Footballer Initials

Matthew Green · Post by **Matthew Green** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 9:15 am

Challenge for football fans that is exasperating me and my mates:

Go through the alphabet and find players whose initials begin AB, BC, CD, DE etc
ie. Abel Balbo, Bobby Charlton

Then do the same with AA, BB, CC all the way up to Zinedine Zidane

Harder than it sounds!

Post your results in yellow please.

Jon Corby · Post by **Jon Corby** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 9:18 am

Calum Davenport

Steve Durney · Post by **Steve Durney** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 9:28 am

Hermann Hreidarsson
Gary Gillespie
Steve Staunton
Basil Boli

Jon Corby · Post by **Jon Corby** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 9:30 am

Colin Calderwood
Kevin Keegan
Paul Parker

Matthew Green · Post by **Matthew Green** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 9:32 am

Well yellow clearly doesnt work. Here are what Ive got so far:

Abel Balbo
Bruno Conti
Christian Dailly
Duncan Edwards
Enzo Francescoli
Fabio Grosso
Gunnar Halle
HI
IJ
Jurgen Kohler
Kyle Lightbourne
Lothar Matthaus
MN
NO
OP
PQ
QR
Ruben Sosa
Stuart Taylor
TU
Ulrich Van Gobbel
VW
WX
XY
YZ

Arthur Albiston
Billy Bremner
Chris Coleman
Dixie Dean
EE
FF
Gary Gillespie
HH
II
Joey Jones
Kevin Kilbane
Liam Lawrence
Malcolm MacDonald
Nacho Novo
OO
Paul Parry
QQ
Ray Ranson
Scott Sellars
Tommy Taylor
UU
VV
XX
YY
Zinedine Zidane

Jon Corby · Post by **Jon Corby** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 9:33 am

Can I have Ulrich Van Gobbel for UV? Dutch defender who played for Saints for bit, I believe he is now in hiding from the police after being involved in some kind of car theft ring. Legend.

Edit: Ha, how funny.

Junaid Mubeen · Post by **Junaid Mubeen** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 9:36 am

Efan Ekoku
Mike Newell

Steve Durney · Post by **Steve Durney** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 9:37 am

Francesc Fabregas
Walter Winterbottom
Could have had Jermaine Jenas as well.

Jon Corby · Post by **Jon Corby** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 9:52 am

Hermann Hreidarrson (sp?)

Steve Durney · Post by **Steve Durney** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 9:52 am

Emmanuel Eboue

Steve Durney · Post by **Steve Durney** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 9:53 am

Jon Corby wrote:Hermann Hreidarrson (sp?)

See post No 3

Jon Corby · Post by **Jon Corby** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 9:54 am

Steve Durney wrote:
Jon Corby wrote:Hermann Hreidarrson (sp?)
See post No 3

Ah, sorry, I was working off Matt's list! Would be useful if we had one list that was kept updated...

Steve Durney · Post by **Steve Durney** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 9:56 am

Mike Newell

Jon Corby · Post by **Jon Corby** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 10:05 am

Steve Durney wrote:Mike Newell

Since you did it to me...

See Junaid's post about 4 up!

HA! IN YOUR FACE!

Steve Durney · Post by **Steve Durney** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 10:07 am

Jon Corby wrote:
Steve Durney wrote:Mike Newell
Since you did it to me...

See Junaid's post about 4 up!

HA! IN YOUR FACE!

Damn!

Junaid Mubeen · Post by **Junaid Mubeen** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 10:24 am

Nacho Novo

EDit: just seen this in MG's list. Sheesh.

Matt Morrison · Post by **Matt Morrison** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 10:34 am

This is wicked. Only spent ten minutes on it so far but gonna post a couple suggestions before anybody else does.

NB: some of these are fresh ones filling gaps, and some of them are 'better'/'more recognisable' suggestions for ones already found.

AB, BC...
Gheorghe Hagi
Ian Joy (some dude from the MLS, not really happy with this but he fills a gap, for now)
Jan Koller
Rigobert Song

AA, BB...
Ade Akinbiyi
Carlton Cole
Didier Deschamps
Kasey Keller
Mbo Mpenza
Oguchi Onyewu
Rustu Recber
Steve Staunton

Matt Morrison · Post by **Matt Morrison** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 10:48 am

Just had a little look for Iliev, first I surname that came to mind.
Ivica Iliev played for Messina in Serie A a couple of years ago.
Again, one we probably don't know but fills a gap for now.

Jon Corby · Post by **Jon Corby** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 10:51 am

You suck at this game Matt. Not yellow enough.

Klinsmann is surely the most famous one for JK, no?

Jon Corby · Post by **Jon Corby** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 10:54 am

Shakin' Stevens is a good one for SS. Used to play for Fulchester United FC.

