When a pro athlete wants to be traded, they're capable of doing pretty much anything in order to see that happen. We all remember how Manny Ramirez went into shutdown mode for about a month in order to get out of Boston. And if you think Manny was bad, just remember back to Vince Carter's days in Toronto. Carter essentially tanked half a season so he could get traded to the Nets for pennies on the dollar. But this most recent ploy to get traded by Juventus bust Tiago Mendes makes Manny and Carter's debacles pale in comparison.
It seems Mendes wants to be traded to the Spanish League after an unsuccessful stint in the Italian Serie A league. But Juventus didn't feel like doing that, and instead tried to ship Mendes off to Everton or Monaco, neither of which are in the Spanish League.
Obviously, this displeased Mendes, so what did he do to show his displeasure? Why, he locked Juventus team president Giovanni Cobolli Gigli in a bathroom, of course.
Checkmate!
“The story of me being locked in the toilet by Tiago is true,” confessed Cobolli Gigli live on Sky Italia television.
“It's a shame it got out, as this was something I told a friend in confidence. In any case, Alessandro Del Piero responded to the noise of me punching the door and offered to break it down.
“I told him it was better if someone else did it, as he needed to keep his shoulders in good shape for the Fiorentina game.”
I'm just guessing here, but I would think Mendes probably didn't consult his agent before locking Gigli in the bathroom. Or at least I hope he didn't.“It's a shame it got out, as this was something I told a friend in confidence. In any case, Alessandro Del Piero responded to the noise of me punching the door and offered to break it down.
“I told him it was better if someone else did it, as he needed to keep his shoulders in good shape for the Fiorentina game.”
As you can probably guess, Mendes is expected to be shipped out of town rather soon. So at least he's getting his wish, even though he'll likely wind up playing for a semi-pro team in eastern Siberia.
By the way, I think there's a lesson to be learned here. And that is that I'm convinced that the Brett Favre situation could have been solved a lot sooner had Favre simply locked Ted Thompson in a bathroom. Nothing says "I want to be traded" like the old bathroom hostage ploy.
Tiago says keep it in the closest [Deuce of Davenport] via [With Leather]
more
