Shakira and 4 other strong and independent football WAGs who are stars in their own right

Victoria Beckham, Cheryl Tweedie, Abbey Clancy – football’s original WAGs (the wives and girlfriends of players) made headlines in 2006 when they accompanied their husbands and boyfriends to the 2006 Fifa World Cup in Germany.

With the press following the WAGs’ every move – the reasoning seemingly being that women wanted to be them, men wanted to be with them and everyone wanted to read about them – they were labelled a distraction and a prime reason for why England crashed out in the quarter finals of the soccer tournament.

Arguably there’s some truth to that last statement given that Clancy had to leave early after being snapped taking cocaine while Alex Curran, partner of Steven Gerrard, ran up a US$32,000 hotel bill that supposedly included 60 bottles of Champagne.

It was no surprise then that four years later Gerrard had Curran, by then his wife, stay away from the World Cup in South Africa.

Fabio Capello, then coach of the England soccer team, even labelled WAGs a “virus”. (Ironically, despite this action, England did worse than in Germany and left the tournament one round earlier.)

Today’s wives and girlfriends are less attention-seeking – no doubt inspired by some of the derogatory articles written about WAGs in the past – and many of them have no need for their famous partners. They can stand on their own accomplishments and have successful careers separate from their partners.

With this week’s arrival of English Premier League champions Manchester City in Hong Kong for a match against local side Kitchee on Wednesday, check out five of the most stylish and independent WAGs.

Shakira

Probably the most famous current soccer player’s wife – now that Victoria Beckham’s husband David, the former Manchester United and Real Madrid player, has retired from the sport – is Colombian singer Shakira.