The most interesting pieces of soccerball trivia you know (that are 100% false)

2. 3% of all frappacinos made in the UK are drunk by Phil Neal

3. Luc Nilis' "career ending injury" was actually a stunt involving a prosthetic limb Nilis had devised to get out of his Aston Villa contract. Ironically, on the way home his leg was irrepairably damaged in a car crash involving a drunken David Busst.

4. Dennis Wise has the UKs largest collection of Wades Whimsies.

5. Wrong Fashanu.

6. Mark Viduka loves a big meat pie with tomato sauce.

7. The guy who scored the goal in the USA's famous 1950 shock 1-0 victory over England went on to play bass for the Question Mark and the Mysterions after his career ended.

8. Arthur Scargill is buried under one of the goals at Elland Road.

9. Northwich Victora are named after Victoria Coren, her father Alan having served as a board member in the 1960s.

10. Albert Fish was a big Casino Salzburg fan.

11. Old Trafford takes its name from a Neolithic stone circle sited close to the ground. Archaeologists have so far proven unable to account for the fact that the stones are not local to Lancashire but appear to have been transported 180 miles northwest from the lower Thames Valley.

12. Alan Carr's pregnant mother was on board the plan involved in the Munich air disaster, making him the youngest survivor of the crash

13. The Bosman ruling takes its name from former WWF midcarder The Big Bossman, who went to the European Court of Human Rights in 1994 to help him get out of his contract with Livorno.

14. Steve Stone is an honorary tribal elder of the Eleniak people of southern Borneo.

7. Frank Sidebottom made 14 appearances from the bench for Manchester City in th 1973/74 season

8. Israel's 1970 World Cup squad spent 3 days in a London CGI studio recording the motion capture for the football scenes in Disney's Bedknobs and Broomsticks

15. Sir Alex Ferguson was the original choice for the role of Jimmy Krankie

16. Doncaster Rover's official matchday theme song is MC Tunes' "The North at its Heights".

17. Graham le Saux is actually as thick as fucking donkeyshit.

18. Pat Nevin can be heard dropping an ecstasy tablet in the background of The Durutti Column's "English Landscape Tradition".

19. Angelo Di Livio has no anus

20. Accrington Stanley were named in honour of Paul Stanley of Kiss, the so-called "Starchild" of the band

21. Frank McAvennie once lost a battle of the bands to Tallulah Gosh

22. Bobby Robson could once remember his own name

23. Molineux is the only ground in the English league with an M in its name

24. David Seaman is godfather to Donny Tourette.

25. In 1990, Andy Hinchcliffe became the first ever white footballer to play a full league match for Everton

26. Ulises De La Cruz' real name is Richard Higgins. A native of Blackheath, he adopted the gimmick of an Ecuadorian footballer who donates his salary to his home village from a recurring minor strip in the short-lived 1990s relaunch of Roy of the Rovers. The strip centred around De La Cruz' far-fetched exploits to support the fictional village of Piquiucho and was once famously described by Alan Parry as "the second most racist thing I have ever seen".

27. Steve McClaren is the most successful England manager in terms of second quarter records, with his England team conceding 0 goals and scored on average 0.15 goals per match in all matches between 22:30-45:00.

28. The Brazillian version of Deal Or No Deal is hosted by Cafu wearing a sailor's outfit.

29. During a fourth round tie in the 1976-7 season, Mr Brian Kettlechip of Bradford became the first supporter in England to give a fuck about the League Cup. The feat has yet to be repeated.

30. John Robert Parker Motsoncroft, OBE (30 August 1939 – 25 October 2004), known professionally as John Motson, was an English disc jockey, radio presenter and journalist. Known for his eclectic taste in music and his honest and warm broadcasting style, John Motson was a popular and respected DJ and broadcaster. He was one of the first to play reggae and punk on British radio. His significant influence on alternative rock, Pop, British hip hop and dance music is acknowledged. He was the longest-serving of the original DJs of BBC Radio 1, broadcasting on it from 1967 until his death in 2004.

31. An anagram of Rangers FC is "Hot Anal Nuns".

32. That Was A Toepoke

33. They'll bring back the Watney Cup.

34. Players at the Ryman's leagues second-most famous breakaway club touch a sign above their heads' proclaiming 'This is Enfield' before taking to the pitch.

35. Ever wondered what happened to the bits of 'Dead' from Mayhem's skull that didn't get made into a necklace? Next time Jan Aage Fjortoft is on Footballer's Cribs, take a close look at the headboard above his bed...

36. Jay Boothroyd was an original member of Another Level, eventually being replaced by Dane Bowers when his football career took off

37. Hardline Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmedinejad is an ardent follower of St. Mirren FC: the result of a torrid teenage affair with former Saints midfield hardman, Billy Abercrombie.

38. In terms of goals per minutes on the pitch, the most prolific striker of all time is Ricky Shakes.

39. The Royal Engineers enjoyed an unbeaten run of 257 matches between 1907 and 1916, which only came to an end after the side's 5 England midfielders were wiped out on the first morning of the Battle of the Somme.

