Convicted Footballers That Bounced Back

Ricky Miller’s recent troubles got me thinking about some quality football players that were convicted of crimes but bounced back stronger. Firstly, just in case, I must stress that Miller hasn’t been convicted of anything, but it is an interesting debate as to whether a player charged with a crime should be given a second chance (or third chance).

Here’s a short list of some players convicted of crimes.

Eric Cantona

The obvious inclusion on the list, Cantona was involved in perhaps one of the most controversial moments the Premier League has ever seen.  Cantona was sent off at Crystal Palace for a kick on Palace defender Richard Shaw, as he was walking towards the tunnel, he reacted to barracking from the crowd and launched a kung-fu kick at Matthew Simmons. Simmons had run down 11 rows of stairs to confront and shout abuse, allegedly including; “F**k off back to France, you French m**********r”. Cantona, not content with his kick, followed up with a series of punches. If I recall correctly, Paul Ince tried to calm things down by punching a dustman.

A lengthy ban from the game was inevitable, despite calls from some quarters for his deportation, he spent 9 months suspended from the game. As well as action from his club and the Football Association, Cantona also faced  a criminal charge of assault, which he admitted to. He was given a two-week prison sentence, overturned in the appeal court a week later. Instead he was sentenced to 120 hours of community service, which was spent coaching children at United’s training complex.

After his ban had expired Cantona returned to fire United to the first ever ‘double double’, scoring the winning goal in the 1996 FA Cup final. He went on to become one of the greatest foreign players to ever ply their trade in our top flight, simply unplayable on his day.

Interestingly, Matthew Simmons was convicted in 2011 of assaulting a man at his 13-year old sons football match. He harboured a grudge against Stuart Cooper for five years, allegedly stemming from Cooper dropping Simmons son from an under 8’s team after finding out he was the fan involved in the Cantona incident. Lovely.

Jermaine Pennant

Pennant had signed for Arsenal from Notts County as a teenager and had been tipped for stardom. Arsenal paid £2m for his services, but his move wasn’t a success and he joined Birmingham for £3m, after a loan spell. Whilst out on loan at St Andrews, he was sentenced to 90 days in prison after pleading guilty to charges of drink-driving and driving while disqualified. He had been arrested two months earlier after crashing his car into a lamppost in the early hours of the morning. Pennant had no insurance, failed a breathalyser test and was serving a 16-month driving ban at the time of the incident. Basically, he was caught fair and square. He became the first footballer to play in the top flight whilst electronically tagged.

The trouble didn’t stop him earning a £6.7m move to Liverpool in 2007, and later moves to Real Zaragoza and Stoke to name a few. In 2011 Pennant’s Porsche was found abandoned at a railway station in Zaragoza with five months’ worth of parking tickets. He was reported to have forgotten he owned the car! Whilst at Stoke, Pennant was arrested for drink driving, driving while disqualified and without insurance after being involved in a traffic collision. The following month, he was banned from driving for three years and given an eight-week jail sentence, suspended for a year, Despite this he later played for Wolves, Wigan and Bury. He’s still making a living from the game, most recently spotted at Billericay Town swimming in a pool of ten pound notes, apparently.

Gary Croft

Former Imps defender Croft (pictured top) made history by being the first player to play in a League match whilst electronically tagged. Whilst playing for Ipswich he served a month of a four-month sentence for driving while disqualified, and perverting the course of justice. He was tagged upon his release and named as a substitute for their Championship match against Swindon. He couldn’t play any evening games though, under the terms of his release, he had to obey a night-time curfew from 7pm until 7am.

Croft signed for City in the summer of 2007 at the same time as Jamie Hand and Steve Torpey. He had previously had a two-year spell at Grimsby which didn’t do him any favours at all, chastised not for his conviction but for his previous club. It wasn’t an inspired pre-season by any means, he left at the end of the season after just 20 appearances and two red cards.

Tom Pope

Here’s an interesting one, given the current climate. Tom Pope recently found himself nominated for the League Two Player of the Month alongside Neal Eardley, and rightly so. He’s been on great form for Port Vale, smashing five goals this month alone. However, in 2009 Pope, and two accomplices were charged with affray after an incident in Hanley.  He received 200 hours community service and a six-month suspended jail sentence. Pope’s defence team claimed that he was provoked when the victims verbally abused and assaulted his girlfriend.

Pope pleaded guilty after CCTV footage of the assault proved to be damning evidence. The video showed him and two other men lead the attack. The footage also showed Pope even stand on a car to aid his attack.

In 2001/12, he signed for Port Vale from Rotherham and scored 33 goals. He was voted as League Two Player of the Year the next season, helping the club to secure promotion. He was also voted Port Vale’s Player of the Year in 2013 and 2014. Not bad for showing a bit of faith after off the field antics.

Peter Storey

Okay, so there’s no redemption here, but whilst researching this article I stumbled across the story of Storey and had to include it. Storey was a ‘hatchet man’, a tough defender from the 60’s and 70’s. He had a fine career playing for both Arsenal and England at one point. After football, things took a turn for the worst.

He first found himself in trouble for helping local gangsters counterfeit money, he provided finance and stored equipment too. He was arrested, but decided the best option was to flee to Spain. Whilst on bail set up a brothel with three women to try to raise enough money to skip the country and avoid his trial for conspiracy to produce counterfeit money. That didn’t work out either, he was arrested and pleaded guilty to keeping a brothel, getting a £700 fine and a six-month suspended sentence.

In September 1980 the trial for conspiracy to produce counterfeit money ended and he was sentenced to three years imprisonment. In April 1982 he got a 12-month suspended sentence for stealing two cars he had on hire purchase whilst running his minicab firm. In 1990, he was jailed again, this time for 28 days after attempting to import pornographic videos from Europe.

Gavin Grant

There was no redemption for Gavin Grant either, at least not yet. Grant started his career at non-League Tooting & Mitcham, ending up at Millwall. After being released by Millwall he had a spell at Stevenage before catching the eye of a former England manager. Peter Taylor liked the look of him though and took him to Wycombe in 2008, then to Bradford in 2010 on a non-contract basis.

In 2005 Grant had been charged with the murder of Jahmall Moore. Moore died in a hail of bullets fired by three gunmen, one of whom was allegedly Grant. He was cleared of involvement and went on to have his minor football career. However, the long arm of the law was still searching for him, his spell in the professional game was only postponing his date with justice.

Six years prior to rocking up at Bradford, Grant had killed another man, shooting dead Leon Labastide on the Stonebridge Park Estate in Harlesden. He had been involved in a series of “tit-for-tat” shootings, this second murder had led to the shooting of Jahmall Moore. Gang trouble had flared after a burglary in which three women were terrorised and it was suspected that £20,000 in drug money was taken. He was convicted of murder and jailed. Grant is still in prison today.