Carlos midget attack is height of bad taste

Making jokes about anyone's height is always a risky business. When Randy Newman wrote a song called Short People, it was meant to satirise prejudice. Instead, the American singer was hounded by vertically-challenged mobs who threw paint at him and tried to attack him.

Azerbaijan coach Carlos Alberto has also stirred up a size storm by calling Michael Owen a "midget". Alberto is a strapping six foot Brazilian and a former World Cup winner. In England, though, he is now likely to be remembered for his extraordinary outburst at Owen when he said: "This man, this midget, I refuse to talk about him any more. I will talk about Beckham, Rooney, Ferdinand or Lampard, but not this midget. This midget ought to clean the boots of Beckham."

Alberto hit out at the 5ft 8in Real Madrid striker because he mistakenly thought he had boasted about how many goals he would score against Azerbaijan.

Owen may not be the Peter Crouch of the modern game but he is a giant among strikers compared to Shaun Wright-Phillips, who is a good three inches smaller than the former Liverpool star.

As Standard Sport's graphic (right) shows, there have been plenty of great small fry players, even if they did sometimes resort to the long-ball game. Height is no barrier to a striker's success as Owen's goal record shows.

It may be more of a problem for someone trying to keep out high shots, but even though Welshman Neil Edwards is the smallest keeper in the league - matching Owen inch for Lilliputian inch - he has still kept seven clean sheets this season for Rochdale.