By Joe Boyle BBC News

Liverpool's Spanish goalkeeper, Pepe Reina, has become the latest Premiership footballer to be burgled while playing a match. Is this a growing trend?

Reina was Liverpool's hero in this week's European tie

Reina is not the only Liverpool goalkeeper to have his house broken into recently. Last June, Jerzy Dudek had his Champions League winner's medal, among other things, stolen from his home.

A 20-year-old was jailed for the Dudek burglary. He also admitted burgling five other players' homes, including those of Liverpool's Peter Crouch, Daniel Agger and Florent Sinama-Pongolle, and Everton's Tony Hibbert and Andy Van der Meyde.

They were generally targeted while they were playing for their clubs or away on international duty.

And this is not an issue peculiar to Merseyside. In recent memory, players such as Arsenal's Thierry Henry and former Chelsea star Juan Veron have also suffered at the hands of burglars.

So is this a growing problem? Do clubs and the police do enough to tackle it?

Most Premiership clubs have a player liaison officer who deals with welfare issues, including security.

They take particular care with foreign players, who clubs believe are more vulnerable to crime.

John Bramhall, assistant chief executive of the Professional Footballers' Association, said he expected clubs to warn players of the dangers they face.

"Because of the lifestyles they lead and the profiles they have, they need to be made aware that they might attract attention from people who have less than benevolent intentions."

'Grown men'

A spokesman for Liverpool said their liaison officer worked closely with Merseyside Police after their players suffered a spate of burglaries.

Footballers generally live in opulent areas, making them obvious targets Scotland Yard spokesman

But he said players have to take a lot of the responsibility for their own security.

"At the end of the day, they are all grown men, and it's got to be up to them to make security arrangements for their own homes."

Police in Merseyside and London play down talk of Premiership stars being deliberately targeted.

A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said: "I don't think the people who burgle these people are aware of whose house they are in until they get inside.

"But footballers generally live in opulent areas, making them obvious targets in the same way that the stockbroker who lives next door to them is a target."

Panic room

Nevertheless, security firms see a niche market in the world of highly-paid football stars.

Former Liverpool and Arsenal player Michael Thomas now works for the Merseyside arm of US security firm Balmoral Consultants.

In an interview with the PFA's in-house magazine, he explained that footballers often do not realise the kind of attention their profile can attract.

Among the services his firm offers is to create a "safe room".

"Nothing scary like in the film Panic Room," he says, "but one with a door and walls reinforced with steel".