BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Buffalo Sabres defenseman Zach Bogosian will miss five-to-six months after his second hip operation in a little more than a year.

The Sabres provided the update Tuesday, two weeks after their season ended. Bogosian missed the final eight games with a lower-body injury. The team says the recent operation repaired Bogosian's other hip.

The timetable for recovery means Bogosian could miss the start of next season.

The surgery is the latest setback for the 28-year-old, hard-hitting defenseman, who has played 70 games just twice in his 11 NHL seasons. Bogosian was limited to 18 games in 2017-18 before season-ending hip surgery in January of that season.

This season, he finished with three goals and 19 points in 65 games. That matched the most he played since 2011-12 while with Winnipeg.

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ORNSKOLDSVIK, Sweden -- Cole Caufield set the United States record for most goals scored in the IIHF Men's Under-18 World Championship Tuesday.

The highly-touted NHL draft prospect scored two goals in USA's 7-1 win over Latvia to run his tournament total to 11, surpassing Phil Kessel and Brett Sterling's previous record of nine goals. Caufield has appeared in just four games in the tournament. Kessel and Sterling scored nine in six and eight games, respectively.

"It's a pretty special feeling," Caufield told ESPN after the game. "Any time you get to break a record like that, it's special."

Caufield is tied with Nikita Kucherov and Ilya Kovalchuk for second for the overall single-tournament scoring record. Assuming Team USA advances to the medal games, he will have three more games to challenge Alex Ovechkin's single-tournament record of 14, which has stood since 2002.

"Right now, I'm pretty hot and I'd like to keep it that way," said Caufield. "The wins are more important. For sure, it would be special to get close to [Ovechkin] though."

The Stevens Point, Wisconsin, native has scored no fewer than two goals in each of his four games in the tournament.

In addition to setting the U.S. tournament goal scoring record, Caufield shattered the U.S. National Team Development program's single-season scoring record previously held by Auston Matthews at 55. The winger has 69 goals so far this season and 123 in his career, which is also the high water mark in the NTDP's history.

The 5-foot-7 sniper says he models his game after Chicago Blackhawks winger Alex DeBrincat. Caufield was recently ranked eighth among North American skaters in NHL Central Scouting's final draft rankings. He was 10th on ESPN's midseason Top 50 for the 2019 NHL draft.

Also starring for Team USA at this tournament has been Jack Hughes, the presumptive No. 1 pick in the 2019 NHL draft. Hughes is second on Team USA to Caufield's 13 points with 12 of his own. Having played in last year's tournament, Hughes has 24 career points in U18 World Championship play. Three more will give him the U.S. career scoring record at this tournament, currently held by Kessel who had 26 points over two tournaments. Alex Ovechkin is the tournament's all-time leading scorer with 31 points in 14 games.

Team USA improved to 4-0 in tournament play, finishing atop Group B in preliminary play. They will meet Finland in the quarterfinal Thursday.

The legend of Hockey Hall of Fame goalie Dominik Hasek was only starting to grow in the 1993-94 season.

It was just his first season as a starter, and he led the NHL in save percentage and goals-against average. He won the first of six Vezina Trophies and finished second for the Hart Trophy as league MVP, leading the Buffalo Sabres to 95 points and fourth place in the Northeast Division. Their first-round playoff opponent that spring was the New Jersey Devils. The Devils had a 106-point season behind coach Jacques Lemaire and Hall of Fame goalie Martin Brodeur, who would win the Calder Trophy as the season's top rookie.

The Devils won Game 5 at home to take a 3-2 series lead, and they had a chance to eliminate the Sabres in Buffalo in a game that started on April 27, 1994 -- 25 years ago this Saturday. But it wouldn't end until April 28 at 1:52 a.m. ET, after a four-overtime affair that saw Hasek make 70 saves. Seventy saves and zero goals against. Dave Hannan finally beat Brodeur (who had 49 saves) at 5 minutes, 43 seconds of the final stanza, giving the Sabres a 1-0 victory and forcing a Game 7.

