{"id":452921,"date":"2026-02-04T08:32:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T08:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/452921\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T08:32:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T08:32:08","slug":"celebrating-the-most-remarkable-almost-one-club-players-in-football-soccer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/452921\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating the most remarkable almost-one-club players in football | Soccer"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIan Muir played 95% of his games for Tranmere<\/a>,\u201d writes Robert Abushal. \u201cOne-club players aside, who\u2019s the closest to 100% without being 100%?\u201d<\/p>\n

One-club men and women are among football\u2019s more celebrated groups, the players who dedicated their entire career to one particular cause. Athletic Club give out the One Club Man and One Club Woman awards each year; the list of recipients include Paolo Maldini, Matthew Le Tissier and Malin Mostr\u00f6m.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no such recognition of Almost One Club Men and Women, unless you count answers in one-newspaper trivia columns. (The Knowledge has no comment to make on reports that we turned down a small-money move to a rival broadsheet in 2005.) We had dozens of answers to this question \u2013 thanks to all of you \u2013 so let\u2019s count them down in ascending order of One Clubness.<\/p>\n

First, a couple of bits of housekeeping:<\/p>\n

We haven\u2019t included non-league teams, which rules out Paul Scholes (three games for Royton) and Le Tissier (Eastleigh) among others. We\u2019ve also excluded Hamburg legend Uwe Seeler, whose one appearance for Cork Celtic was in a sponsored event.<\/p>\n

Data on appearances for individual players can vary from source to source, particularly for older players. We made a judgment call in each case, so the figures may only be 99.82% correct. But that\u2019s appropriate for this question, right? Right?<\/p>\n

97.51% Gabby Agbonlahor (401 appearances: 2 Watford, 8 Sheffield Wednesday, 391 Aston Villa)
Agbonlahor went on loan to Watford and Sheffield Wednesday at the start of his career<\/p>\n

97.63% David Narey (886 appearances: 865 Dundee United, 21 Raith Rovers)<\/p>\n

97.78% Manny Kaltz (754 appearances: 722 Hamburg, 1 Bordeaux, 16 Mulhouse, 15 Hamburg)<\/p>\n

98.38%* Thomas M\u00fcller (804 appearances, 791 Bayern Munich\/Bayern Munich II, 13 Vancouver Whitecaps)
M\u00fcller is still with Vancouver Whitecaps, so this percentage is likely to drop<\/p>\n

Thomas M\u00fcller greets Vancouver Whitecaps fans in August last year. Photograph: Rich Lam\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

98.63% David O\u2019Leary (732 appearances: 722 Arsenal, 10 Leeds)<\/p>\n

98.88% Daniele De Rossi (623 appearances: 616 Roma, 7 Boca Juniors)<\/p>\n

99.01% Rog\u00e9rio Ceni (1,209 appearances: 12 Sinop, 1,197 S\u00e3o Paulo)<\/p>\n

99.41% Lewis Dunk (512 appearances: 3 Bristol City, 509 Brighton)
Dunk also played eight games on loan at non-league Bognor Regis<\/p>\n

99.58% Tom Finney (475 appearances: 473 Preston North End, 1 Toronto City, 1 Distillery)<\/p>\n

99.62% John Ebbrell (266 appearances: 265 Everton, 1 Sheffield United)<\/p>\n

99.69% John Atyeo (647 appearances: 2 Portsmouth, 645 Bristol City)
Atyeo also played for non-league Westbury United<\/p>\n

99.81% Steve Death (538 appearances: 1 West Ham, 537 Reading)<\/p>\n

99.82% Matt Bloomfield (558 appearances: 1 Ipswich, 557 Wycombe Wanderers)<\/p>\n

\u201cCurrent Oxford United manager Matt Bloomfield played for Wycombe Wanderers for 19 years, amassing 557 appearances in league and cup,\u201d writes Andy Carswell. \u201cHowever, despite being known by fans as Mr Wycombe he actually started his career as a trainee at Ipswich Town, the team he supported as a boy. He made one League Cup appearance for them, meaning that 557 out of the 558 matches (or 99.82%) he played as a professional were for Wycombe.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYour question about footballers\u2019 funerals on TV reminded me that when the Turkey striker Hakan Sukur got married, that this was broadcast on live television. Have any other footballing nuptials been broadcast for any reason?\u201d asks Andrew Miles.<\/p>\n

Even by the standards of modern life, Hakan Sukur\u2019s story is extraordinary. He has lived in exile in the United States since 2016<\/a> after being indicted for insulting Turkey\u2019s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan<\/a>, on social media. Twenty-one years earlier, Erdogan \u2013 then the mayor of Istanbul \u2013 was present at Sukur\u2019s wedding to Esra Elbirlik.<\/p>\n

Sukur, Turkey\u2019s star player, was in the process of his inspiring his country to qualify for Euro 96 \u2013 their first appearance at a European Championship. His wedding was a huge deal . The marriage lasted only a few months; tragically, Elbirlik died in a 1999 earthquake at the age of 24.<\/p>\n

