Carlo Ancelotti
Carlo Ancelotti (Doha Stadium Plus Qatar / Flickr.com)

At His Majesty’s Pleasure: Footballers That Have Served Time in Prison

Players / July 18, 2025

With the world at their feet and everything they could ever want, materialistically speaking, it’s always something of a shock when anyone involved in professional football finds themselves in trouble with the law. But from assaults and drink driving to involvement in kidnapping plots, a number of players have found themselves serving time in prison both in the UK and beyond.

Carlo Ancelotti was a supremely skilled player in his own right with AC Milan, amongst others, but it’s as a manager that he has truly made his name – and also got himself into a heap of bother. The Italian, now head coach of the Brazilian national team, has been sentenced to a year in jail by a Spanish court for tax evasion.

However, unique rules in Spain mean that sentences of under two years, for those with no previous convictions committing non-violent crimes, generally don’t have to be served in prison. Despite defrauding the Spanish tax office of nearly £1 million after failing to declare his earnings from image rights while Real Madrid manager, Ancelotti will effectively walk away scot-free – albeit while paying a fine of around £350,000.

Others in the beautiful game, however, have not been so lucky… proof positive that nobody, not even a professional footballer, is beyond the law.

Ronaldinho

During 2020, many of us were subject to a period of lockdown at home. The difference for Brazilian icon Ronaldinho is that his lockdown was court ordered over the alleged use of a fake passport. The former World Cup winner served one month in a Paraguayan jail, as well as four months of house arrest, after being caught using a forged passport to travel around.

Back in 2019, Ronaldinho had both his Brazilian and Spanish passports confiscated over allegations of unpaid taxes and outstanding legal cases in his homeland, where he was accused of building a property on protected land. Eventually, after the five-month term was served, he was allowed to leave Paraguay.

Dani Alves


One of the most decorated footballers of all time, Dani Alves won titles in three of Europe’s big five leagues – La Liga, Serie A and Ligue 1, has three Champions League winners’ medals, a UFEA Cup triumph and even an Olympic gold medal. Considered one of the best right backs of all time, Alves was still playing professionally in Mexico when he was arrested on accusations of rape and sexual assault.

An incident in a Barcelona nightclub in December 2022 ultimately saw the Brazilian found guilty of rape, with a sentence of four-and-a-half years metered out. However, Alves would serve little over a year after paying a $1 million (£740,000) bond agreement, which caused a furious response. In March 2025, the rape conviction against Alves was overturned by the Spanish courts due to a reported ‘lack of reliability’ in the accuser’s testimony.

Rene Higuita

Rene Higuita
Rene Higuita (Eugenio Prieto Soto / Flickr.com)

One of the pioneers of the sweeper-keeper role, Rene Higuita was known for his flair and risk taking during a career in which he represented Colombia 68 times. He even scored 40 goals. Higuita’s most famous moment in football came via his infamous scorpion kick; an iconic ‘you had to see it to believe it’ episode that played out at Wembley Stadium in 1995.

But a player nicknamed ‘El Loco’ is always likely to lead a colourful life off the field, and that was certainly the case for Higuita, who once acted as a fixer for Colombian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar.

The daughter of Escobar’s rival gangster, Carlos Molina, was taken hostage, with Higuita tasked with paying the ransom money. The goalkeeper was paid for his services, but it’s illegal to profit from a kidnapping – as you might expect – and so he was sentenced to seven months in prison in 1993. The jail time meant that he would ultimately miss out on representing Colombia at the World Cup in 1994.

Tony Adams


An Arsenal legend and considered to be one of the greatest English centre backs in history, Tony Adams was not without his demons. He would admit to being an alcoholic during his playing career, and in one episode in 1990 he drove his car while four times over the limit – crashing into a wall, it’s a miracle that Adams escaped largely unhurt.

The Arsenal man would serve fourth months in prison, but was freed after serving half of that term. He continued to drink, but eventually sought professional help in 1996 – something that Adams himself claims saved his life. If any good could come from such a situation, Adams set up his Sporting Chance rehabilitation clinic, which has since helped numerous professional athletes to combat addictive behaviour.

George Best


A brilliant, frustrating man, George Best was one of the most naturally gifted footballers ever to lace up a pair of boots. But like many before and after him, the Irishman was bedevilled by a taste for the demon drink, which in 1984 saw him cross the line with law enforcement.

One such episode saw him charged with a series of offences, including drink driving, assaulting a police officer and failing to answer bail. Best served three months in Ford Open Prison – however he never played for the prison’s football team, as has erroneously been reported.

Mickey Thomas

Mickey Thomas, right
Mickey Thomas, right (David Cackowski / Wikipedia.org)

An iconic Welsh winger and colourful character, Mickey Thomas’ imprisonment is one of the more bizarre occurrences of a professional footballer serving time. He became embroiled in a counterfeit cash scheme, laundering money by handing cash gifts to the trainees at his club at the time, Wrexham. Thomas was caught and sentenced to 18 months in prison.

He was later stabbed 15 times in the buttocks by masked assailants after being caught in a tryst with his ex-wife’s sister-in-law while in a car at the side of a country lane.