We spoke to Brodeur, Hannan and Devils forward Bobby Holik to recall this marathon performance from Hasek (who declined an interview), and added in other voices from various media from that April.

Martin Brodeur, New Jersey Devils goalie: It was my first playoffs ever, the first time I ever had a chance to close out a series. It was a pretty good learning experience on how hard it is to win a hockey game in this league.

Dave Hannan, Buffalo Sabres forward: It was at the Aud [Buffalo Memorial Auditorium], which was a smaller rink. The Devils were just a big, big team. Really physical, and so good defensively. But we had great firepower, too: Pat LaFontaine, Dale Hawerchuk, Alexander Mogilny. In those days, I was on the checking line.

Brodeur: Dominik just didn't want to give up that game.

Wayne Presley, Buffalo Sabres forward (April 1994): Dominik had a bad game the other night [four goals on 34 shots in a 5-3 Game 5 loss], but when I came to the rink this morning [before Game 6], I knew he'd have a good game. You could see it in him.

Hannan: The goaltending at both ends ... it was amazing.

Hasek is considered by many to be the best goalie in NHL history. He led the league in save percentage for six consecutive seasons in Buffalo and has the best career save percentage (.922) in NHL history. The acrobatic style of "The Dominator" is a highlight-reel favorite, but he was also known for a quirky personality even by goalie standards.

Bobby Holik, New Jersey Devils center: I played with him for a year in a club in [Czechoslovakia] and played against him for two or three years there. He was a little different. Part of it is being a goalie, and part of it is being something else. But you overlook that different kind of behavior in hockey. I respect his skills. He's the best goalie in the world.

Hannan: Dominik was phenomenal. I had the opportunity to play with a lot of goalies, like Grant Fuhr in Edmonton and Patrick Roy in Colorado. But Dominik was an elite goalie. Set records. The utmost competitor. He never wanted guys to score on him in practice. He would always select somebody to do some breakaways. If you scored, you'd have to start over again, because he wanted to stop you 10 breakaways in a row. It was crazy. The ultimate competitor.

Brodeur: We had a chance to play with each other in All-Star Games and all that. Saw him at the Hall of Fame again. Until his game dropped off a little bit, I didn't have a chance to win any Vezinas. I thought I had better stats than him, better seasons than him, but he just had that aura to him. He was that good. For me, he was a big challenge. Look at the goalies that we had in that era, with Patrick Roy and Ed Belfour and Hasek and others. A lot of really good ones. It became easy to get up for games because I knew the guy on the other end of the ice wasn't going to give up much.

Hannan: He was different. A different way about him. But the more we got to know him, the more he was a character. But when the game came, he was phenomenal. That year, back in the contract days, the defensive players had bonuses for one-goal games and bonuses for shutouts. And we had a lot of both. Myself and Wayne Presley were a penalty-killing tandem, we got a nice regular-season bonus. People were always wondering why we were blocking shots when it was 7-0. It was because he had a phenomenal goals-against average.

Brodeur: You'd probably have to put him on top of the greatest goalies. For the great players, the more you see of them, the more you get them. Like with [Wayne] Gretzky, I got him, but I played more against Mario Lemieux. And I was able to see the effect that he had. Dominik is in the same vein. I played so much against him, so I understand how good he was.

Game 6 between the Devils and Sabres began at 7:45 p.m. ET on April 27, in front of 15,003 at the Aud. It was tied at zero after 60 minutes, and then would go on for what amounted to another entire game plus an additional overtime.

The Sabres were frustrated in the second period after referee Terry Gregson waved off two goals, even though it was for good reasons. First, Jason Dawe was called for goalie interference on an apparent Ken Sutton goal. A little over seven minutes later, a Hawerchuk rebound went off Presley's skate and in, but was ultimately ruled a kick and no goal. Otherwise, the goalies saved everything in sight. And by the time the fourth overtime -- a seventh period of hockey -- hit, the players were exhausted, sweaty and starving.

Hannan: By the start of the third [period of regulation], we were thinking one goal was going to win it. Let's get up one. Both teams had some really good chances in the third, but we didn't score. Both goalies were standing on their heads. So you get through the first overtime, and there are good chances, and the second overtime and then the third ... by then, guys were changing their undergarments after every period because they were soaked.

Holik: This was before the team had lounges with the full kitchens. I think we had pizza. The only choices in Buffalo at the time were chicken wings or pizza. They were both very good. But they decided on the healthier choice ... pizza. (Laughs.)

Brodeur: I always remember the really funny things because we were playing so late. Like people sleeping in the stands. I remember Bernie Nicholls was a healthy scratch that night. In the Aud, the goalies always sat by the trainers, so we were by ourselves and not with the team between periods. So between the first and second overtimes, Bernie walks over to me and says, "You know, kid, you shut them down this period, and I guarantee we're going to win." And then after the second and third, he comes over and says, "Kid, I was just joking, but seriously, if you shut them down this period, we're going to win." And then after the third one, he walks over again and says, "OK, if you do shut them down now, we're going to win." And then he comes back after the game and says, "Well, kid ... you're on your own."

Hannan: Randy Moller, my teammate at the time, comes by and announces to the team: "Will somebody score, please? Because I have a babysitter and it's costing me a lot of money tonight."

Holik: I broke like three sticks, it was such a long game. That was a lot of shooting and slashing and cross-checks and faceoffs. I remember being worried I was going to run out of sticks.

Hannan: Every overtime, it was just will and guts and a desire to win it. It was our building. We wanted to win and send it back to Jersey.

Hasek was a brick wall during the overtimes, making two huge saves on Valeri Zelepukin and another on Holik, who was second on the Devils with eight shots in the game. Hasek's 70 saves were second most in Stanley Cup playoff history at the time, behind only Kelly Hrudey's 73 in 1987, and is now tied for fourth all time. (Belfour had 72 in 2003, and Roberto Luongo stopped 72 of 76 in 2007.) But it remains the most ever in a Stanley Cup playoff shutout.

Holik: I thought it was a matter of time. We had some opportunities. I don't think anyone thought he was too tough to beat. We were too good.

Bob Carpenter, New Jersey Devils forward (April 1994): I thought we outchanced them, but Hasek played the best game I've ever seen a goalie play.

Ken Daneyko, New Jersey Devils defenseman (April 1994): We had like 63,000 chances. But we weren't going to put nothing by Hasek.

Brodeur: I knew that I had to be perfect. You just see him do his thing and you're like, "Oh my God, are we going to catch a break here?" He was standing on his head. It was impressive to see. We had the better quality of the chances, and he kept making save after save. And the game got so slow near the end that I didn't think anyone was going to score. Maybe Bobby Holik. He was the only one skating fast.

Holik: It was awesome. I felt really good. I was young and well-trained.

Mike "Doc" Emrick, announcer (April 1994): You've just got to marvel at how much higher the pedestal has to go for these goaltenders. This wasn't a game of missed opportunities, but of goaltenders and defensemen. ... You'd think the supply of human adrenaline would wear off after the equivalent of more than two games.

Hasek (April 1994): I kept talking to myself to be ready all the time. I felt pretty good physically. Once in the [second overtime], I felt a little tired. But I think the other players were more tired than I was. The shots in overtime weren't so hard.

Hasek made 39 saves in overtime alone, including 14 in the third frame. The game ended when Hannan scored a backhand goal in the fourth overtime, the product of a solid forecheck from the Sabres' checking line and Brodeur having slid to the ice to stop a shot and leaving the net wide-open as a result. Hannan sprinted down the ice and slid on his knees in celebration. Buffalo announcing legend Rick Jeanneret said on the Hannan goal call that the series would now shift back to the Meadowlands, aka "where Jimmy Hoffa is."

