Stoke City midfielder Jermaine Pennant dressed in a Osama bin Laden costume on New Year’s Eve, and was pictured holding fake dynamite.

The disturbing image, which was posted on Instagram by Pennant’s fiancee Alice Goodwin, is yet another idiotic move by a troubled footballer. This is the same man who:

— had to wear an electronic tag on his ankle during a soccer match in 2005, after a string of driving offenses that included a drink-driving conviction,

— in 2005, when he was questioned by police after crashing his Mercedes into a lamp post, initially identified himself as Ashley Cole,

— in 2011, while playing in Spain, his abandoned Porsche was found in Zaragoza, filled with five months of parking tickets. Pennant claimed he had forgotten he owned the car.

— in 2012, after he was arrested for drink-driving, driving without insurance and driving while disqualified, he was banned from driving for three years and was given an eight week jail sentence, which was suspended for one year.

Pennant had a troubled childhood while growing up, but his decision to wear a Bin Laden is yet another dumb move by a footballer who needs to think before he acts. I find it disgusting that he would even consider wearing the costume, and thinking it was funny or hip, knowing how many innocent people died as a result of Bin Laden’s terrorist acts that he and his organization were responsible for. It makes me sick.