There’s a odd aspect of history that I’m often drawn to think about. It’s the degrees-of-separation game extended through time. Consider this as an example: I know a woman who as a teenager in Jamaica met T. S. Eliot, whose grandmother—she lived next door to him in St. Louis—remembered her great-uncle John Adams, who once, when living in Paris, met Voltaire at the theatre. And Voltaire was born in 1694. That’s how quickly we can skip from you and me to the seventeenth century: it’s really not that long ago.
This works with the brief generations of athletic careers too. So consider this: Watching Shaun Wright-Phillips on the pitch for QPR this morning, I was reminded that early in his career, when he played for Manchester City, one of his teammates was Peter Schmeichel. Yes, Peter Schmeichel—who overlapped on the Danish national team with Allan Simonsen, who played at Borussia Mönchengladbach with Berti Vogts.
And that’s not anything like an extreme example. So I propose a game for RoP readers: try to find the shortest route back from a player of today to a great player of the past—Pelé, Puskás, George Best—using only teammates as links. Go to it.
Read More: Going the Extra Mile
by Alan Jacobs · October 3, 2011
I’ve heard that Andy Carroll’s got the same best friend as George Best…
I’ll let myself out.
Are we also trying to determine the footballing equivalent of Kevin Bacon?
You can go from a player who played in the 1930/31 season to a player still playing English league football today in three steps:
Stanley Matthews made his debut in the 1930/31 season
He played in the same Stoke City side in 1965 as Alan Bloor.
Alan Bloor played in the same Stoke City a decade later as Peter Shilton.
Peter Shilton played in the same Leyton Orient team in the 1996/97 season as Scott McGleish
McGleish ist still turning out for Bristol Rovers today, and has already scored two this season.
80 years, four players.
@Nick I was going to say that that would have to be Sir Stanley Matthews, and then ReviewWCWThunder launched that screamer from 35 meters out that nearly tore through the netting.
@ReviewWCWThunder And Stanley Matthews played at Stoke with Bob McGrory, who was born in 1891 and made his senior debut in 1919.
Alessandro Nesta was brilliant against Barcelona.
Spent much of his career playing alongside the amazing Paolo Maldini.
Paolo’s dad Cesare Maldini was in Italy’s 1962 WC squad where he played alongside…
Giovanni Trapattoni.
Javi Hernandez played in the same Man Utd team as Edwin van der Sar, who played in an Ajax team (in 1995) that included Frank Rijkaard, who started playing for Ajax in 1980, where his teammate was Ruud Krol. Krol played with Cruyff and Neeskens for Ajax and the Dutch national team.
Francesco Totti became 35 last week. He played with Cafu, Cafu played with Romario. Romario played with Laudrup, he played with Tardelli, Tardelli played with Capello. Capello played at Roma with Joaquin Peiró. Hé played with Vava at Atletico. Vava played withy Pele. Pele played with Garrincha.
(I had to look up Peiró…)
You can get to Cruyff much quicker. Seedorf played with Rijkaard who started at Ajax during Cruyff’s final years.
I can’t find an exact roster for the game, but Sócrates turned out for Gadforth Town in 2004, and himself was on the 1982 world cup roster with Serginho, who played at Santos with Pelé. Pelé was on the 1958 squad with Nilton Santos, who apperaed with Leônidas, the Brazilian legand whose career began before the first world cup. Arthur Friedenreich was wrapping up his career with the national team as Leônidas debuted, not suprising considering he appeared in Brazil’s first ever game against Exeter City in 1914.
Assumed Garforth active player–>Sócrates–>Serginho–>Pelé–>Nilton Santos–>Leônidas–>Arthur Friedenreich
Ryan Giggs played with Bryan Robson who signed for Manchester United in 1981. Robson played with Martin Buchan who played with George Best.
Ryan Giggs appeared in a friendly with Moses, who briefly played for Maccabi Hebron with Noah, who played a match on the Ark with Adam.
Pretty sure that wins.
@sidereal Giggs was so past his prime in that game.
Mattia De Sciglio (born 1992) made his debut for Milan in the Champions League last week. His teammate (and club captain) is Massimo Ambrosini, who played with legendary libero Franco Baresi, whose rossoneri debut occurred while “Golden Boy” Gianni Rivera was still in the team, who himself got his start at Milan when the captain was still Nils Liedholm, who led Sweden to the 1958 World Cup final which they lost to Pele’s Brazil. There, a Milan-themed answer without any mention of a Maldini!
