Following the media feeding frenzy (here and here) surrounding Theirry Henry's apparent handball during France's World Cup qualifying win over Ireland Wednesday, it's time to take a look back in history to some memorable cheating, or at least embellishment, moments in soccer's storied history.
3. Christiano Ronaldo's dive against England...and others - Nonwithstanding his status as one of the most prolific and dangerous players with the ball at his feet or in front of goal, Ronaldo does have a propensity for going down quite easily near any hint of contact. Ronaldo, who can employ the dive in many ways to earn a set piece or a penalty, has used the technique frequently in club and national team matches. While I won't cite a specific example to indict Ronaldo here, the guy does his fair share of cheating.
2. Maradona's "Hand of God" - The gold standard of handballs, Maradona's highly controversial handball helped Argentina to a 2-1 win over England in the quarterfinals of the 1986 FIFA World Cup. Argentina would later go on to win the final. After his seething rant following Argentina sealing their bid to the World Cup finals in South Africa next summer, Maradona has surely immortalized himself as anything but a stand-up guy. His previous cocaine usage won't canonize him with soccer supporters, either.
1. Henry's handball - While Maradona's handball may have come at the highest level of competition for soccer, Henry's handball was in the qualification for that very same World Cup competition. However, the kicker here is that Henry handled the ball not once, but twice. Plus, the incident happened in extra time, with the match almost certainly going to penalties, barring a late (kegal) goal by either side. Additionally, play was stopped for 97 seconds to determine whether or not the ball had been handled. After a pow-wow between match officials, Henry's goal was given the go-ahead. In a match clearly dominated by the Irish, France escaped with the aggregate goal victory and the berth to the World Cup.
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