Burglars treat players’ pads as fair game
MANY footballers have been targeted by raiders in recent years.
Last month, the home of Liverpool forward Sadio Mane was broken into while he was on Champions League duty.
Raiders swooped while the Senegal international was away at Anfield to play a tie against Bayern Munich.
Burglars struck at the £6million home of Wayne Rooney in August 2016 while the ex-Manchester United striker played a testimonial match.
Former Arsenal striker Ian Wright had to fly home from the 2014 World Cup, where he was working as a pundit, after thieves got into his London home.
Former Rangers winger Peter Lovenkrands was robbed of a £30,000 diamond-encrusted watch by two men outside his home in Solihull, near Birmingham, in 2013.
In 2011, thieves broke into Burnley forward Peter Crouch’s £4.5million Cheshire mansion and stole Christmas presents and jewellery.
Five years earlier, Crouch’s previous property in Cheshire was ransacked. The crooks swiped a £200,000 haul, including an Aston Martin car, football memorabilia, champagne and jewellery.
Ex-Chelsea defender Ashley Cole had his bachelor pad in Surrey broken into in 2010 while he was away with the England squad.
Former Scotland and Manchester United midfielder Darren Fletcher’s home near Manchester was targeted while his club side played in Italy in February 2009.
A gang threatened a woman at the house before raiding rooms and snatching property.
Housebreakers swooped on former England and Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard in 2008 while he was asleep.
The burglars snatched keys to Lampard’s Mercedes 4x4 and Aston Martin.
Former Celtic and Scotland manager Gordon Strachan had his house in Bothwell, Lanarkshire, raided in 2008 while he slept.
The thief made off with thousands of pounds worth of football memorabilia and gadgets but was later caught and jailed.
In a 2007 raid, Rangers manager Steven Gerrard’s wife Alex Curran was confronted by four masked men at their house in Merseyside.
The gang pounced while Gerrard was playing for Liverpool in a Champions League game in Marseille.
The thugs said they would “take her kids” if she didn’t hand over jewellery and the contents of a safe.
But burglars haven’t always got the better of footballers.
In 2003, a thief needed two days of hospital treatment after being captured by former Rangers and Everton striker Duncan Ferguson while breaking into his Merseyside home. Two years earlier, a pair of men were disturbed by Ferguson as they broke into his then home in Lancashire.
One escaped but the second man was restrained by 6ft 4in Ferguson until police arrived.