Matt Morrison · Post by **Matt Morrison** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 10:58 am

Jon Corby wrote:You suck at this game Matt. Not yellow enough.

Klinsmann is surely the most famous one for JK, no?

Depends whether you're on the beautiful old style forum or the shitty new "yeah let's make everything look like Windows Media Player" version. White is best for the old one, sorry.

And yeah, I went for Klinsmann then changed it to Jan Koller in an effort to go for more current players.
For the same reason, I just changed Didier Deschamps to Didier Drogba (though Damien Duff is another good option).

Matthew Green · Post by **Matthew Green** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 10:59 am

Ok, heres the current list, I'm trying to use the most imaginative ones:

Abel Balbo
Bruno Conti
Christian Dailly
Duncan Edwards
Enzo Francescoli
Fabio Grosso
Gunnar Halle
Hugo Ibarra
Ian Joy
Jurgen Kohler
Kyle Lightbourne
Lothar Matthaus
Mike Newell
Nedhua Onohua(sp)
OP
Paul Quinn
QR
Ruben Sosa
Stuart Taylor
TU
Ulrich Van Gobbel
VW
WX
XY
Yannick Zambernardi

Ade Akinbiye
Basile Boli
Chris Coleman
Dixie Dean
Efan Ekoku
Francesc Fabregas
Gary Gillespie
Herman Hreiddarson
Ivica Iliev
Joey Jones
Kasey Keller
Liam Lawrence
Malcolm MacDonald
Nacho Novo
Oguchi Onyewu
Paul Parker
QQ
Ray Ranson
Scott Sellars
Tommy Taylor
UU
VV
Walter Winterbottom
XX
YY
Zinedine Zidane

Matt Morrison · Post by **Matt Morrison** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 11:05 am

In an effort to remove all Man Utd players from my list, Paul Parker just got substituted for the well-named Paul Peschisolido.

Matthew Green · Post by **Matthew Green** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 11:14 am

Ok, so there are only 9 or 10 realistic ones left to get, I cant imagine theres many XXs out there.

If your stuck with that, how about first letter of forename and last letter of surname? ie. Alessandro Nesta.

Off you go...

Matthew Green · Post by **Matthew Green** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 11:19 am

Alessandro Nesta
BB
CC
DD
EE
FF
GG
HH
Imre Varadi
JJ
KK
LL
MM
Nigel Winterburn
OO
PP
QQ!
RR
Scott Sellars
TT
UU
Vladimir Vasiliev?
WW
XX
YY
ZZ

Matt Morrison · Post by **Matt Morrison** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 11:21 am

Paul Quinn plays for Motherwell.

Other interesting changes to my list: Artur Boruc (Celtic), Bruno Cheyrou (Liverpool), Gilles Grimandi (Arsenal).

Matt Morrison · Post by **Matt Morrison** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 11:26 am

YES! Filled in a tough one with this guy: Yannick Zambernardi (removed Wikipedia link as you can't control font colour for links)

Steve Durney · Post by **Steve Durney** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 11:26 am

Matthew Green wrote:Alessandro Nesta
BB
CC
DD
EE
FF
GG
HH
Imre Varadi
JJ
KK
LL
MM
Nigel Winterburn
OO
PP
QQ!
RR
Scott Sellars
TT
UU
Vladimir Vasiliev?
WW
XX
YY
ZZ

Emmanuel Eboue (again!)

Matt Morrison · Post by **Matt Morrison** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 11:40 am

Boca Juniors legend Hugo Ibarra

Matt Morrison · Post by **Matt Morrison** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 11:48 am

Matt Morrison wrote:YES! Filled in a tough one with this guy: Yannick Zambernardi (removed Wikipedia link as you can't control font colour for links)

Dur. Can't believe I'd forgotten about the relatively obvious Yuri Zhirkov.

What's left? NO, OP, QR, TU, VW, WX, XY, QQ, UU, VV, XX, YY. The first couple of those should surely be doable. Hmm.

Matthew Green · Post by **Matthew Green** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 12:01 pm

See the 10:59am post.

Matt Morrison · Post by **Matt Morrison** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 12:13 pm

Matthew Green wrote:See the 10:59am post.

Ah yeah. It's much tougher to keep tabs on an old post getting updated. Great spot though.
Wikipedia claims that his name is actually Chinedum Onuoha but fuck it, if an abbreviation is good enough for the Premier League, it's good enough for us.

Although the post comes up (correctly, I think) as 11.59am for me, you must have your local time zone settings wrong.

Matt Morrison · Post by **Matt Morrison** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 12:36 pm

VV: Valery Voronin

Matt Morrison · Post by **Matt Morrison** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 12:38 pm

XY: Xu Yunlong

Matt Morrison · Post by **Matt Morrison** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 12:41 pm

WX: Wei Xin

Matt Morrison · Post by **Matt Morrison** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 12:46 pm

TU: Tomáš Ujfaluši

Matt Morrison · Post by **Matt Morrison** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 12:50 pm

UU: Ugo Ukah

All of these are good to go on Wikipedia by the way, not making this shit up.

