Outside of match-fixers and steroid-users, the next level of “hated athlete” would probably be floppers/divers. You know who we’re talking about—those guys who act like they’ve been hit by an invisible sniper’s bullet when an opponent touches them with the slightest of grazes (or in some exceptional cases, doesn’t touch them at all).

“Man down!”

Fairly or not (we’ll say fairly), soccer players have been well and truly slapped with the franchise tag when it comes to taking a dive. Just last week soccer player Rafa Casanova had an unfortunate incident during a Spanish fourth-division match. While he did get “injured” on the field, it wasn’t during competitive play, and the reaction afterwards is almost parody—check the video below for what happened.

While we sympathize that Casanova (off topic: great name, this guy would have a stack of endorsement opportunities if he was a high-profile athlete in the U.S.) might have received a legitimate blow to the head during the team’s celebration, was the stretcher really necessary? Is he really hurt? Does he just want an early rest? It’s truly baffling. One of the main issues holding soccer back from truly taking over the world (while it is the world’s most played sport, it’s had trouble finding a foothold in countries such as America and Australia) is the problem with players being perceived as soft. This clip will not help with that perception.

Not wanting to come across as Fox News (ie. biased, one-sided, etc), we’ll give you the other side of flopping as well. Ladies and gentlemen, take a look at some of the best flops the NBA has to offer!

Bookmark to: