Villa Made All The Pies

This past weekend at Villa Park, the formerly mighty claret and blue failed to win a game for the 6th time in a row. While it wasn't much of a footballing feast (it ended 0-0 against Sunderland) hungry fans were be able to snack on a brand new meat pie in support of Stylian Petrov. The Villa club captain is currently dealing with a bout of cancer knack and part of the proceeds of the leek, chicken and Bulgarian kafka meatball pie are going to the Cure Leukaemia organization. In honor of Villa's excellent fundraising campaign, we thought it a good time for a quick reminder of some of our favourite footballers whose charity output would rival Princess Diana's if it were based solely on pie eating.

Adriano's fall from grace has been pretty well documented. From his club imposed house arrest to his famous, "I eat much salad" quote. When he was at Inter, his left peg was one of the most feared things in the game, nowadays at Corinthians though, it's that double chin.

Mats Magnusson is a name most may not recognize, but he was a key member of one of Benfica's best sides since Eusebio in the late 80s. The prolific Swede spent five years in the Portugese capital where he averaged a goal every other game and played in two European Cup Finals. He retired in '94 after showing Henrik Larsson the ropes at Helsingborgs IF, fat Mats then made a cameo at a charity game of Benfica All-Stars vs a Zidane XI.




Micky Quinn had a pretty good career as a foraging journeyman forward. While he didn't manage to win many trophies he won a place in everyone's heart thanks to his fantastic duster and even better pot belly. A frequent victim of the "Who Ate All the Pies?" chant, Quinn was vaulted into hero status when during a game against West Ham a fan threw a pie at him which he caught and ate on the field.

Everyone knows him, everyone love(s)(ed) him. In 97/98 for Barcelona & Brazil he was one of the best ever for me. He learned a lot about playing game early on at PSV and he probably learned how to eat when he was on the mend throughout his career as his fatness and injury problems seem to have run perfectly in conjunction with one another. His classic send off match never fails to generate a smile.