7 of football’s most bizarre curses: Mick Jagger, Aaron Ramsey, fake gold medals…
Curses in football aren’t talked about often enough. Some of the game’s biggest players and clubs have been cursed over the years, or simply live very superstitiously in fear of the unknown.
It’s recently been revealed that plans to renovate Serie C outfit Taranto’s Stadio Erasmo Iacovone will mean that the club has to play their home games elsewhere for a couple of years. The proposed elsewhere is 280 miles from Taranto. That’s an awfully long way to travel for a home supporter, and fans are not happy.
One 84-year-old fan threatened to curse decision-makers from beyond the grave and it got us thinking about football’s most famous curses. We’ve pulled together a truly wild list below.
Football is more than a sport in Italy, it’s a religion.
Taranto could be moved 280 miles away from their home stadium for the next two years…
This heartfelt message from 84 year old lifelong fan, Carmine, on that decision will give you goosebumps 💔
“It’s 75 years I’ve been… pic.twitter.com/7zOjmGp65D
— Italian Football TV (@IFTVofficial) February 16, 2024
The Death Knell of Aaron Ramsey
When Aaron Ramsey scores, famous people die. Is this a coincidence? Would high-profile celebrities be kicking the bucket regardless of Aaron Ramsey kicking a ball into a net? Possibly. Here’s a much-shortened list of famous deaths non-directly attributed to a Ramsey goal:
Steve Jobs, Osama bin Laden, Robin Williams, Roger Moore, David Bowie, Mac Miller, Whitney Houston, Olivia Newton-John, Stephen Hawking, Alan Rickman, Chester Bennington… That list goes on and on and on.
Please, managers of the Championship, just mark Aaron Ramsey out of the game.
The Romani Curse of Birmingham City
Many Blues fans believe their team played under a curse for 100 years, from 1906 to 2006, when they moved to St. Andrew’s stadium. Romani people were forced out of the area in order to build the new stadium and, supposedly, put a hex on the place before they were forcibly moved. And who can blame them?
Manager Ron Saunders tried to lift the curse by painting the bottom of the players’ boots red and place crucifixes on floodlights. Barry Fry tried p*ssing in every corner of the pitch. It didn’t work. Birmingham won their first major trophy in 2011, five years after the 100 years was up.
Bruce Grobbelaar’s Divine P*ss
Old wobbly legs reckons Liverpool went on a long league title drought when a witch doctor cursed them during Grobbelaar’s testimonial in 1992. Apparently, after a charity match in May 2014, Bruce p*ssed on all four goalposts at Anfield, and this is why the Reds were able to win the title in 2019-20. An interesting take.
Lose Like Jagger
If Mick Jagger attends a game and supports your time. You’re losing. It’s just a thing. 
READ: 5 celebrity football fans that were truly cursed: Kim K, Drake, Jagger…
The Fake Gold of South Korea
South Korea won the first two iterations of the Asia Cup in 1956 and 1960 respectively. The 1960 tournament was held on home soil in South Korea, but when the players received their gold medals, it was discovered that the medals were fakes. Turns out a dodgy official had taken the money set aside for the real gold medals. The Taegeuk Warriors haven’t won an Asia Cup since.
The KFA have been trying to give real gold medals to the surviving players and their families in order to lift the hex, but they haven’t got round to everyone yet. Spoiler alert to anyone catching up on this year’s Asia Cup: South Korea did not win.
The Curse of Bela Gutmann
The legendary Hungarian manager of Benfica is said to have asked for a pay rise after winning to European Cups for the Lisbon side, only to be told to, essentially, stick it up his arse and having his contract terminated by the club.
It’s subsequently been denied by Eusebio (a Benfica player at the time) and attributed to a mistranslation of an interview, but Gutmann is said to have cursed Benfica, saying they wouldn’t win another European title for a hundred years. So far, eight finals — zero wins. We’re just saying.
You don’t mess around with curses in this game.
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