A potted history of Premier League footballers and driving bans as Yoro joins Beckham, Lloris… | OneFootball

Manchester United defender Leny Yoro has been banned from driving for six months after speeding in his Porsche at more than 70mph in a 30mph zone.

The 20-year-old French youth international pleaded guilty and was given a £666 fine. He can consider it something of a rite of passage as a young Premier League footballer – he isn’t the first to be banned from driving, and we dare say we won’t be the last.

We’ve put together a brief potted history of Premier League footballers getting banned for driving.

Darren Anderton

Kicking things off in the 1990s with a classic curtains hairstyle of the time.

Compared to some of his old England team-mates, Anderton always struck as fairly sensible. Far closer to James Milner than Paul Gascoigne on the party boy scale.

So it was a surprise to dig up an old Guardian report stating that Anderton was served a seven-day driving ban in the summer of 1997 after clocking up 102mph(!) on the M27.

Man Utd’s treble winners – Beckham, Yorke, Cole

David Beckham already had eight points on his license when he was found guilty of court of driving at 76mph on a 50mph A-road in Stockport, when he was at the peak of his powers back in 1999.

He was fined £800 and banned for eight months, joining his fellow Manchester United treble-winners Andy Cole and Dwight Yorke on the naughty step.

But Beckham did successfully appeal against the ban, and was handed back his license, after a judge upheld his claims that “duressive circumstances” – speeding away in his Ferrari Maranello to escape a chasing paparazzo.

“If I slowed down to 10mph every time I was followed I would never get anywhere,” Beckham claimed in a Stockport magistrates’ court.

He was unable to use the same defence in 2019, when he was banned for six months after being pictured by a member of the public holding a phone while driving. Damn photographers, again.

Rio Ferdinand

You know you’re onto something when there’s an entire 250-word subsection of a footballer’s Wikipedia page entitled ‘Driving bans’.

Ferdinand’s driving offences date back to 1997. He was breathalysed the morning after a night out, was found to be one point over the limit, and handed a one-year ban. As a result, Glenn Hoddle dropped him for a World Cup qualifier, his Three Lions debut delayed to later in that year.

The former Manchester United defender was later banned for speeding in 2002, 2003 and 2005 – and eventually a fourth time in August 2020.

Anton Ferdinand

Anton followed in his big brother’s footsteps, serving six-month driving bans in 2007 and 2012.

He exceeded the points limit the first time around, and five years later was collared by a police officer for using his phone at the wheel.

Jermaine Pennant

The most famous story involving Pennant and cars dates back to his brief stint at Real Zaragoza, where he claimed he forgot he owned a Porsche after racking up six months’ worth of fines by leaving it parked outside a train station.

But there was an altogether more serious matter the following year. Pennant was given a suspended three-month prison sentence, as well as a three-year driving ban, after crashing his Mercedes into a lamp post in Buckinghamshire.

He’d admitted drink driving, driving while disqualified and driving without insurance at Trafford Magistrates’ Court. Some tripple whammy, that.

Dietmar Hamann

Former Germany international Hamann had recently been released by Manchester City when he was stopped by police, shortly after midnight, back in July 2010.

He was found guilty of driving under the influence and handed a 16-month driving ban alongside a £2,000 fine.

That followed an incident three years prior, when he was given a six-month ban after failing to report crashing his Porsche into a fence in Cheshire.

Hugo Lloris

One of the more memorable episodes from a senior international you wouldn’t have thought to be the type, Lloris received a £50,000 fine and a 20-month driving ban back in 2018.

A month after lifting the World Cup, he was handcuffed and spent a night in a police station.

It was reported from the court proceedings that he’d been “showered with drinks” on a night out. He was stopped by police after his car was seen veering, and he was found to be two times over the legal limit, with vomit in the car.

“In life, you have you have une epreuve [a test or trial] in front of you,” reflected Lloris.

“New challenges and new objectives.”

Chelsea’s current squad

Manchester United’s 1998-99 treble-winning squad was not the last that had multiple players with driving bans.

Chelsea’s current squad has several offenders.

Mykhailo Mudryk (12 months), Enzo Fernandez (six months), and Wesley Fofana (two years) have all been served bans for various offences.