“I noticed that Vincent, Sébastien and Olivier Thill have all scored for Luxembourg and wondered what the record is for the number of siblings who have scored for their country?” ponders Simon Hurst. “Their father, Serge Thill, also played for the national team but didn’t score.”
Russell Connor has another hat-trick of siblings to add to the list. “Alvin, Lorenzo and Jonathan Tehau are all brothers and have scored for Tahiti,” says Russell. “They also have a cousin – Teaonui Tehau – who has played and scored for Tahiti. Pleasingly there was also an instance of them all scoring in the same match: a 10-1 victory over Samoa in 2012 when Lorenzo scored four and the others got one each.”
Three siblings is good. But, as Kári Tulinius points out, three and a half is better. “Brothers Thordur, Bjarni, and Jóhannes Gudjónsson have all scored for the Icelandic national team,” says Kári, “as has their half-brother Björn Bergmann Sigurdarson.”
Luke Ingham informs us that the magnificent Laudrup brothers, Michael and Brian, hold the record for the most goals scored by siblings. Michael hit 37 and Brian 21. “You also mentioned the Thill father, which got me thinking about goalscoring families,” notes Luke. “The Laudrups can add their father Finn’s tally (nine) to get a total of 67.
“This, however, is narrowly beaten by the dedicated Pele/Ayew footballing dynasty, which includes Abedi Pele (33), Kwame Ayew (9), André Ayew (14) and Jordan Ayew (12). That’s a grand total of 68 international goals. The young Ayews also have a sister, Imani, who is a professional footballer, but I couldn’t find out anything about a goal record internationally.”
- Does anyone know of four siblings who have scored for their country? If so, email knowledge@theguardian.com or tweet @TheKnowledge_GU
The fickle finger of fate
@TheKnowledge_GU Has this happened anywhere else before? https://t.co/t7j6m3ZuVK
— Tomasz Mortimer (@TMortimerFtbl) August 17, 2018
The answer to this question is, unfortunately, always Paolo Diogo. Readers of a nervous disposition may want to skip forward a few paragraphs. From 2004:
Servette midfielder Paulo Diogo paid a heavy price for his romantic obligations. Diogo jumped up on a metal perimeter fence to salute travelling fans in celebration of setting up his team’s third goal for Jean Beauséjour in the 87th minute of their 4-1 away win over Schaffhausen in the Swiss Super League.
The Swiss-Portuguese, who only recently married, failed to notice that his newly-obtained wedding ring was caught in the barrier until he jumped back down and both the ring and most of his finger did not come with him. But that was not the end of his suffering. With Diogo in obvious pain and distress the game was held up while match stewards took part in a frantic search to retrieve the finger, which did not impress the referee Florian Etter one little bit.
Despite Diogo’s misfortune the 29-year-old midfielder got no sympathy from Etter and was promptly booked by the official for the length of his celebration. Diogo’s terrible night was capped when surgeons at a Zurich hospital admitted they were unable to re-attach his severed digit and advised the amputation of the remaining stump.”
Cartoon characters (2)
In last week’s Knowledge we looked at players who were named after cartoon characters. And there’s more where that came from!
“Glaybson Yago Souza Lisboa is a Brazilian full-back who goes by the name Yago Pikachu,” reports Russell Connor (again). “He’s at Vasco da Gama at the minute. Here’s a video featuring some of his highlights.”
For those over the age of past it, Pikachu is a species from the contemporary video game phenomenon, “Pokémon”.
Knowledge archive
“I see that Benfica and Porto are both unbeaten thus far this season,” wrote Paolo Cabrelli in 2013. “Has a top league (OK, let’s include Portugal) ever had two unbeaten teams in one season?”
Finished leagues containing two unbeaten teams are rarer than hen’s teeth. But thanks to the wonder that is RSSSF we were able to dig out a few examples: Estonia in 1992 (with Norma Tallinn and EP Johvi both unbeaten in the 13-game, two-stage league system), Hong Kong in 1985-86 and the unfinished Yugoslavian season of 1998-99.
• For thousands more questions and answers look through our archive.
Can you help?
“Neil Harris and Frank Lampard locked managerial horns this weekend,” writes Joe McDonagh. “Is this the first instance of two managers facing each other who went to the same private school, Brentwood (since the Wanderers v Old Etonion days)?”
“Cheltenham Town have opened the season with three consecutive 1-0 defeats. What’s the longest run of a team having exactly the same sequence of results to start a season?” asks Paul Oxenbury.
@TheKnowledge_GU This weekend BSC Hastedt scored their opener against Moenchengladbach in the 88th minute. Unfortunately, by this point they were already 11-0 down. With this in mind, what is the most consolation of consolation goals ever scored?
— Matt Taylor (@johnny_columbia) August 20, 2018
“It came to my attention that Mainz have a rather odd nickname,” begins Roar Gulbrandsen. “After a league fixture against die Nullfünfer (as they were founded in 1905), the newspaper headline the next day read: ‘Bayern hammer der Karnevalsverein’, and my interest was piqued. What could persuade someone to call their pride and joy a carnival union or a foundation of clowns or jesters?”
• Email your questions and answers to knowledge@theguardian.com or tweet @TheKnowledge_GU.
