\u201cWho is the most prolific player with the initials XG?\u201d asks Oliver Forrest. \u201cAnd who has the highest goals and assists of players with the initials GA?\u201d<\/p>\n
There are only a handful of male* footballers with the initials XG \u2013 here is an exhaustive list. The diminutive journeyman Greek midfielder Xenofon Gittas scored 17 goals across his club career (plus three for Greece Under-21s) but cannot match the scoring exploits of Xhevdet Gela, who is our winner with 44 goals across all competitions including the Europa League with the Finnish sides MyPa and Lahti. Unusually, during a spell between 2019-2022 in which Gela was playing for Eken\u00e4s in Finland, he was also the full-time manager of a fourth-tier side, Esbo, a club around 80km away. Gela returned to the manager\u2019s role at Esbo in January this year, although not in a playing capacity.<\/p>\n
Details on the former Andorra international defender Xavier Gil are sparse, but he never left the Andorran Primera Divisi\u00f3 and it\u2019s fairly safe to assume that he, the Spanish centre-back Xabi Garalde (who made one appearance in Segunda B for Eibar) and the El Salvador international defender Xavier Garc\u00eda (who did score once for El Salvador against the Cayman Islands in a 2014 World Cup qualifier) did not beat Gela\u2019s total. The China international Geng Xiaofeng is possibly the best known footballer on this XG list, but as a goalkeeper did not trouble the scorers.<\/p>\n
There are thousands of footballers worldwide with the initials GA, but if we apply a bit of quality control \u2013 counting just players throughout history that have appeared at World Cups \u2013 there are two names that stand out. First, the German forward Gerald Asamoah, who has 183 goals and assists (113 goals, 70 assists) over a 19-year career, although it should be stated that many of his latter seasons were spent in the lower leagues and the reserve team of Schalke. Our winner, though, is surely Georgi Asparuhov. Nicknamed the Artist, Asparuhov scored 150 goals in 247 league games; he was also prolific in continental competition for Levski Sofia, including goals against Eus\u00e9bio\u2019s Benfica and Nereo Rocco\u2019s Milan, and netted Bulgaria\u2019s first ever World Cup goal in Chile in 1962, aged 19. We do not know how many assists Asparuhov registered, but he scored 188 goals across his career, which was tragically cut short at the age of 28 when he died in a 1971 car crash.<\/p>\n
Perhaps Asparuhov\u2019s most famous goal was against England at Wembley in December 1968. The striker\u2019s solo run started in his own half, continued with him outrunning the entire England defence and culminated in a neat finish into the bottom left corner. Sir Bobby Charlton later reflected: \u201cPlayers as gifted as him are not born every day. He was an incredible striker,\u201d and in 1999 Asparuhov was voted Bulgaria\u2019s best ever footballer ahead of Hristo Stoichkov, Bulgaria\u2019s sole Ballon d\u2019Or winner. We can only imagine how many the Artist would have gone on to score. You can read more about Asparuhov right here<\/a>.<\/p>\n In the Premier League, the highest goals and assists of players with the initials GA is comfortably Gabby Agbonlahor with 108 contributions (74 goals, 34 assists).<\/p>\n * It\u2019s much harder to find historical data for women\u2019s football \u2013 but if you have any examples of XG goalscorers, drop us a line<\/p>\n Gabriel Agbonlahor pictured at Aston Villa\u2019s training ground, Bodymoor Heath Lane, in 2006. Photograph: David Sillitoe\/The GuardianHungary for goals<\/p>\n \u201cThe top 10 goalscorers for Hungary all ended their careers in the 20th century,\u201d noted Cameron McGlone. \u201cWhich other national teams don\u2019t have a top-10 scorer who has played in the 21st century?\u201d<\/p>\n Peter Tomlin has come in clutch with this one, with the short answer to the question being \u2026 none. \u201cI\u2019ve looked through every single national team and their player records and I have concluded that there are no other national teams without a top-10 scorer who has played in the 21st century. There are three countries with eight of their top 10 : Indonesia, Malaysia and Poland.