Hannan: I didn't score a lot of them in the league, but that was the biggest goal I ever scored. We had the puck deep. I remember Jason Dawe came around, and I was circling back in case there was some commotion. As a center, I was going to be the third guy high. The puck sort of came across, and I thought I could get it on my backhand. My instincts took over. I knew I had to get it on the net as fast and has hard as I could. And boom, it went in.

Brodeur: You could tell how tired everyone was on the goal. When Hannan came over, no one was quick enough to react to him. And then he just shot it into the empty net, you know?

Hannan: It was such a good feeling. I had won Cups before. I knew this kept us in it. And we had the best goalie on the planet.

Rick Jeanneret, Buffalo Sabres announcer: The thing I remembered most about when Dave Hannan scored was that I had to go to the bathroom so bad. My knees were knocking. I was toe-tapping. I was doing everything. I had to get to the washroom. I was the happiest guy when he scored, and then I made a beeline to the washroom.

The 65 minutes, 43 seconds of overtime is third-longest one-goal Stanley Cup playoff game ever, and it ranks as the 11th-longest playoff game overall. The Devils and Sabres were exhausted after the game finally ended, but there was no rest for the weary the next morning. Game 7 was at Brendan Byrne Arena on April 29.

Holik: I was like, "C'mon guys, let's go home. We've gotta play again tomorrow." It wasn't like hanging our heads and being like, "Oh my God, after all we did!"

Brodeur: I think the fact that we were going back home, we felt pretty good about it. But as a franchise, we were pretty fragile. So letting go a game like that was kind of tough. But the leadership that we had, including Jacques Lemaire, who was a brand-new coach, I think really helped us out.

Hannan: I lost a lot of water weight, about 14 pounds. I gained a lot of it back in the next day and a half.

Holik: I remember getting up the next morning and feeling so tired, because the adrenaline wears off. Slow, unfocused, took a while to pull myself together. I've never had a drink in my life, but I imagine that's what a hangover feels like. I had a hockey hangover.

The Devils eliminated the Sabres in Game 7 despite 44 more saves from Hasek. Brodeur needed to make only 17 stops, and Bruce Driver and Claude Lemieux provided the offense. New Jersey would later advance to the conference final by beating the Boston Bruins in six games. But in another Game 7 overtime, the Devils fell to the eventual Stanley Cup champion New York Rangers.

Hannan: We lost 3-1 (actually 2-1) in Game 7, but it was closer than that. It was a good run for us. As you get older, you appreciate the fact that you got to be a part of it. The Buffalo fans were great. And I bet Marty Brodeur and Hasek must have bumped into each other at some point and talked about how great that night was.

Kevin Weekes, NHL analyst and former goalie (NHL.com in November 2015): It was one of the best games I have seen, if not the best. How does it get better than that? Not only the saves, but the quality of saves in the entire game and then with the game being on the line in overtime and the significance of the game.

Brodeur: It's one of the best games I ever played. It became a loss eventually, but I always had fond memories of that game.

Holik: I'd actually like to watch that game again. Well, the condensed version. I don't have half a day.

Vince Masi of ESPN Stats & Information and Sachin Chandan, a researcher with ESPN The Magazine, contributed to this story.

Watford goalkeeper Ben Foster has urged Sir Elton John to cancel a concert in Copenhagen, in order to attend the team's FA Cup final against Manchester City.

The Hornets have reached the FA Cup final for the first time since 1984 and would lift the famous trophy for the first time if they upset favourites City at Wembley Stadium (live on ESPN+, Saturday, May 18, at 12 p.m. ET).

Sir Elton is Watford's honorary life president and was chairman of the club in the 1970s and early 80s, and even has a stand named in his honour at Watford's Vicarage Road, but the singer is set to miss the team's biggest match in years when his world tour reaches Denmark on the same night as the final.

