\u201cWhich footballer has played for the most clubs?\u201d asks Paul Gage.<\/p>\n
Surprisingly, throughout the more than two decades of the Knowledge, this question has not been answered before. But, fear not, it will be now.<\/p>\n
Before we consult the Guinness World Records book, we should doff our cap to somebody who, though well short of the world record, has just moved to their 19th club. \u201cAt the age of 45,\u201d writes Mike Kilner, \u201cDerek Asamoah \u2013 best known for scoring at Anfield for Carlisle in the Carabao Cup<\/a> \u2013 will be looking to bang them this weekend for his 19th different club, Whitstable Town.\u201d<\/p>\n There is an official answer and an unofficial one. Let\u2019s start with the official. According to Guinness WR HQ<\/a>, the Uruguayan striker Sebasti\u00e1n Abreu played for the most professional clubs as he competed for 31 different sides across his 26-year career. Abreu, who is the manager of Tijuana, started his playing career in 1995 and retired in 2021. However, unofficially, there is a player who has competed for 20 (!) more clubs than Abreu \u2013 Jefferson Louis recorded 51 clubs in a 28-year career.<\/p>\n The Naming XI<\/p>\n \u201cThe Wrexham defender Max Cleworth has the letters of \u2018Wrexham\u2019 within his name,\u201d notes Mark Lumby. \u201cHave any other players had their club within their own name?\u201d<\/p>\n We had dozens of answers to this, so thank you to one and all. We\u2019ve whittled them down into a star-studded XI as follows. But first, some reasonably arbitrary rules:<\/p>\n 1. Prefixes and suffixes like United, City, FC, AC aren\u2019t included.<\/p>\n 2. Letters in a player\u2019s name can\u2019t be used twice \u2013 in other words, Dani Alves (Sevilla) doesn\u2019t qualify because his name only has one of the two Ls in Sevilla.<\/p>\n Manuela Zinsberger (Arsenal)<\/p>\n Lauren Bisan (Arsenal)<\/p>\n Lucas Radebe (Leeds)<\/p>\n Paolo Maldini (Milan)<\/p>\n Ashley Cole (Chelsea)<\/p>\n Trevor Steven (Everton)<\/p>\n Michael Essien (Chelsea)<\/p>\n Neymar da Silva Santos J\u00fanior (Santos)<\/p>\n Alan Sunderland (Arsenal)<\/p>\n Frank Stapleton (Arsenal)<\/p>\n Victor Anichebe (Everton)<\/p>\n Now this one is a bit more obscure in terms of football knowledge, but the anagram element is easier to spot. David Ekstrand emails: \u201cWith regard to Mark Lumby\u2019s question, Ian Sirelius played 152 games for Swedish club Sirius, starting in the third tier and ending in the top flight.\u201d<\/p>\n Dave Mellinger says answers are easier to find in America: \u201cThis challenge is probably easier in the States, where teams aren\u2019t necessarily named after their cities, than in Britain. My local NWSL team is the [Portland] Thorns, for which defender Cheyenne Shorts qualifies. An even shorter team name is Bay (FC), for which Dorian Bailey, Brooklyn Courtnall, and Abby Dahlkemper qualify. In fact, Dorian Bailey\u2019s last name works by itself, as does Dahlkemper\u2019s first name.\u201d<\/p>\n Abby Dahlkemper celebrates Women\u2019s World Cup glory with the USA in 2019 \u2013 in 2024 she moved to a club whose name can be made from the letters in her first name. Photograph: NurPhoto\/Getty Images<\/p>\n \u201cBy no means exhaustive and I had to take a bit of leeway with some middle names,\u201d Russell Yong emails. \u201cBut here are a few examples \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n Arsenal: Alan Sunderland, Tony Alexander Adams<\/p>\n Chelsea: Michael Essien; Ruben Ira Loftus-Cheek<\/p>\n Celtic: Carlton Michael Cole<\/p>\n Leeds: Eddie Lewis<\/p>\n Leicester: Kasper Peter Schmeichel<\/p>\n West Ham: Matthew Upson<\/p>\n Stuart Basson has taken the next step with his answer. He writes: \u201cNot only did the following players have their club\u2019s letters in their name, their surname was their club\u2019s name!