Aston Villa legend Brian Little was once left fuming when a big signing missed a run of games because he decided to get a nose job.
A striker in his playing days, Little – who turned 71 this week – spent his entire career at Villa, scoring 82 goals in 302 games. The one-club man then went on to manage the Midlands side in the early years of the Premier League.
Not only did he save them from relegation, Little successfully rebuilt the squad, signing the likes of Savo Milosevic, Ian Taylor and Mark Draper, before enjoying a fantastic 1995-96 campaign, when Villa finished fourth and won the League Cup with a 3–0 win over Leeds United.
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Sadly not all of his signings had the desired impact at Villa Park, none more so than Milosevic’s former team-mate at Partizan Belgrade, midfielder Sasa Curcic. He came with a reputation for scoring great goals when he joined Villa from Bolton Wanderers in the summer of 1996 for £3.5million – a princely sum at the time – but had also earned the nickname of “the Serbian George Best” in honour of his talent for both playing and partying.
Curcic became one of the biggest flops of the era after failing to bag a single goal in 29 appearances, and falling out with Little in spectacular fashion. Little previously recalled on In The Stiffs podcast how he received a shocking phone call from the club’s physio Jim Walker, explaining why Curcic wasn’t available for selection.
(Image: GETTY)
Little said: “Jim got the sentence out as quick as you ever could. He said, ‘It’s Sasa Curcic. He’s in London. He’s having a nose job at eight o’clock in the morning and he won’t play on Saturday’.”
“He won’t play on Saturday” ended up being a massive understatement, as the midfielder went on to miss six weeks of game time. Little said: “He had a Roman nose and he came out with his tiny little pert nose.
“My options were to fine him two weeks’ wages or get rid of him. He had cost me £3.5m so we could not do that. Sasa ended up doing it twice.
(Image: CLIVE MASON/ALLSPORT)
“He had two operations which meant he missed matches in the middle of the season. But that sort of thing happened, silly things like that.”
Lisa Aldred, with whom Curcic had a two-year marriage in the Midlands, said of his nose job: “I think it was more to do with vanity because he was always telling me he’d like to have a nose like mine.
“He got into trouble with Villa because he didn’t tell them he was having the surgery and it meant he couldn’t play until it had healed.”
Commenting on her ex’s looks, she added: “Some of my friends couldn’t understand why I’d fallen for someone with such a big hooter.”
If you asked Curcic however, he might tell you it was worth missing the games in order to have the surgery. The maverick star later moved to Crystal Palace, where he proudly showed off his remodelled nose.
And he claimed post-surgery he slept with supermodel Naomi Campbell while living in London, who was apparently “great in bed”, before moving to MLS side MetroStars and retiring at the age of 29 in 2001, a decision he allegedly said was “just to have sex” instead.
(Image: Instagram/ @carmenelectra)
Curcic later dismissed that report as “rubbish”, but has claimed he also romanced former Baywatch actress and Playboy star Carmen Electra – with whom he said he had sex in a pool “for hours”- and also very much enjoyed the company of supermodel Eva Herzigova.
He said: “I had a good time with Eva Herzigova and I made love in the pool with Carmen Electra for hours. She was the best in bed and the craziest woman I have ever met.”
Asked about the nose job, Curcic was certainly honest, stating: “Come on, I just wanted to look better. Gareth Southgate was jealous. I told him and Andy Townsend, ‘Guys, if you come we’ll get a discount, three noses for the price of two!'”