Football teams fielding three or more players with the same first name | The Knowledge

“Sitting down to watch Lithuania v England (with little else to do) I noticed that Gareth Southgate has handed starts to three Harrys – Winks, Maguire and Kane,” wrote Alex Chance. “When was the last time three players with the same forename lined up for England?”
It turns out this isn’t as rare as you might think. “Daniels Rose, Drinkwater and Sturridge all started against Holland in a friendly on 29 March 2016,” writes Steven Hyde. “There would probably have been a more recent example if more than one of Rose, Welbeck and Sturridge could stay fit for more than a couple of months at a time. And if you’re looking for competitive fixtures, you have to go all the way back to the last century – Davids Seaman, Batty and Beckham played alongside each other on a number of occasions, most recently in 1999 under Kevin Keegan. Also worth noting is the first match of Terry Venables’ reign, against Denmark in 1994. England played the first 67 minutes with three Pauls on the pitch (Parker, Ince and Gascoigne), and the remainder with three Davids, as Batty replaced Gazza from the substitutes bench to join Platt and Seaman.”
We did some of our own digging and discovered that Gary Lineker, Gary A Stevens and Gary M Stevens were on the pitch together for 33 minutes at the Azteca Stadium for England’s 3-0 win over Paraguay in the last 16 of the 1986 World Cup. On three occasions in the 1970s Ray Wilkins, Ray Clemence and Ray Kennedy trotted around on the same piece of turf in an England shirt. And if we trawl back over 100 years ago to 15 February, 1913 an England team containing three Georges (Wall, Elliott and Utley) lost 2-1 to an Ireland side with four Billies (McConnell, Gillespie, Andrews, Scott) at Windsor Park.

“Bobbys Moore, Charlton and Smith played together eight times,” writes Graeme Gaff. “On two occasions a fourth Bobby (Tambling or Thomson) joined in. Harry was also a popular name for 1880s footballers. Messrs Cursham, Goodhart, Swepstone and Moore all played against Ireland in February 1883. And on 2 December 1948 John Aston, John Haines, John Hancocks, John (‘Jack’) Rowley and John (‘Jackie’) Milburn were all in the starting XI against Switzerland.”
Scotland can match England for Johns. At Hampden Park on 13 March 1880, when the wonderfully monikered Segar Bastard made his one and only international appearance for England, the Scots had five Johns in their lineup (McPherson, Smith, McGregor, Baird and Kay). Two of them scored in the 5-4 win.
Other current international teams who regularly field three players with the same first names are Egypt, for whom Mohamed Salah, Mohamed Elneny and Mohamed Abdul Shafy are regular starters and Oman fielded three Alis (Ali Al Habsi, Ali Al Busaidi and Ali Al Jabri) in an Asian Cup qualifier on 10 October against Maldives, who had three Ahmeds playing for them as well as two Mohameds and one Mohammad.
And Stephen Pollard broadens the question out to include club teams. “In Arsenal’s match against Brighton a front three all named Alex was fielded: Alexander Iwobi, Alexandre Lacazette and Alexis Sánchez.”
Any more for any more? Let us know by emailing knowledge@theguardian.com or tweeting @TheKnowledge_GU.
“Where some former players go on to manage pubs, get ‘normal’ jobs etc. Has any player ‘disappeared’ never to be seen again?” asked Tony Crawfod.
Chris Whiffin was on hand to answer this. “Sadly the answer is yes in the case of Richard Young a talented young striker who is fondly remembered by Exeter City fans for his part in their Division Four Championship winning team of 1989-90. The Grecians’ Official Archive takes up the story …”
After losing his place in the City team and being sidelined with a back injury, Young turned down a £30,000 move to Hereford United in December 1990. Shortly after, he was involved in a car accident in the early hours in Wiltshire. Young was sacked by the Grecians for a breach of contract in March 1991 having not reported to St James’ Park or contacted manager Terry Cooper for several weeks. Mystery surrounds the whereabouts and what happened to Young after that with several unsubstantiated stories being quoted.
