Originally published by Ace Magazine, Liverpool online June 2014.

Every World Cup needs a villain, in the same way that hundreds of Pantomimes up and down the country require a Captain Hook, a wicked witch or rampaging giant or a Government finds it essential to for its people to fear another country somewhere in the world, so the football World Cup necessitates that a player must be the man that the negativity surrounds itself around. From Antonio Ubaldo Rattín  in 1966, Harold Shumaker and his rather disgraceful pole axing attempt on Patrick Battiston, Diego Maradona and the scandal that surrounded 1994 and for England fans his flagrant handball in Mexico in 1986, Zinedine Zidane and his over the top reaction and even England’s own David Beckham in 1998 against Argentina, the fan always loves a villain.