Saturday, May 17, 2025

Smoking players yesterday and today. An endless list

Last update March 13, 2020 by Javier Argudo

The snuff is harmful to our health is something we all have more or less clear of a time now. But nevertheless, If you're a professional athlete, still less desirable because smoking harms your performance. With this in mind, more surprising amount of Smoking players there have been and there are still today.

The list of players who smoke or they have smoked when they were professionals is so long that we would need several items to name them all. The most surprising is not the fact that a certain player smokes in their privacy but there was a time when the great stars of the ball snuff announced. Raymond Kopa, Alfredo Di Stéfano, Johan Cruyff, Garrincha…are some of the examples of what we are talking about.

smoker footballer
di Stéfano, the star of the moment, He starred in numerous advertisements snuff (MENzig)

For Johan is one of the most striking and is the first name that comes to mind when we talk about Smoking players. It is said that the very Rinus Michels He hits a good slap to the Dutch crack to catch him with a cigarette in his mouth 14 years. Whether true or not, What is clear is that, which was one of the best footballers of all time, It was a heavy smoker.

Lollipops Cruyff

Was famous advertising campaign against smoking that good Cruyff starred there for 1991. The technician then that of the FC Barcelona She changed by cigarette lollipops and he went on to lead the anti snuff movement that has survived to this day.

footballers smoking
Johan Cruyff changed cigarettes for lollipops (Tera Sports)

But, as we said at the beginning of the article, There are many players who have been 'caught' smoking. Some of them not much is hidden and cared rather little is made public their habit. Robert Prosinecki It was the smoking quietly in the locker room at halftime of a game. Before him there were others like Jackie Charlton (captain of the Leeds United), who was smoking a cigarette in the training if necessary.

footballer smoking
In the 60 It was very common to see players smoking. As we have shown Jackie Charlton in the training of the Leeds United (Planet Football)

Over time the list of players who smoke has grown. Some were caught 'red-handed', case of Mezut Özil, Savo Milosevic or self Zinedine Zidane (the latter before the semifinal of the World 2006). Others have publicly acknowledged unashamedly as in the case of Jérémy Mathieu, Fabio Coentrao, Mario Balotelli O Radja Nainggolan.

It is also striking that some of the best teams in history will feature several smokers on staff. The Real Madrid of 'The Galactics' (addition to the already mentioned Zidane) he had Roberto Carlos Y Ronaldo Nazario. In the mythical Milan de Sacchi we met with Frank Rijkaard Y Carlo Ancelotti among others.

As we can see, The list contains names of very great stars of football. Who knows where it might have come if they had all they care a little more.

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