Matt Morrison · Post by **Matt Morrison** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 12:54 pm

OP: Ovidiu Petre

Matt Morrison · Post by **Matt Morrison** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 1:00 pm

YY: Yoshiteru Yamashita

Matt Morrison · Post by **Matt Morrison** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 1:03 pm

VW: Vance Warner

Jon Corby · Post by **Jon Corby** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 1:12 pm

It kinda defeats the point a bit when you start just trawling through lists of footballer's names looking for ones which match. IMO.

Matt Morrison · Post by **Matt Morrison** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 1:13 pm

QR: Quique Romero.

Listed by his proper name Enrique Romero on Wikipedia, but like many other Enriques, he's known primarily as Quique, as you can see here.

Matt Morrison · Post by **Matt Morrison** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 1:15 pm

Jon Corby wrote:It kinda defeats the point a bit when you start just trawling through lists of footballer's names looking for ones which match. IMO.

IMO too. Without doubt, it's a bit gay. It's that or give up though, I don't see that there's much other option for coming up with a WX or a VV.

Matt Morrison · Post by **Matt Morrison** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 1:16 pm

And that's me spent:

Artur Boruc
Bruno Cheyrou
Christophe Dugarry
Duncan Edwards
Enzo Francescoli
Fabio Grosso
Gheorghe Hagi
Hugo Ibarra
Ian Joy
Jan Koller
Kyle Lightbourne
Lothar Matthaus
Mike Newell
Nedum Onuoha
Ovidiu Petre
Paul Quinn
Quique Romero
Rigobert Song
Stuart Taylor
Tomáš Ujfaluši
Ulrich Van Gobbel
Vance Warner
Wei Xin
Xu Yunlong
Yuri Zhirkov

Ade Akinbiyi
Billy Bremner
Carlton Cole
Didier Drogba
Emmanuel Eboue
Francesc Fabregas
Gilles Grimandi
Herman Hreidarsson
Ivica Iliev
Jermaine Jenas
Kasey Keller
Liam Lawrence
Mbo Mpenza
Nacho Novo
Oguchi Onyewu
Paul Peschisolido
QQ
Rustu Recber
Steve Staunton
Tommy Taylor
Ugo Ukah
Valery Voronin
Wolfgang Wolf
XX
Yoshiteru Yamashita
Zinedine Zidane

I'd be impressed if anyone can find a QQ or an XX, trawling or otherwise.

Junaid Mubeen · Post by **Junaid Mubeen** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 3:34 pm

Whilst the current entry for LM is no doubt a legend, let's change it to Lionel Messi please!

Matt Morrison · Post by **Matt Morrison** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 3:44 pm

Just thought of a far better VV: Victor Valdes

Oliver Garner · Post by **Oliver Garner** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 6:20 pm

WW:Wolfgang Wolf

Matt Morrison · Post by **Matt Morrison** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 7:39 pm

Matt Morrison, on Mon Jun 22, 2009 2:16 pm, wrote:Wolfgang Wolf

Oliver Garner wrote:WW:Wolfgang Wolf

Oliver Garner · Post by **Oliver Garner** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 8:04 pm

Matt Morrison wrote:
Matt Morrison, on Mon Jun 22, 2009 2:16 pm, wrote:Wolfgang Wolf

Oliver Garner wrote:WW:Wolfgang Wolf

oops

Matt Morrison · Post by **Matt Morrison** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 8:08 pm

Oliver Garner wrote:oops

Have a look at my list. The only ones missing are XX (possibly some obscure Chinese player - Xi Xan or something?) and QQ (possibly some obscure Hispanic player - Quique Queiroz or something?). Not easy.

Oliver Garner · Post by **Oliver Garner** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 8:50 pm

Matt Morrison wrote:
Oliver Garner wrote:oops
Have a look at my list. The only ones missing are XX (possibly some obscure Chinese player - Xi Xan or something?) and QQ (possibly some obscure Hispanic player - Quique Queiroz or something?). Not easy.

I did but I missed Wolfgang Wolf but even if I had seen it I would have added it again because he's got an awesome name

Mike Brailsford · Post by **Mike Brailsford** » Wed Nov 11, 2009 10:37 pm

HH

Harold Halse

He scored 6 goals in one game for Manchester United in the 1911 Charity Shield and was the first player to play in the FA Cup Final for 3 different teams.

Martyn Simpson · Post by **Martyn Simpson** » Fri Nov 13, 2009 2:22 pm

XX
Xu Xiaofei - playing for a team I've not heard of, called Henan

QQ
Qamoliddin Qenjaev - a former Uzbekistan international