But according to Foster, there is only one place Sir Elton should be on May 18.

"It's no dilemma. He should cancel right now," Foster told reporters following Watford's win over Huddersfield on Saturday.

"I have loads of people I know who have weddings for that day and stuff. It is their own fault -- don't book a wedding in the summer for Cup final day."

Watford reached the final thanks to a thrilling 3-2 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers earlier this month, after goals from Gerard Deulofeu and Troy Deeney led the side to an improbable comeback.

Javi Gracia's team are also eighth in the Premier League but were not expected to have their 2018-19 campaign last any longer than the final day of the Premier League season on May 12.

"I don't think you could have predicted this at the beginning of the season, but as the season wore on it became obvious we had the chance of doing something," Foster added. "So, Elton, you just need to cancel, sorry guys."

Manchester City and England forward Raheem Sterling has said clubs should be given an automatic nine-point deduction and ordered to play three games behind closed doors if their supporters take part in racist behaviour.

Authorities must adopt radical changes to tackle issues, Sterling said, after signing a manifesto that calls for consistent and suitable punishment for racist and discriminatory behaviour.

"I'd call for an automatic nine-point deduction for racist abuse," he wrote in a column for the Times. "It sounds harsh but which fan will risk racist behaviour if it might relegate their team or ruin their title bid?

"The club should have to play three games behind closed doors. That way, they lose revenue as a direct consequence of racist behaviour."

Sterling joined a number of professionals and clubs in endorsing the manifesto which also seeks more black and minority ethnic people in senior positions in football and no sanctions for players walking off the pitch if they encounter racism.

Framed with the guidance of anti-discriminatory bodies Kick It Out and FARE and the Black Collective of Media in Sport, key points of the manifesto also include the need for media and social media to take more responsibility in tackling abuse.

"Up and down the game, across the world, black and Asian players, fans and coaches are subjected to racism. Every day, from park football to the Champions League," Sterling said.

"In my opinion the people who run the game are doing nowhere near enough to solve the problem. And that's not good enough."

Earlier this season, Sterling had accused sections of the British media of fuelling racism with a negative portrayal of young black players.

The 24-year-old encountered racist abuse during England's Euro 2020 qualifier in Montenegro in March, while there have been many other cases in European football in recent months.

Sterling, who is in the running for the Professional Footballers' Association Players' Player of the Year award, said that he did not want young black players to endure what he had.

"I don't know how long it'll take for things to change but we have to start now. I don't want the next generation of black players to have to put up with this evil," he said.

Soccer is the beautiful game. When played the "right way," it is a pure experience. Nice passing patterns, soft touches, artistic flourishes. But enough of all that. Remember the time Zlatan Ibrahimovic said that the Barcelona dressing room was like a classroom full of preppy schoolboys? Nobody wants that.

Soccer needs villainy. The game's best side is its dark side. As The Joker said: "I'm not a monster, I'm just ahead of the curve."

- Football's dark arts: Your guide
- ESPN FC 100: Who are the best of the best?
- Hamilton: Ajax's dream factory

They will take you out. They will plot your downfall. They will steal your girl. You love to hate soccer's bad boys, but don't kid yourselves. Secretly, you want to be them.

We present a few of the most villainous currently in the game.

Luis Suarez

Type of bad boy: The bad boy trying so hard to be good

There are some who think Luis Suarez has lost his bite. Gone are the days when he used to treat opposing defenders' shoulders like a dental impression, planting his teeth into them as if he were some kind of footballing Jaws out to get Roger Moore's James Bond.

- Wright Thompson: A portrait of Luis Suarez

Bad Boy enthusiasts will have felt let down by Suarez when Barcelona played Espanyol in the Catalan derby this season. There was no repeat of the time he loitered around the tunnel after a 4-1 win in 2016 and provoked a scuffle by standing at the top of the stairs and shouting at the Espanyol players: "I'm waiting for you -- come here! You're a waste of space."

