Vinnie Jones, the most violent soccer player
In the Wimbledon, Jones was the best known of a team nicknamed as ‘Crazy gang’ for its hardness and its macarrismo. “In this club, the only hooligans are the players,” the president said. With his style, the ‘Crazy gang’ won the 1988 FA Cup at Liverpool. This cup, the only title of his career, was the culmination of an unstoppable career since his entry into professional football in 77/78. Jones withdrew Gary Stevens, insulted Gullit and even intimidated Eric Cantona, who had no courage to recriminate him a criminal entry in a match between Wimbledon and United. The English football ecosystem helped by being permissive with these actions. By that entrance to the French forward, Jones only saw a yellow one although in his career he was expelled up to 12 times, less than anyone would expect today to see one of the videos that compile his best worst actions circulating on the Internet.Poster in English of the movie Snatch in which several actors of the cast appear. Vinnie Jones never wanted to please anyone with his football. Neither his teammates, much less his rivals. Watford’s was literally the worst nightmare of his opponents. In his list of victims are several of the football stars of the 80: Ruud Gullit, Gascoigne, Cantona … ‘Magnicides’ but also butcher shops of less name. Vinnie, a working-class family but a conservative voter, never made a difference by class: he had sticks for everyone.From Watford, a young Vinnie insisted until he reached professional football. He tried in amateur categories and even in Sweden until he reached Wimbledon where he rose to fame for its excessive hardness. There, Gazza was his first victim. The one that launched him to fame.Paul Gascoigne began to emerge in Newcastle and Vinnie had the mission of stopping the star. “He approached me and said: ‘My name is Vinnie Jones, I’m a gypsy, I earn a lot of money. I’m going to rip your ear with your teeth and I’m going to spit it out on the grass. You’re alone, fat!” Gazza who knocked down that day on numerous occasions, spit on him and grabbed him violently leaving a photo that is part of the history of English football. That same meeting, Paul acknowledged later, Vinnie told him that he would go to a corner and wait for him there. Gazza, frightened, did it. “He is the only player I have come to fear,” he said. After football, he made the leap to the cinema where he has already appeared in a hundred movies. His debut was in ‘Lock, Stock and Two smocking barrels’ and Guy Ritchie must have been delighted with him and also added him in the casting of one of his best works, ‘Snatch, pigs and diamonds’. There, Vinnie Jones played Tony ‘Bullet teeth’ and shared cast with recognized stars like Benicio Del Toro, Brad Pitt or Jason Statham. “I already played at Wembley and won the FA Cup. Now, the rest is the Oscar,” he acknowledged in an interview for Líbero magazine. Vinnie, habitual of the hard type papers, wants to get the statuette as he did with the FA Cup, being (almost) himself.
DAILY AS