Many a football player have been known for having an extravagant lifestyle thanks to the generous salaries they earn as professional sportspeople.
Earning such large amounts of money gives them enormous financial freedom to spend their wages however they wish.
This has seen eye-wateringly priced designer clothes from leading brands become almost as commonplace for footballers as the fast, flash and fiendishly expensive sports cars they drive.
But being given such liberty to do with wads of cash whatever they choose can also have its downsides, with the chance of a lifestyle that would make Epicurus himself jealous too good to turn down.
That is how one former pro – who was capped at senior level by his national team – was sold by his club after committing a scarcely believable act in the middle of their own stadium.
This is the story of a how a fun-loving former international star was said to have ‘fulfilled his dream’ by having sex in the middle of the pitch with his ex-wife, who was a former Playboy model.
A former international footballer was sold by his former club for having sex in the middle of their pitch
He did so with his ex-wife, who had found fame of her own as a Playboy model
Former defender Dino Drpic made 185 appearances during a nine-year spell at Croatian side Dinamo Zagreb.
He also played for Croatia 30 times at various different age-group levels and earnt a solitary cap for his country in 2007.
While he may be remembered fondly by Dinamo fans for his loyal service to the club – which came before stints in Germany, Greece, Ukraine and Malaysia – his name was also etched in controversy in wild fashion.
That came courtesy of a racy incident with his ex-wife Nives Zeljkovic, better known by her stage name Nives Celsius, who also found success as a singer and actress.
Speaking on Serbian talk show RTV Pink in January 2009, she said: ‘Dino had arranged that people should turn on the stadium lights for us and he finally fulfilled his dream of having sex in the middle of a football pitch. It was very naughty.’
This was alleged to have provoked a furious reaction among club officials, who promptly sold him and made sure he never played for the club again – although he was linked with a move to Tottenham Hotspur as Spurs had Luka Modric and Vedran Corluka in their ranks at the time.
While he and Nives had two children together – Taisa and Leone – they divorced one another in 2014 after nine years of marriage.
Prior to their steamy encounter in the centre of Maksimir Stadium, they endured a frightful incident in the summer of 2008.
Former defender Dino Drpic was married to model and actress Nives Zeljkovic, better known by her stage name Nives Celsius, for nine years
She said that the former Dinamo Zagreb defender ‘fulfilled his dream [by] having sex in the middle of a football pitch’
That saw a British couple try to snatch Leone after mistaking him for Madeleine McCann, who herself had disappeared from her bed aged three while on a family holiday in Portugal on May 3 2007.
The former couple were on holiday on the Croatian island of Krk with her sister when British tourists photographed Leone and tried to grab his arm.
Recounting the incident, she said: ‘I am used to people taking photos of me and approaching me because we are famous in Croatia so I didn’t react.
‘I started getting suspicious when the British woman approached Leone and started chatting with him.
‘Suddenly she grabbed him. However, when I went over she realised my child was a boy and apologised.’
