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A number of former football stars have thrown their support behind controversial Chelsea striker Diego Costa.
Costa, 26, will today find out if he is able to play against Manchester City on Saturday evening, after the Football Association charged him with stamping on Emre Can in the 1-0 Capital One Cup semi-final win over Liverpool on Tuesday.
Writing in his column for The Independent , Manchester United legend Paul Scholes said he "saw it differently" to most.
Show all 7 1 /7Football's dirtiest players - the contenders Football's dirtiest players - the contenders Diego Costa In addition to his two stamps against Liverpool, the Chelsea striker picked up 10 bookings in all competitions last season. For a defender that might not be a terrible record but for a striker who doesn't strictly need to make many tackles, it's shocking. The chants of 'Diego, Diego' from Chelsea fans just seem to spur him on.
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Football's dirtiest players - the contenders Pepe The Real Madrid man has built a career on being a no-nonsense defender. When he appeared to stamp on the hand of Lionel Messi during El Classico in 2012 he took it a bit far. He didn't do his side any favours in the 2010/11 Champions League semi-final either when he managed to get sent off during their defeat to great rivals Barcelona.
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Football's dirtiest players - the contenders Sergio Ramos Real Madrid have not one but two contenders for dirtiest player in the land. Ramos is a great talent, no doubt about it. But he's also an absolute liability. During the course of his career he's seen a stunning 19 red cards (although he didn't get sent off at all last season). To put that in context, that's more than Roy Keane (7) and Patrick Vieira (8) saw in the Premier League combined.
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Football's dirtiest players - the contenders Luis Suarez The Barcelona forward picks up bookings and red cards, but he also bites opponents (as Branislav Ivanovic, Giorgio Chiellini and Otman Bakkal can testify) and flips the bird at supporters that give him stick. A real contender.
Football's dirtiest players - the contenders Sergio Busquets However, Suarez might not even be the baddest man at the Nou Camp. Busquets has been a central player in Barcelona's brilliant team over recent years but whilst the rest are playing tiki-taka, the midfielder can usually be found kicking opponents in the shin. He once stood on the head of Pepe, regularly dives and was accused of calling Marcelo a "monkey".
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Football's dirtiest players - the contenders Philippe Mexes If Mexes already had a reputation as a bad boy on the pitch he confirmed it just this weekend when he grabbed Lazio captain Stefano Mauri by the throat, an incident that earned him a four-match ban.
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Football's dirtiest players - the contenders Joey Barton Whilst the QPR midfielder parades as a reformed character more interested in philosophy than fighting, there remains a sense that trouble is never far from Barton. Away from the pitch he has stubbed a cigar into the eye of a young team-mate and been sent to prison for assault and affray for an incident in Liverpool city centre. Meanwhile he's been banned numerous times for on-field offences and most notably for 12 games for a training ground incident involving Ousmane Dabo in which he left his team-mate unconscious.
"My view of it was that Costa gets kicked a lot and actually his patience is to be admired in many, if not all, situations."
Gary Lineker, who has extended his contract at Match of the Day until 2019 , said: "Only Diego Costa knows if his stamp was intentional, he certainly wasn't looking in that direction, therefore it's difficult to ban him."
Sky Sports presenters Gary Neville and Thierry Henry also Tweeted their opinions on Costa.
Costa was later found guilty and banned for three matches - meaning he will miss the crucial clash with Manchester City.
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