\u201d<\/p>\n Ben Barnett (Barnet) 1993-94<\/p>\n Lewis Bradford (Bradford City) 1940s<\/p>\n Arthur Blackburn (Blackburn Rovers) 1899<\/p>\n Ronnie Bolton (Bolton Wanderers) 1898<\/p>\n Frank Burton (Burton Swifts) 1898<\/p>\n Jimmy Shields (South Shields) 1961<\/p>\n The biggest leap in levels between games, pt II<\/p>\n In last week\u2019s Knowledge<\/a>, we looked at players who jumped several levels from one professional game to the next. \u201cKevin Keegan deserves a mention,\u201d writes John Neal. \u201cHe played for Scunthorpe v Brentford in the old Fourth Division (they finished 17th) before making his debut for Liverpool against Nottingham Forest in the First Division (and scoring 12 minutes into the game). Liverpool finished third that season, one point behind Derby and level on points with Manchester City and Leeds.\u201d<\/p>\n Kevin Keegan goes airborne for Liverpool against Zurich in the 1976-77 European Cup semi-final, second leg. Six years earlier he made the leap from fourth tier to first when he left Scunthorpe. Photograph: PA Archive\/PA Images<\/p>\n Alan Burgess suggests Chris Smalling and Maximilian Kilman, who both took a shortcut from non-league to Premier League: Maidstone to Fulham in Smalling\u2019s case, Maidenhead to Wolves in Kilman\u2019s. Alan Shoulder jumped from Blyth Spartans (Northern League) to Newcastle (the old Division Two) in 1978; thanks to Richard Slassor for that one. And, finally, Liverpool legend Roger Hunt joined them straight from Stockton Heath (which later became Warrington Town) in 1958.<\/p>\n \u201cMikel Arteta (one title) is the only manager with title-winning experience (in England) heading into the new season. Is this the only time since 1889-90 that there is only a single title among the managers at the start of the season?\u201d asks Jeremy Finch.<\/p>\n This question has quickly been debunked by Paul Waite. He says: \u201cEverton manager David Moyes took the Division Two (third tier) title with Preston in 1999-2000 and Manchester City head honcho Enzo Maresca won the Championship with Leicester in 2023-24.\u201d<\/p>\n But if Jeremy means the Premier League title specifically, then this season Arteta is the only manager to have won it from the dugout. There has been another occasion where this has happened, in the 1891-92 season with the then Everton manager, Dick Molyneux, having the only top-flight title-winning experience. But if anyone can find another season that you think we may have missed, email the usual place<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Knowledge<\/a>Knowledge archive<\/p>\n \u201cAfter listening to Arsenal fans moaning following their 3-0 defeat by Chelsea, I wondered: has a manager ever been sacked because of poor pre-season results?\u201d asked Paul Cartwright in 2017.<\/p>\n We have previously looked at managers who were sacked during the summer break<\/a>, though not specifically at those who lost their job because of pre-season results. So here\u2019s Oliver Robinson, waiting to tell us a story. \u201cI\u2019ll take you down to Hampshire,\u201d says Oliver, \u201cwhere, in 2015, Bashley sacked their manager<\/a> \u2013 the ex-Chelsea, Millwall and Dallas Sidekicks defender David Stride \u2013 after five and a half weeks. The Bash said that it was because of \u2018a run of poor pre-season results and lack of player signings\u2019 although the run wasn\u2019t that bad: four games, no goals, eight conceded.\u201d<\/p>\n There was a variation on this theme during the USSR\u2019s preparation for the 1986 World Cup. \u201cThe manager, Eduard Malofeyev, was sacked a month before the start of the competition, specifically due to \u2018poor results in friendlies\u2019,\u201d says Marat Airapetian. \u201cThe replacement was the great Valeriy Lobanovskyi, which was only natural, considering that out of 22 players in the squad, 12 represented his club, Dynamo Kyiv.\u201d<\/p>\n A statue commemorating Valeriy Lobanovskyi in Kyiv. He made an eye-popping impact for the Soviet Union when he took over just before the 1986 World Cup. Photograph: Anastasia Vlasova\/The Guardian<\/p>\n In that case, the end justified the means. The USSR were one of the teams of the tournament, even though they went out in the last 16. They thrashed Hungary 6-0 and scored umpteen long-range screamers before losing 4-3 to Belgium in a thriller.<\/p>\n