Stats – Weird and Wonderful (41-50)
I bloody love a good random football fact. It’s what at least half of my brain space is taken up with on a daily basis. And so for this post I figured I would try to research and discover some of the most unusual facts, stats and stories from the footballing world.
Despite my best efforts to factcheck all these nuggets of information, I cannot guarantee their validity 100%, however if you want to correct me, why not send me a nicely worded tweet. And should you decide to share any of these with your friends down at the pub… remember nobody likes a know-it-all, as I’ve been told many times before.
Enjoy!
1. No English manager has won the Premier League, despite there being 11 different managers to win the big one in England.
2. In 1994, when making the transfer from Birmingham City to Stoke City, Paul Peschisolido was actually sold by his wife-to-be, Karen Brady.
3. Kazuyoshi Miura (King Kazu) is the oldest recognised professional football player, who at the age of 54, recently signed a 1 year contract extension at Yokohama FC where he has been since 2005. In those 16 years, he has made 277 appearances and scored 27 goals. In the early 2000s, he did have a trial at Bournemouth.
4. In the 2019/2020 Premier League season James Ward-Prowse ran further than any other player, at 334.6km for the entire season, enough to travel from St. Mary’s to Paris (if he fancied a move to PSG), I wonder if King Kazu got close to that.
5. Former Lille, Villarreal and Bordeaux midfielder Rio Mavuba has born at sea listed as his place of birth, and has made 14 appearances for the French national side.
6. Xabi Alonso grew up alongside current Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta. The 2 would occasionally play football together. Alonso also spent time in Ireland as a teenager through a school exchange programme.
7. Gareth Bale named his daughter with the initials AVB, apparently after the former Spurs boss Andre Villas-Boas who brought out some of the best of Bale in his first spell at the club. I doubt he’ll do the same for Zidane.
8. Speaking of Zidane, his infamous headbutt was turned into a five-foot statue displayed at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Created by artist Adel Abdessemed, it has been describes as an “ode to defeat”.
9. Former Bolton man Stuart Holden once played competitive Counter-Strike. Now, I have no idea what that game is, but it may mean something to someone.
10. Dutch side NAC Breda’s full name expands to Nooit opgeven altijd doorzetten, Aangenaam door vermaak en nuttig door ontspanning, Combinatie Breda. That has to be some sort of record.
If you have any weird or wonderful football stats you want to share with the world (or the 2 readers of this blog), get in touch @NextGoalWinBlog on Twitter, or @NextGoalWin on Instagram.