Sergio Ramos

Type of bad boy: The "accidental" hitman

We all see red from time to time -- just not as much as Sergio Ramos. He has seen it more than any player in the history of Europe's top five leagues. The red card is his business card.

Ramos has been sent off 25 times in his career, and it's disappointing that of the many tattoos all over his body, there are none in commemoration of each dismissal in the same way he wears his Champions League triumphs on his skin. Perhaps there isn't enough room. A personal favourite -- not that we condone violence -- was the time against Recreativo when he left the pitch hurling abuse at the ref for daring to expel him for a two-footed tackle and an elbow.

- Horncastle: Who is the King of Cool?

Since last year's Champions League final, Ramos appears to have ascended to a new level when it comes to uniting non-Madrid fans against him. Whenever he gets his perceived comeuppance, a party is thrown on social media. For example, Eric Dier didn't score when England beat Spain 3-2 in October, but his tackle on Sergio Ramos went viral and attained an equally symbolic status. The fact it did tells us a lot about the perception of Ramos across soccer. People seemed to revel in the idea he got "a taste of his own medicine," and yet the Spain captain's reaction to it was equally brilliant. Dier later revealed: "He just congratulated me."

Game recognises game.

In addition to some entirely unintended thuggery against Mohamed Salah and Loris Karius in last year's Champions League final -- "my conscience is really clear about what I did that night," said Ramos in September -- he's also produced what will probably go down as one of the greatest deleted scenes of all time.

Amazon were in his suite filming him watch Real Madrid's Champions League last-16 second leg against Ajax, and in so doing, they captured a moment of hubris virtually too good to be true. Ramos had deliberately picked up a yellow card in the first leg with the intention of taking the ban now so as to be available for the quarterfinals with a clean slate -- except Madrid lost 4-1 and were eliminated. In an interview with himself on social media -- Ramos on Ramos -- he disappointed us all with the news: "The recording itself was scaled down as the game went on." Weep.

Diego Simeone

Type of bad boy: A terror on the touchline

Known to pace around his technical area like a member of the Black Watch patrolling the Wall, one suspects Daenerys and Jon Snow would not need dragon glass or a couple of fire-breathers to defeat the night king if Simeone were by their side. Known for a rather flagrant SNL/Justin Timberlake celebration whenever his Atletico side win, it came back to haunt the manager against Juventus in this year's Champions League. It was a rare egg-on-your-face moment for someone who believes that "stones" are an integral part of success and one of the things you identify most with his Atletico team. The 48-year-old has lost none of the edge he had as a player and incites the crowd from the sidelines like a capo ultra. All he's missing is a megaphone. As Koke says: "It's better if he's not angry."

Atleti's players are reportedly weighed every day, which means that extra plate of tapas you ordered the night before won't go unnoticed; if the scales tip too far to the right, Simeone will have his assistant, "Profe" Ortega, run you into the ground. "Simeone doesn't like fatties," Griezmann insists. His stare alone is probably enough to provoke instant panic-induced weight loss. The "Cholo" diet is simple: a disapproval of junk food brought to you by the man who is machismo incarnate when celebrating big wins by grabbing his groin.

Radja Nainggolan

Type of bad boy: The party animal

Serie A's party animal and a bad boy in the P. Diddy sense, Radja Nainggolan isn't one to leave before the fun is over. There's nothing wrong with letting your hair down. There's nothing wrong with going to clubs called "The Mad House" either, but if a football fan sees you and shouts "go to bed," you probably shouldn't be filmed giving him the middle finger. Nainggolan believes life is for living, so if he wants to smoke a cigarette, he will. Roberto Martinez doesn't like it and won't pick him for Belgium, but that's his problem. He should do what Luciano Spalletti did at Roma and organise a sleepover at the training ground so he can keep an eye on him.