@Nick I’d assume football’s Kevin Bacon would be someone like Cruyff. You’d be hard pressed to find a (European) player who’s more than six degrees from him, I think.
I took to the fields last Sunday with a bunch of mates for a casual game. I scored a wonderful late goal, and owing to magical ability despite my stocky build, my Hungarian friend christened me “Puskas”.
Me —> Puskas.
@The Grazer
Mine is not quite as good, but I’m always like it–one of friends started calling me “pibe”, referring to Carlos Valderrama and my excess of curly hair.
@runofplay You just stole several hours from my employer.
@Dillon Carlo Cudicini uses the same route to get to Cruyff.
Roberto Carlos played with Zinho at Palmieras who played with Zico at Flamengo.
Javier Zanetti played with Maradonna and Ruggeri in the 94 World Cup squad.
The fastest I could find to Puskas:
Cani and Gabriel Milito played with Paco at Zaragoza who played with Miguel Angel Portugal at Cordoba who played with Pirri at Madrid who played with Puskas at Madrid.
This is neat.
Surely Zlatan Ibrahimovic is the modern day Kevin Bacon of football – evergreen journeyman, overblown ego, ubiquitously employed despite being a dick.
Isn’t Ryan Giggs immortal? He must have played cuju in China with members of the Xia dynasty!
..and then I realized that I stole sidereal’s joke.
Maxi Pereira is Benfica’s right back. He played with Rui Costa for a couple of seasons. Rui made his debut in 1991, in that team the right back was António Veloso, who back in the eighties played with Néne who played with Eusébio.
@Jack Rabbit You´re the Best man…A Benfica themed players link…My favorite team
Dennis Bergkamp, when not not flying on planes, won the FA Cup with the Arsenal, and played alongside Lee Dixon.
Lee Dixon, very briefly once upon a time, played for Burnley, during which period it seems he shared a big soapy postmatch bath or two with a certain Tommy Hutchinson.
Tommy Hutchinson (moving back forward in time for necessity’s sake now) was still marauding around the turf of Turf Moor when Burnley signed Joe Neenan to hang about between the sticks.
Joe Neenan had played (but was more notably once arrested) with the now Sir Ian Terence Botham OBE at Scunthorpe in the early 1980s.
Ian Botham presumably learnt the more belligerent aspects of his personality from hanging around England cricket dressing rooms (#poppingcrease) listening to teammate Geoffrey Boycott droning on about Yorkshire and sticks of rhubarb.
Boycott played test cricket with Colin Cowdrey, and Colin Cowdrey played test cricket with Denis Compton when Denis Compton wasn’t busy winning the FA Cup with the Arsenal.
Note – when I started trying to piece this convoluted trail of Den(n)ises together I was labouring under the impression that Dennis Bergkamp had been named after Denis Compton. I thought it would be cute to link the two. I thought it would be cuter still to link them by way of cricket, and it was this thought that kept me going through a long and tiring trawl of historical Burnley FC sites. Only once when I had finished this research did I realise that Dennis Bergkamp was actually named after Denis Law, which makes a smidgen more sense, but would have been far too easy.
From Ronaldo to Pelè in 5 degrees.
Ronaldo -> Maldini (Milan, 2007)
Maldini -> Massaro (Milan, 1995)
Massaro -> Zoff (Italy, 1982)
Zoff -> Altafini (Napoli, 1967)
Altafini -> Pelè (Brazil, 1957)
@matt I applaud you, sir.
Interesting that it seems easier to get from us to Voltaire than from, say, Theo Walcott to Billy Wright (at least according to the teammate method). A reminder that while lives can be pretty long football careers are sadly brief.
@Alan Jacobs: The problem, more than the brief football career is that the 6 degrees theory concerning the simple acquaintance between people, while your game needs the same place ok work (football team). It’s the 6 degrees theory between people that had studied in the same primary school; it’s harder and more interesting, really.
z.
I agree with this comment “Ryan Giggs played with Bryan Robson who signed for Manchester United in 1981. Robson played with Martin Buchan who played with George Best.”