Footballers' Middle Names

[Satchmo Distel]

I just Googled Chris Waddle and noticed that his middle name is Roland, which immediately flashed up Roland Browning in my head (Roland waddles). I'm familiar with the exotic names of cricketers (Sir Garfield St Aubrun Sobers) but have never been aware of middle names of footballers due to there being no equivalent of Wisden or Cricinfo for that kind of thing.

What's your favourite middle name of a player?

[Duncan Gardner]

Clive Euclid Wilson

[Satchmo Distel]

As Viv played football for Antigua: Isaac Vivian Alexander Richards

[Gangster Octopus]

Robert (Bob) Primrose Wilson

[EIM]

Mark Hughes's middle name is Mark.

I quite like Peter Boleslaw Schmeichel. Boleslaw. Ace.

[Toby Gymshorts]

Paul "Fucking" Konchesky.

[ad hoc]

Gylffi Sigurdson's middle name is Thor.
Emile Ivanhoe Heskey

And not a middle name but I learned recently that Gerard Pique's full name is actually Gerard Pique Bernabeu

[ad hoc]

And isn't Ashley William's middle name something like Jazz?

[ursus arctos]

I can imagine that Piqué's mother was somewhat eager to shed her maiden name.

[treibeis]

Mark Peter Gertruda Andreas van Bommel
Aloysius Paulus Maria van Gaal

[treibeis]

Wolfgang Felix Magath
Jacob Harry Maguire

[Jah Womble]

Danny Nii Tackie Mensah Welbeck
Glen McLeod Cooper Johnson
Jack Porteous Cork
Kevin Jance Nolan

...and our old boy Stephen Carr's middle name is Babeson.

(All genuine, apparently.)

And isn't Ashley William's middle name something like Jazz?

Ashley Richards, it seems.

[Duncan Gardner]

I can imagine that Piqué's mother was somewhat eager to shed her maiden name.

Continuing the riff on my Dad attending big games while working abroad...

He supported Derby so was delighted to see them in the European Cup at Real Madrid in 1975. Santiago Bernabeu was an anglophile and generously gave the Brit Embassy free tickets and drinks etc. Of course they saw little of the game after that as after going out to the toilets you couldn't get back in through the throng

[Ray de Galles]

Ashley Richards, it seems.

Who is commonly known as Jazz Richards, it threw me when he was listed under his actual forename in one of his early Wales appearances.

[Ray de Galles]

Tyler D'Whyte Roberts is a favourite of mine.

Former Brighton midfielder Anthony Philip David Terry Frank Donald Stanley Gerry Gordon Stephen James Oatway (known as Charlie) was named after the entire 1973 QPR squad apparently.

[3 Colours Red]

Philip Nikodem Jagielka
Kevin Antonio Joel Gislain Mirallas
Jurgen Norbert Klopp
Nathan Antone Jonah Dyer
Mark Everton Walters (probably awkward when he moved to Anfield)
Jussi Albert Jaaskelainen
Celestine Hycieth Babayaro

[tee rex]

Cricketers' middle names were quite familiar as the initials were on scorecards, in the papers etc. A leftover from gentlemen v players, I suppose. When did football match programmes print the initials, did it happen much even post-WW2?

Bobby Moore was Chelsea (plus Frederick).

[Jah Womble]

Tyler D'Whyte Roberts is a favourite of mine.

That rather looks to me as though his parents couldn't spell 'Dwight'. Which would still be a good middle name for a footballer.

(Or a first name, in Dwight Gayle's case.)

[treibeis]

Kurt Happy Zouma

[Patrick Thistle]

Clinton Drew Dempsey is both his name and a complete sentence.

[treibeis]

John Arne Semundseth Riise.

[Southport Zeb]

This weeks contretemps within the England camp may have been a disagreement about whether a middle name should be plain or flashy, given that it involved Joseph Dave Gomez and Raheem Shaquille Sterling.

[treibeis]

Cricketers' middle names were quite familiar as the initials were on scorecards, in the papers etc. A leftover from gentlemen v players, I suppose. When did football match programmes print the initials, did it happen much even post-WW2?

Bobby Moore was Chelsea (plus Frederick).

Crickiters' initials were the object of one of the questions at the quiz at my wedding. There were four British people there, of whom none were cricket fans.

It was Graham Alan Gooch.

[Satchmo Distel]

I can imagine that Piqué's mother was somewhat eager to shed her maiden name.

An interesting idea for male dating strategies.

[Vicarious Thrillseeker]

Ché Zach Everton Fred Adams