<\/p>\n \u201cFor Indonesia, their third-highest goalscorer \u2013 Bambang Pamungkas, who scored 38 goals in 86 caps and retired in 2019 \u2013 and their fifth-highest scorer Kurniawan Dwi Yulianto (33 goals) played in the 21st century. Malaysia\u2019s joint-sixth highest scorer Safee Sali scored 23 goals in 76 caps before retiring in 2022 and their eighth-highest, Safawi Rasid, is still playing. He has 22 goals in 70 caps.<\/p>\n \u201cPoland\u2019s all-time top goalscorer is Robert Lewandowski who has 86 goals in 160 appearances, with his latest coming in the World Cup qualifier versus Finland this month. The only other 21st-century footballer in the Polish top 10 is Jakub Blaszczykowski who is joint-ninth, with 21 goals in 109 games. He retired in 2023.<\/p>\n \u201cIt could be argued that the national side of Niue have no goalscorers in the 21st century. They have no goalscorers at all as they have only ever played two matches and lost them 0-14 to Tahiti and 0-19 to Papua New Guinea!\u201d<\/p>\n Different kits in the same match (part two)<\/p>\n After last week\u2019s leading question<\/a> on which teams have worn parts of three different kits in the same match, a few more of you have been in touch.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the infamous Man<\/a>chester United<\/a> \u2018grey shirts\u2019 match against Southampton<\/a>, they didn\u2019t actually wear the full grey kit,\u201d writes Mike Morris. \u201cInstead it was the grey shirt, white shorts from the home kit, and white socks from \u2026 well, no kit at all actually. United changed to the third kit in the second half, meaning they wore bits of four separate outfits.\u201d<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to Football Daily<\/p>\n Kick off your evenings with the Guardian’s take on the world of football<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Eric Cantona wears a mashup of Manchester United kits during a miserable first half at Southampton in 1996. United wore their third blue and white kit in the second half. Photograph: Fiona Hanson\/PA Wire\/PA Images<\/p>\n \u201cWhen Bournemouth and Boscombe Athletic beat Accrington Stanley 2-0 in a FA Cup third-round tie at Dean Court on 5 January 1957 they hadn\u2019t realised that in those days when there was a clash of colours it was the home team that had to change their kit. Seemingly Boscombe didn\u2019t have a second strip so someone was urgently despatched to Portsmouth to borrow a set of blue shirts from Pompey, complete with their iconic badge, and that\u2019s what they wore for the game. It must have been a good omen because they embarked on their best ever FA Cup run, beating Wolves and Spurs, before finally falling to Manchester United in the sixth round (by which time they had purchased a set of white shirts).\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cChelsea had a rule from 1964-65 that away teams could not wear the same socks, ie white, as them,\u201d notes Martin Moran. \u201cSpurs played at Stamford Bridge many times in all white with yellow socks. Here\u2019s a video from 1971<\/a>. Tottenham\u2019s away kit was all yellow and they only two kits back then.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNot quite the same thing, but in 2013 when Barnsley played Palace at Selhurst Park the referee decided that none of Barnsley\u2019s kit was suitable because of the colours so they had to buy Palace\u2019s yellow away kit at the club shop,\u201d emails Barnsley fan Lee Booids. \u201cI think that Palace charged them for the kit and Barnsley kept their red socks. I remember the Palace fans singing: \u2018Are you Palace in disguise?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhilst not an answer to this question, it did remind me of a match I attended where the home side was forced to wear their away kit at home in 1993,\u201d adds Roger Kirby. \u201cSheffield Wednesday wore a strip that was specifically commissioned for the Premier League match by sponsors (as it was still a novelty to be on the telly). This strip had very dark blue stripes and Wednesday didn\u2019t take a change kit with them. As a result, Newcastle were required to wear their blue change kit to avoid a clash of striped jerseys. I think the away team should have played skins.\u201d<\/p>\n Knowledge archive<\/p>\n