OH DIEGO, YOU PANTO VILLAIN

You will remember David Beckham's "sad kick" from the ground, at Diego Simeone at the 1998 World Cup. Needless to say the referee made a name for himself by dismissing our David and on this day, Simeone admitted to being the "pantomime villain" by telling the world that he had conned the referee into brandishing the red card. "Let us say that the referee fell into the trap. Obviously I was being clever. By letting myself fall, I got the referee to pull out the red immediately!" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6rzLecQF6s

Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1987–1990	Vélez Sársfield	76	(14)
1990–1992	Pisa	56	(6)
1992–1994	Sevilla	64	(12)
1994–1997	Atlético Madrid	98	(21)
1997–1999	Inter Milan	57	(11)
1999–2003	Lazio	90	(15)
2003–2005	Atlético Madrid	36	(2)
2005–2006	Racing Club	38	(3)
Total		515	(84)
International career
1989	Argentina U20	4	(1)
1996	Argentina U23	6	(1)
1988–2002	Argentina	108[4]	(11)
Managerial career
2006	Racing Club
2006–2007	Estudiantes
2007–2008	River Plate
2009–2010	San Lorenzo
2011	Catania
2011	Racing Club
2011–	Atlético Madrid

Sports' Illustrated was critical of the Argentinian's theatrics in that incident, stating Simeone first delivered a "heavy-handed challenge" on Beckham and then "fell like a ton of bricks" when Beckham retaliated. In the following match, against the Netherlands, Simeone was injured by a tackle from Arthur Numan during his team's defeat. In the 2002 World Cup, his last, Argentina was eliminated in the group stage, which included a 1–0 loss to England in which Beckham converted a penalty. Simeone said he was "embarrassed" at having surpassed Maradona as Argentina's most capped player, though Simeone has since been surpassed by Roberto Ayala,  Javier Macherano, Javier Zanetti and Lionel Messi, of course.