Premier League Hardman Turned to Religion After Almost Killing Man With Punch

A former Premier League star previously admitted that he feared he’d killed a man during a pre-season tour in Europe.

The 1990s and early 2000s were littered with Premier League hardmen, with Roy Keane, Duncan Ferguson and Martin Keown all plying their trade in England’s top flight.

Unlike in modern football, footballers would regularly become embroiled in altercations both off and on the pitch, with stories of wild nightclub brawls being commonplace in the 1990s.

However, one former Premier League star thought he had taken another man’s life when he lost his temper during a pre-season tour of Finland.

Former Tottenham and West Ham midfielder John Moncur admitted to struggling to control his anger during his playing days in a 2019 interview with The Athletic.

And it almost saw his life take a completely different trajectory during the pre-season trip.

John Moncur in action for West Ham (Credit:Getty)

Moncur, now 59, explained how he and three other Swindon players became involved in a tussle with three Finnish locals after they had “a bit of trouble” with the Robins’ physio.

The 59-year-old admitted that the group “got into a fight” before revealing that “one of the lads thought one of their guys was dead” following the altercation.

“Then we ran back to our hotels and I was worried about what could happen with the police and possibly getting arrested,” Moncur said.

“I had just won promotion to the Premiership with Swindon and I was just thinking, ‘I hope I haven’t messed this up’. I was praying that the guy was fine and honestly I just wanted to get back home. I was asking the Lord, ‘Well, I just want to do a deal with you really. If the lad is fine, I will change my ways’.”

Moncur admitted that he “prayed at the hotel” while reflecting on the incident away from the rest of the group before phoning his father to explain what had occurred.

Luckily for all parties involved, Moncur’s fears were not realised and the person involved survived.

He added: “My dad was just really worried because I was in a foreign country and he was thinking I could be done for manslaughter. He told me, ‘What’s done is done’, and we prayed together. Thankfully, in the end, the lad was fine. The police phoned the hotel to say there had been a disturbance with some English lads — and that was the end of it.”