The World Cup kicked off this week and we here at Metal Injection wanted to learn who the five most metal athletes in the World Cup are. We asked the biggest FIFA experts we knew, British metal act Empress AD to school us in the 5 most metal ball kickers…
Pepe – Portugal
Pepe has the potential to be the hard-man Metaller that you would see fronting an aggressive Death Metal band but he does have a tendency to dive, a lot. If you want to see why I think he'd be so good in a ridiculously aggressive band just search for 'Real Madrid Pepe crazy' on YouTube, you'll see why I chose him.
As far as centre-backs go though, he's up there, or was up there with the best of them and when he's not diving he's a force to be reckoned with.
– by: Ollie Loring, vocals / guitar
Carlos Puyol – Spain
Take one look at Carlos Puyol and you’ll immediately recognize how he has made his way onto this list. A burly, long shaggy haired central defender that plies his trade for Spain and Barcelona. If he wasn’t a footballer, I could only imagine him patrolling his own rural estate with an axe, cutting wood, fixing things and just generally basking in his own infinitely masculine behaviours. If that is not enough, it’s reported that Puyol listens to Napalm Death to psyche himself up before a match…..no wonder that very few get past him. Puyol won the World Cup in 2010 with Spain and was included in the FIFA world cup all-star team.
– by Edd Unwin, drums
Andy Carroll – England
My second choice is Andy Carroll. Yes, admittedly, Andy has not yet played in a World Cup yet and it’s also widely reported that he listens to RnB music, but I feel that Andy is currently lost within the surroundings of modern day football where bad music is unfortunately forced onto you by default. Maybe this could change….Andy Carroll is a 6 ft 4 inch striker for the best team in the premier league known as West Ham United.
He is your classic target front man. His purpose in a game is to win aerial battles, muscle people off the ball, generally wreak havoc on the pitch and then scare the living daylights out of the opposing team members. He does this very well yet he could do it so much better if he were to psyche himself up with some heavy riffage! I know that if he were to do this then he’d go to Brazil, knock in a load of goals or knock out a load of opposing teams and then England would obviously win the world cup. Simple.
– by Edd Unwin, drums
Georgios Samaras – Greece
Depending on whether he's opted for a beard or not, Samaras can go from Black Sabbath to Tame Impala to even Jesus, pretty versatile if you ask me. He's gone for the full long hair look for a long time, so fair play to him for not giving up on it.
Samaras isn't really the most metal player when he's on the field, he's actually more of a flair player who uses his pace and skill rather than brute force, but when that beard blows in the wind there's no denying those metal vibes!
– by Ollie Loring, vocals / guitar
Alexi Lalas – USA
This might be an obvious one but Alexi Lalas has to be in this list. Possibly the most memorable face of the USA World Cup in 1994. USA didn’t qualify out of the group stages so the wider world only got to see 360 minutes of Alexi Lalas (he did play every minute of every game) playing but his Troy Sanders beard and long hair indelibly etched his appearance on to legacy of that World Cup.
A fine player too and a defensive general who moved to play in Italy in the top-flight after USA 1994. He made nearly 100 appearances for USA and scored 9 goals. Fine stats Alexi, fine stats!
– by: Tom Meadon, guitar
Diego Maradonna – Argentina
The first controversy that needs clearing up when talking about this footballing legend is his 'hand of god' goal. At a Napalm Death gig in 1987, just after the release of Scum, Maradona was heard divulging that he in fact threw up the horns to cruelly knock England out of the World Cup at the quarter final stage. When you look at this prodigy's touch, finesse and control – it soon becomes clear that heavy sludge, doom and crust-metal resonate in his mind to allow his deftness to deceive players; not only with his 'horns of god' goal, but also in the same match when he ran 60 yards past England's finest to score one of the greatest goals at any World Cup.
– by: Alex Loring, bass
Marcus Hahnemann – USA
OK, so Marcus may not have actually played in a world cup game but he’s been to two tournaments as part of the USA squad. He’s an epic, now-retired, goalkeeper from the US. Built like a beast with a suitably thorough soul patch blowing wistfully on his chin, this guy is a metal dude at heart. He's a self-proclaimed Slipknot and Mastodon fan and his footballing status has allowed him to meet his favourite heavy band of all time, Tool. He met them with fellow America-metaller-goalie, Kasey Keller. Imagine the scenes!
– by: Alex Loring, bass
Empress AD’s debut album will be out in September via The End records. Follow the band on Facebook and Twitter.
