“A recent Knowledge made reference to Willem II, a team from Tilburg named after a dead king,” begins Tom Paternoster-Howe. “This reminded me of my local team, Enfield Town, who play at the Queen Elizabeth Stadium, and it got me wondering whether other teams have royal connections in their names or their stadium names. I should say ‘excepting all the Spanish teams whose names start with ‘Real’’, obviously.”
Lots of answers to this, none more comprehensive than Phil Lacy’s, who has an unerring knowledge of Poland and Belgium. “In the Ekstraklasa, there are two teams harking back to a pair of Polish royal dynasties, Jagellonia Bialystok and Piast Gliwice. Jagiellonia are named for the Jagiellonian dynasty, who ruled between 1386 and 1596 following the coronation of Wladyslaw II Jagiello, formerly Grand Duke of Lithuania. Piast are named for the Piast Dynasty, rulers of Poland between 960 and 1370. It doesn’t end there, though. In the second division, we can find Chrobry Glogow, named for one of the Piast kings, Boleslaw Chrobry.
“All Belgian clubs deemed by the country’s FA to be more than 50 years old (taking into account mergers) are entitled to add the moniker ‘royal’ to their full name, yet only one such side – Antwerp – seems to be frequently referred to as such in its abbreviated form … at least in English. Eight seasons ago I took in two of Mons’ home games against OH Leuven and noticed their full name was listed as RAEC Mons. It turned out this stood for ‘Royal Albert and Elisabeth Club’, in honour of Albert of Saxe-Coburg and his wife, Elisabeth von Wittelsbach (otherwise known as Elisabeth of Bavaria or the ‘Red Queen’), who were Belgian king and consort, respectively, at the time of the team’s foundation. Sadly, the club folded a few years after I saw them and had to start again in the provincial leagues after taking over nearby local club Quévy. Since then their official name has simply been Albert-Quévy Mons.”
Staying in Belgium, Kyle Hill suggests the now defunct Léopold Football Club, who were founded in 1893 and named after controversial King Léopold II. After a last-place finish in the top division prior to the first world war, they folded.
In England, Crewe’s famous team were named after Princess Alexandra in 1887 and Milton emails to say that FK Obilic, in Serbia, took its name for Milos Obilic, who was at service of Prince Lazar.
Next, to Sweden! With Kári Tulinius! “There are two clubs named after kings, though both are legendary figures rather than purely historical. Fjölnir FC are named after King Fjölnir, whose supposed descendants, the Yngling dynasty, were the historical kings of Sweden early in its history. Völsungur Húsavík are named after the legendary progenitor of the Völsung dynasty of kings, who feature prominently in, among other things, Wagner’s Der Ring des Niebelungen. Furthermore, there’s a club called Fylkir, whose name is an archaic word for ‘king’.”
If we venture further afield, Ghanaian side Solomon FC take their name from the former king of Israel. The same man can also be held responsible for a country and therefore a national team, the Solomon Islands, a name given by the Spanish explorer Álvaro de Mendaña, reportedly because he mistakenly believed that they contained great riches and he believed them to be home of the lost city of Ophir.
The 1,000 internationals club
“England’s behind-closed-doors game against Croatia last Friday was their 988th senior match. Have any countries played more?” asks Tom Hiskey.
Reader Adam was quick to raise his hand. “According to the excellent 11v11.com, three nations have racked up more than 1,000 full internationals,” he tweets. “Mexico: P1,001 W521 D226 L254; Argentina: P1,026 W565 D234 L227; and South Korea: P1,160 W637 D249 L274.”
Vegetables hurled at players and managers (3)
First mentioned a few weeks back, still your anecdotes come …
“Gillingham fans went through a phase of waving and throwing celery towards our goalkeeper Jim Stannard as dietary advice (while singing the ‘Celery’ chant to the tune of Wem-ber-ley, which originated with Chelsea),” recalls Michael Pilcher. “Big Jim, at 16st 6lb, was the heaviest player in the league. It got to the point that the club eventually banned celery from the ground – fans were subjected to celery searches before entering – on health and safety grounds in case Jim or any of the other players got hit. However, I should point out it was an affectionate thing rather than due to underperforming. During Jim’s first season in 1995-96, we got promoted and he broke two records, conceding just 20 goals and keeping 29 clean sheets, which were both records for a 46-game season. Legend.” More from this 1996 Independent story.
Knowledge archive
“It seems like Russian clubs have a lot of Brazilians in their squads,” wrote Kai Helge Aalhus in 2012. “In a recent match between Shakhtar Donetsk and Chelsea I counted 10 Brazilian-born players among the 36 players on the pitch and bench. Can any other non-European country match this number of players involved in a Euro tie?”
It’s not a European tie, but a Serie A game earlier that season was worthy of note. “Inter’s 2-0 win over Catania last week kicked off with 13 Argentinians on the pitch (Esteban Cambiasso, Diego Milito, Rodrigo Palacio, Walter Samuel and Javier Zanetti for Inter, Sergio Almirón, Pablo Álvarez, Mariano Andújar, Pablo Barrientos, Gonzalo Bergessio, Alejandro Gómez, Mariano Izco, Nicolás Spolli for Catania),” wrote Todd Ashton. “A further three came on as substitutes (Ricardo Álvarez for Inter, Lucas Castro and Adrian Ricchiuti for Catania – though Ricchiuti is a naturalised Italian). So of the 27 players used in the match, 16 were born in Argentina and for the last 20 minutes 14 of them were playing together.”
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“What is the fastest debut goal ever scored?” wonders Carl Worswick.
Can’t imagine there’s many sides anywhere who have done that. One for @TheKnowledge_GU https://t.co/VMiuEAWjFp
— Richard Wilson (@timomouse) October 20, 2018
“Singapore’s national coach Fandi Ahmad, appointed in May, has picked his two sons Irfan Fandi and Ikhsan Fandi for recent friendlies,” writes HK Chia. “Is this the first time two siblings are playing for their parent in a national team?”
“Last Tuesday, King’s Lynn Town (of the Southern League Premier Division Central) beat Leiston 5-1,” writes Andy King. “Their scorers wore shirt numbers 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11, respectively. Have there been any other straight flushes of goalscorers?”
“I have a memory from an old childhood annual that Manchester United are the only team to have fielded three Ballon d’Or winners on the same pitch, back when Charlton, Law and Best were playing,” notes Dan Wardle. “Is this right? And which match featured the most Ballon d’Or winners on the pitch at the same time?”
@TheKnowledge_GU Wikipedia (https://t.co/52UA8Halj5) informs me that Shankhouse FC of Cramlington were champions of the Northern Football Alliance in 1891-92. It was 2004-05 when they next won it. Are there longer gaps than 113 years between victories in the same competition?
— Rob Shaw (@WhatIsRobShaw) October 19, 2018
“Has a goal every been scored accompanied by the sound of thunder or a crack of lightning?” wonders Joe Deasy. “Somewhat biblical, but think of the scenes!”
@Aubameyang7 entered the pitch in 61st minute last night. He had two goals on his account by 66th. Any sub took less time than Auba to score a brace?
— Emerytus (@EmerytusN) October 23, 2018
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