And Graham Clayton adds: “Willie McClean, who represented the United States at the 1934 World Cup, left Chicago in the summer of 1938 and was never seen again. Wikipedia suggests ‘his family continued to receive infrequent Mother’s Day cards from towns along the Mississippi River for several years after. Finally, in November 1944 Aetna Life Insurance placed an advertisement in the Midwest Soccer News asking for information regarding his whereabouts. Despite these efforts, he was never seen again.’”
“Has a European player ever won the Copa Libertadores?” wondered Stoyan Ivanov last week.
Dirk Maas can answer this one. “Christian Rudzki, who was born in Czechoslovakia, was part of the 1970-winning side, Estudiantes de la Plata, the four-times champions from Argentina. Dante Mircoli, born in Italy, took victory in 1972 with Independiente, who won four Libertadores in a row between 1972 and 1975.”
But Kari Tulinius can broden their elite club. “As far as I know, Liédson and Mirko Jozić have won the Libertadores. The latter coached Chilean club Colo-Colo to victory in 1991. The former was born in Brazil but had become a Portuguese citizen and played for Portugal by the time he won a Libertadores medal with Corinthians in 2012, coming on as a first-half substitute in the first leg. Also featuring in that side was Emerson Sheik, a Brazilian-born player who represented Qatar three times, until Fifa ruled he was not allowed to do that. And, famously, Leo Horn is the only referee to have whistled his way through a Copa Libertadores and European Cup final, the former – one leg – in 1962 and the latter in 1957 and 1962. Marcel Albert Bois of France refereed both legs of the 1963 Libertadores final.”
“My club, non-league side Guildford City, have just completed what I think may be a unique, albeit unwanted, record,” wrote Matt Howell in 2011. “Have there been any other instances within senior football of two brothers being sent off for the same club during the same season while playing in the same position? Regular goalkeeper Antony Hall was dismissed last weekend, further to the sending off of his brother Michael during a cup match earlier in the season.”
The Hall boys have some company at the very top of the English game. “Fábio da Silva was sent off in a League Cup match against Wolves for a professional foul on Michael Kightly during the 2009-10 season,” wrote Tim Hill. “In the same season his brother (and twin) Rafael was also red carded while playing against Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarter-final.”
“As I’m writing this, George Weah is running for president in Liberia. At the same time, his son, Timothy, is playing for the United States at the U-17 World Cup. If George wins the general election and Timothy makes his full debut for the US senior national team, will Timothy become the first child of a head of state to play for a different country?” asks Samir Gelb.
“I recall, early in Niall Quinn’s career, the late, great Irish commentator Jimmy Magee saying his family had told him Quinn’s name was pronounced ‘Neil’ and not ‘Nile’, as is the correct pronunciation in Irish – even Irish people habitually mispronounce it. Clearly few people got the message and Quinn is still called ‘Nile’ by most people. Are there any other footballers whose names have been constantly mispronounced throughout their career and beyond?” – Oliver Farry.
“While belting out the Liverpool song Poor Scouser Tommy the other day it occurred to me that it is really long – over 250 words, at least. Are there any other original fan songs (not just songs written by bands and sung verbatim by supporters) that are longer?” wonders George Jones.
“Watching Daniel Sturridge run on at Anfield this weekend got me thinking: has anyone ever injured themselves running on as a substitute and been subbed off immediately?” asks Grant Ninnes.
Has there ever been a league top scorer only from penalties? If not, what's the highest number of penalties a player has scored in a season?
“I’m sure that Blyth Spartans’ 3-1 win away to Stockport in the Cup this weekend encouraged, for many of your readers, reminiscences about the days when the latter were good. But this led me to a question. Which former league teams have sunk to the lowest level? And I’m not counting sides that went out of business and later reformed, of which there are many. I know that Ashington, founder members of Division Three North (and managed by former England fast bowler Steve Harmison), are currently knocking about in Northern League Division One – the ninth tier of the pyramid – and have been one step lower in the recent past. Are there any continuously extant former league clubs doing worse?” – Rob Marriott.
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SOURCE : GUARDIAN SPORTS
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