While Sukur has a case for being Turkey\u2019s greatest ever footballer, Ianis Hagi is unquestionably the son of Romania\u2019s finest, a genius called Gheorghe who lorded over international football between 1983 and 2000 (and also played alongside Sukur at Galatasaray). In the summer of 2024, shortly after Romania\u2019s participation at the European Championship, Hagi was married to Elena Tanase on live TV. It was reported that the rights were sold for over \u20ac200,000.<\/p>\n

In December 1997, Peru and Boca Juniors winger Nolberto Solano \u2013 six months away from becoming a Newcastle player \u2013 married Claudia de la Flor in a ceremony that was broadcast live on Channel 4. That\u2019s Channel 4 of the Am\u00e9rica Televisi\u00f3n network, obviously.<\/p>\n

And it was Sky Sport Italia who showed Francesco Totti\u2019s nuptials in 2005. \u201cTotti, the darling son of Rome, married Ilary Blasi, a TV presenter and model,\u201d writes Lee Wilson. \u201cThe whole day was covered live by Sky Sport Italia. Should you be so inclined, you can watch \u2018highlights\u2019 of it here<\/a> \u2026 but I wouldn\u2019t bother.<\/p>\n

Perhaps some of these devoted Roma fans tuned in to watch Francesco Totti get married. Photograph: Federico Proietti\/Sync\/Agf\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cameras were inside the church too and not just observing from outside. And given that this is 2005, there is a real feeling of Hello magazine about it all. Sadly, their union wasn\u2019t one that would endure and things got pretty unpleasant when they decided to split in 2022. Still, for one day at least, they were the perfect couple, and the world got to peek inside Basilica di Santa Maria in Aracoeli to see them radiating happiness and say \u2018Io faccio\u2019 live on TV!\u201d<\/p>\n

Knowledge archive<\/p>\n

\u201cWikipedia says Melchester Rovers have won 35 major trophies. Are they the most successful fictional team ever?\u201d tweeted SteadfastTweet in the days when you tweeted.<\/p>\n

Thanks to Roy Race\u2019s remarkable form for the team in the 1960s and 70s, Melchester\u2019s haul of baubles is even more impressive than that reported by our good friend Wikipedia. It includes 14 league championships, 16 FA Cups, three European Cups, four Cup Winners\u2019 Cups, one Uefa Cup, three League Cups and the 1981-82 Second Division title \u2013 42 trophies in total. And nobody in the world of football fiction can compete with that.<\/p>\n

In terms of prestigious titles only, Harchester United of Sky One\u2019s drama series Dream Team weigh in with a significant number of trophies with eight (that includes three Second Division titles and, weirdly, the 1926-27 Third Division North title).<\/p>\n

But success comes in different forms. It is clear, for example, that Rugged Island are always victorious<\/a> over Father Ted\u2019s Craggy Island in the All-Priests Five-a-Side Over-75s Indoor Challenge Football Match. Then there are the overachievers \u2013 who would\u2019ve thought plucky, inexperienced Ukrainian side The Cossacks would win the World Cup<\/a> despite away games in medieval England and renaissance France, or that Captain Tsubasa<\/a> would take Japan to the 2002 World Youth Cup final?<\/p>\n

And no list of successful fictional sides would be complete without mention of the, er, 1998 World Cup-winning Iceland side, as recounted in Robin Chambers\u2019s 1976 book The Ice Warrior and Other Stories<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Knowledge archive<\/a>Can you help?<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Liverpool\u2019s 6-0 win over Qarabag, Virgil van Dijk achieved a \u2018perfect\u2019 hat trick of assists (one with his right foot, one with his left foot, one with his head),\u201d writes Joe Adamson. \u201cHow common is it for a player to manage this in one game? Is it a statistic that is even recorded?\u201d<\/p>\n

Virgil van Dijk celebrates after assisting Liverpool\u2019s Federico Chiesa against Qarabag. Photograph: Richard Martin-Roberts\/CameraSport\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cAll these European nights have got me thinking \u2013 what\u2019s the smallest league out there?\u201d wonders Stephen Hogg. \u201cLet\u2019s say it has to feature at least three teams and the possibility of relegation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s the highest number of different players to score a league goal in a club\u2019s season (excluding own goals)?\u201d wonders Richard Askham. \u201cHuddersfield Town reached a club -ecord 20 on Saturday and with three of their four strikers injured, suspended or loaned out, should add more in the last 16 games.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFor clubs and country, Igor Jesus has scored in eight different competitions this season,\u201d notes Andrew Boulton. \u201cCan anyone top that?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the Champions League match between PSV Eindhoven and Bayern Munich, the German team made four substitutions at the same time in the second half (62nd minute),\u201d writes Stephan Wijnen. \u201cThe four players entering the pitch had a combined estimated value of \u20ac265m (Harry Kane, Michael Olise, Serge Gnabry and Alphonso Davies). Is this the most expensive combined substitution ever?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIan Muir played 95% of his games for Tranmere,\u201d writes Robert Abushal. \u201cOne-club players aside, who\u2019s the closest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":452922,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-452921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=452921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452921\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/452922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}