Another reason people love Radja is he hates Juve. Flag his car down if you see him out and about in Milan and he'll tell you as much. "All I'll say is I hate Juve. I'd have even given my balls to beat Juve with Cagliari because I hate Juve," said Nainggolan to fans through his car window while still a Roma player. "I never lost at the Juventus Stadium with Cagliari. We drew. They won the Scudetto against us when we were in Trieste. I hate them because they always win with a penalty or a free kick."

Sadly, the days of him broadcasting his New Year's party live on Instagram appear to be over. Nainggolan claims to have even gone cold turkey on the nicotine. "When I go to restaurants now, I take the food Inter tell me to eat. I've lost weight and quit smoking. It's not easy," he says, "but I'm managing."

Scott Brown

Type of bad boy: Professional irritant

Rangers Colombian striker Alfredo Morelos was considered a breakout talent in this category, more for the four red cards than the 29 goals he's scored in his first season in Scotland. But then you look at the last one in the Old Firm and how it came about: "Broony" enraged him with a cheeky trip, unseen by the ref, which caused Morelos to lash out. As the ref reaches into his pocket, Scott Brown is laughing at him. He can't contain himself, which is one of a number of reasons why Rangers' fans can't stand the sight of him. It explains the hour-long YouTube video showing one clip of Morelos kicking the former Scotland captain in the groin on repeat.

If Brown ever leaves Glasgow, he knows Zenit would welcome him in Russia. His decision to go out in -11 temperatures wearing a T-shirt while the rest of his Celtic teammates were hoods-up, gloves on and wearing as many layers as possible, led Zenit to proclaim him "Russia's favourite Scotsman."

Mauro Icardi

Type of bad boy: The drama king

On the one hand, Mauro Icardi is a stay-at-home dad who likes building furniture for the family penthouse that overlooks San Siro. His attendance ratio at training stood at 97.5 percent. On the other, he's the guy who will get with your ex and rub it in your face over and over again.

There would perhaps be more of a focus on the good if only it could keep up with all the off-the-pitch drama. Remember the "Wanda derby"? The time Inter played Sampdoria, and Icardi and Maxi Lopez, the guy he used to pose for pictures with as a kid at Barcelona and later went out for dinners and the like, didn't shake hands because the former was now with the latter's ex, the mother of his three children, and it was all played out on social media.

- Horncastle: Icardi drama with Nara in the middle

Remember how Maxi then missed a penalty and Icardi scored twice in a 4-0 win, cupping his ears so he could enjoy the whistles of the crowd? Over the years Maxi mastered the art of the dummy handshake, time and time again.

He's also the guy who released a book at the age of 23 in which he recalls the time he clashed with Inter's ultras after a game in Reggio Emilia and shortly after returning to the dressing room, asked someone to record him saying: "I will bring 100 criminals over from Argentina who will kill them there and then." The first edition was pulped and re-released without the offending passage but not before the ultras turned up outside Icardi's apartment block in Milan and left a banner saying: "We're here, let us know when your Argentine friends turn up."

He's the guy whose wife, Wanda Nara, is his agent and goes on national TV in Italy every Sunday night to say she thinks her hubby's priority is better service from his teammates over a new contract and that the coach should be putting Lautaro Martinez on earlier because he's Icardi's good friend. All of which means he's the guy whose no longer captain of Inter, just a world-class finisher who is as box-office off the pitch as he is in the six-yard box.

(Imagine a new streaming series called "The Icardis," not an all-access football documentary but something more in the style of "The Osbournes" and "Keeping up with Kardashians." Who could say no?)

Giorgio Chiellini

Type of bad boy: The genius with a Ph.D. in breaking an opponent's will

Giorgio Chiellini is not your average villain. If anything, he comes across like an Ivy League graduate who's now running a Fortune 500 Company but needs to let off a little steam after hours. And so, he shows up at Fight Club, loosens his tie, throws some elbows and gets back to the office in time to close a billion-dollar deal. Chiellini has a degree in business administration for which he received perfect grades. He speaks fluent English without having ever lived or worked in America or the United Kingdom. There is a nobility about him in much the same way one imagines there was about his fellow Tuscan, Niccolo Machiavelli, a man who had a few theories about leadership.

