Best Footballer Names

BlueBen

Premiership Player
Jul 18, 2008
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A post I made in the Championship thread expressing my love of the name of Fulham player, Neeskens Kebano, got me thinking more broadly about my favourite footballer names.

I have decided to omit the many names that contain swear words/sexual innuendos etc. and just list names that, to me, anyway, sound cool/quirky/different, where you just hear/see a name and think, "That's a pretty bloody cool name."

So just for a bit of fun, and in no particular order, including players past and present:

Neeskens Kebano
Branko Strupar (Super Dooper)
Angel Rangel (probably the best current name in the Premier League)
Isaac Success
Kiki Musampa
Jan Venegoor of Hesselink (sounds more like a title than a name)
Ragnar Klavan
Radamel Falcao
Collins John (for the inverted nature of the name)
Paul Peschisolido
Vladimir Smicer
Tiberiu Ghioane
Henrikh Mkhitaryan
Sokratis Papastathopoulos
Granit Xhaka
Ricky van Wolfswinkel
Salomon Rondon
Linvoy Primus

I also enjoy hyphenated names, such as:

Spencer Weir-Daley (sounds like the local newspaper)
Gifton Noel-Williams (How many people called "Gifton" do you know? Does anyone else remember him?)
Shane Cansdell-Sheriff
Reuben Noble-Lazarus

Have at it!
 
Jun 18, 2014
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Gabriel Batistuta has always been my favourite.

Other favourites include -
Didier Drogba
Andrei Shevchenko
Roberto Baggio
Zinedine Zidane
Youri Djorkaeff
Marcel Desailly
Bixente Lizarazu
Ruud van Nistelrooy

Are you just naming boss footballers?
 

BlueBen

Premiership Player
Jul 18, 2008
4,667
3,482
Melbourne
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Didn't Fulham also have a John Collins who left just before they signed Collins John?

And keeping with the Fulham theme - Brian McBride.

A quick search reveals you to be correct. John Collins left Fulham in 2003 and Collins John joined Fulham in 2004. According to this article, Collins introduced John to the club: http://www.standard.co.uk/sport/john-collins-or-collins-john-6975400.html

I remember both players but didn't realise how close their careers were to intersecting at Fulham.
 
Jun 18, 2014
6,314
16,874
AFL Club
Port Adelaide
A quick search reveals you to be correct. John Collins left Fulham in 2003 and Collins John joined Fulham in 2004. According to this article, Collins introduced John to the club: http://www.standard.co.uk/sport/john-collins-or-collins-john-6975400.html

I remember both players but didn't realise how close their careers were to intersecting at Fulham.

This is obviously years and years ago now but I remember watching a game, Fulham must have been playing away, and Collins John scored and the commentator said "he's the first Fulham player to score at [away ground] since John Collins".

My head nearly fell off.
 
Not as good as this effort from the baseball
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Or even this

Photo-Oct-28-10-51-35-PM.jpg
 

Established1870

Norm Smith Medallist
Jun 28, 2016
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Tigris River
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Baghdad Bombers
In terms of awesome names by countries, players from Basque Country (so Athletic Bilbao and Real Sociedad) have the best names.

Iker Muniain
Asier Illaramendi
Inaki Williams
Aritz Arduriz
Aymeric Laporte
 
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