cup with them.

But despite the tremendous record, the defensive midfielder has collected 14 red cards till now. One can feel he might add to it and move up this inglorious list if he keeps on playing for a few more seasons.

Still on the list, we also have another active defensive midfielder Yannick Cahuzac. He has had a far less illustrious career than Melo.

With RC Lens having been promoted back to Ligue 1, he is back in the French top flight. Nevertheless, Cahuzac once set a record for getting 3 red cards in 4 games and has a total of 17 till now.

Alfaro is one of the players that had a very long career in the La Liga with 164 of his appearances coming for Sevilla. According to statistics, he won the UEFA Cup towards the end of his time there, while early on in his career, he was a rarely-used squad player in the Barcelona team which won the La Liga in 92-93.

But he was an aggressive midfielder picked up 18 reds during his long career to come in at 6th on this list.

The former Uruguayan international who also played for Juventus is a career accomplished footballer.

He also had a distinguished career with his country side, but he picked up 21 red cards, perhaps due to his no-nonsense style which sometimes crossed all limits.

The versatile defender is one of the players who can play both in the centre as well as a fullback, currently plies his trade with Racing Santander.

Indeed Alexis Ruano Delgado has been a La Liga journeyman, playing 321 matches over 15 seasons. But he is another serial red-card collector, who has so far gotten a total of 22.

Cyril Rool is one of the most dangerous player to ever exist in the world of football.

In addition to picking up a whopping 25 red cards during his career, Cyril Rool also got an (un)healthy 187 yellow cards.

Unarguably, the Spanish international has seen everything that the beautiful game has to offer. But despite being one of the best. defenders in the history of Real Madrid, for whom he has won everything including an astounding four Champions Leagues, Ramos’ game is not always considered beautiful

Ramos has been the pillar at Real Madrid’s back line who has got some crucial goals for the club as well, Ramos can be a great footballer one second and an ugly one the next. With this, one could easily said that he is the biggest name on this list and gets the so-called silver medal with 26 sending-offs.

Gerardo is one of the titanic defensive midfielder also had one of the most apt nicknames in the history of the game, ‘the beast’. He actually had a pretty decent football career, winning the Copa America with Colombia in 2001, playing in defense.

But the Argentine will always live with the ignominy of being the professional footballer with the most red cards in the history of the game. A certain time in Bogota derby, Bedoya was suspended for 15 matches after elbowing and kicking an opponent on the head. And that incident was his 41st Red card in his career. But as a beast, he did not learn his lesson even at that late stage of his career, adding five more to reach the top of this pyramid of shame.

The above presented list comprised of 10 players in the history of football that has a record of long stamp of Red Card added to their football career.