Juve's motto is well-known: "Winning isn't important, it's the only thing that counts," which is another spin on "the ends justify the means." So if Chiellini exaggerates contact from Alvaro Morata and ensures that the Atleti striker's goal is disallowed in a massive game, that's fine. Morata knew what to expect. The Spaniard likened playing against him in training at Juventus to being "put in a cage with a gorilla and you have to steal his food."

Jamie Vardy

Type of bad boy: The willing antagonist

How do you relax after a hard day's work? A pint? A glass of whisky, perhaps? Jamie Vardy had days harder than most when clocking off at the factory. But he was no longer assembling prosthetic limbs and carbon fibre when he discovered that the best way to wind down on a night was to pour yourself a glass of Skittles-flavored vodka.

Vardy, a man with a tough background, was at Leicester, with whom he would later improbably win the league before turning down Arsenal, presumably because they're too soft.

When a journalist asked Vardy how he thinks he is perceived as a person, he replied: "probably a t--t." Maybe the biopic commissioned after he won the league with Leicester will change that, or maybe it won't. The striker likes to think: "I'm a nightmare on the pitch, aren't I?" and once had to play with an electronic tag around his ankle given his trouble off it. (And there's been a fair bit of trouble, too.)

Then there's the anti-hero part in which he revels. West Brom's relegation last season robbed him of one of his favourite traditions. He used to love scoring at the Hawthorns and celebrating in one corner. "There was a photo from the season before, the faces are all the same. Their middle fingers are exactly the same."

Diego Costa

Type of bad boy: The UFC fighter in a soccer kit

Antonio Conte probably wouldn't have shied away from telling Diego Costa to his face, but it was safer to send him a text to let him know that he was no longer in his plans at Chelsea. Despite a tough couple of seasons, Costa is back to doing Costa things now that he's back in Spain, namely getting sent off early in Atletico's top-of-the-table clash against Barca -- his team's last chance of reopening the title race -- for reportedly making derogatory comments about the referee's mother. (He's since been given an eight-match ban and will not play again this season.)

"On the pitch, don't try and put wings on me as I am no angel," Costa told the BBC in 2015.

Costa may be renowned as a hard man, but his teammates always talk about him as a legendary prankster. Earlier this year he snatched up Lucas Hernandez's clothes, then picked up a fire extinguisher and covered them in foam. Hernandez got him back by doing the same to Costa's car, which is probably why the World Cup winner has since agreed to join Bayern in the summer.

Neymar

Type of bad boy: He's too good -- and he knows it

Haters gonna hate, of course, and Michael Jordan is presumably over the moon now that his crying meme has been replaced by Neymar's glittering stare of disbelief as PSG contrived to crash out of the Champions League in a way they were apparently born to do. Sent from Brazil to annoy ex-pros who remain convinced football was better in their day, when it's not Neymar, it's Paul Pogba who is sending the old man on the porch into an irrational tizz.

Neymar is bad for the simple reason that he's too good at football. So good that it's often humiliating for opponents, particularly when the ball is still and he's dancing around it, taunting you into sliding in for it -- always a mistake because his feet are too quick, and he's gone.

Sometimes you sense he's bored on the pitch by too many lopsided wins and therefore creates his own drama. He seems affronted whenever anyone tries to get even a little bit physical. The hissy fits, the complaining, the arguing, the primadonna petulance that comes with demanding Edinson Cavani give up his penalty, as happened back in 2018.

When James Milner posted a photo of Neymar piggybacking him with the hashtags #expensivepartner #dontdrophim and #oops, it somehow received more than a quarter of a million likes. O Ney. Oh, dear.