40. Your favourite footballer is Ebbe Sand.

41. Viera vs Keane was a work.

42. Sammy Lee holds two European Cup winners medals and represented England on 14 occasions.

43. There is no scientific evidence that Scottish Third Division club Stenhousemuir actually exist

44. The first American to play in the English First Division was Samuel Butthurt IV who was goalkeeper for Oldham Athletic between 1920 and 1932.

45. West Adelaide FC was a football team.

46. "lol britpop zing culture" was invented by Walter Winterbottom, who once passed the time between England games by writing sarcastic missives about The Hollies to the Daily Telegraph. None were ever published.

47. Kenny Miller holds dual Scottish and Argentinian nationality, but opted to play International football for Scotland as he had never heard of Argentina.

48. When Roy Keane goes to donate blood, he declines the syringe, and instead requests a hand gun and a bucket.

49. There are no steroids in football. Just players Roy Keane has breathed on.

50. On an average football pitch there are 1,242 objects Roy Keane could use to kill you, including the pitch itself.

51. Before becoming a professional soccerball player, Alexei Lalas was already an accomplished American footballer. His 46/-----%$34 pipecock return for the Tallashassee Goddammits in the 1991 Ultraplayoff was briefly an all-time record, but was famously shattered just weeks later by Jody "Zif" Stokenbokker Jr.

52. Matthew Etherington has been out of contract at West Ham for the last 18 months, but manager Alan Curbishley doesn't have the heart to tell him.

52. Martin Jol played bass for Focus from 1971-74, including on their Top 20 hits, "Hocus Pocus" and "Sylvia" but left before the recording of the "Mother Focus" album citing disilusionment with band's lurch towards jazz rock. He and Thijs van Leer have not spoken since.

53. Gordon Banks was the first man to say "fuck" on British television in 1966 during an interview on Southern Television's regional news programme, 'Day by Day'.

54. Stewart Downing? Fuck off.

55. Gil-Scott Heron's dad's tenure at Celtic was only the tip of the 'late 60s/early 70s black musical revolutionaries with Scottish footballing connections' iceberg. Albert Ayler's aunt spent two years as a madam in Dundee FC's onsite brothel, while no less than four of The Last Poets' mates from school appeared in a St Mirren-Kilmarnock match in 1971

56. The footballs used in the 1962 World Cup were designed by Salvador Dali. Goalkeepers complained that they were too light and moved unpredictably in the air. Also that they had teeth.

57. Niall Quinn likes to steal from the sweet jar in the corner shop while the shopkeeper is busy counting out panini stickers

59. Yahtzee was originally developed as a pre-pools panel method of determining the score of postponed games. It was abandoned when the first result it came up with saw Aston Villa beat Fulham 259-38.

60. Never go on a camping holiday with Stan Collymore.

61. The first tie to be decided on penalty kicks was the 1968 Fairs Cup quarter final between Leeds United and The Art Ensemble of Chicago

62. Winners of the Raich Carter Trophy automatically qualify for the latter stages of the UEFA cup

63. Instead of listening to The Shins, the original script of Garden State called for Zach Braff to gave in amazement at a poster of Rui Costa, a scene that was later changed due to strained relationships between the US and Portugal.

64. Roy Keane is building an Irish international "skin suit" from the bodies of his signings, for him to wear at Sunderland matches.

65. Jack Charlton is a close personal friend of Elton John's.

66. Fabio Capello has no political leanings to the Far-Right whatsoever. oh no siree.

67. Mild-mannered Yeovil loanee Zoltan Stieber finds physical compliments so awkward to deal with that he wears soiled tracksuit bottoms everywhere and frequently daubs anti-semitic slogans and pictures of mutilated cats on his forehead and chest in Tipp-Ex.

68. King of the long throw-in Dave Challinor once did a throw-in so big that it cleared the other side of the pitch and knocked a ballboy unconscious. Unfortunately, this was during his international debut for England against Sweden in 1994. Challinor was so traumatised by the incident that he was immediately substituted and transferred to Bury, thus effectively ending the career of England's most promising centre-back since the war.

69. Graham Taylor was only offered the England job in order to hush up his discovery that all Aston Villa players were contractually forbidden to pass to Tony Daley more than two times per match.

70. The legendary sloping pitch at Easter Road was actually caused by the one-time St Mirren front pairing of Mark Yardley and Barry Lavety jumping for a high ball at the same time and landing simultaneously, thereby causing a sizeable movement of the tectonic plates underneath Edinburgh.

71. The story recently in the news involving a young goth couple thrown off a bus due to one walking the other around on a lead was a heavily disguised version of a similar story, quashed by Arsenal's legal team, involving Theo Walcott and Jens Lehmann. It is not known which player performed which role

72. Concerned colleagues and fans of Paul Merson recently staged an unofficial testimonial match in his honour, raising £132,000 to help the troubled star fight his financial difficulties. Overcome with gratitude, Merson immediately bet the entire sum on Brock Lesnar defeating Frank Mir at UFC 81.

73. Frank Mir is now expected to challenge Steve Howard at UFC83: Full Throttle.

74. Ever since moving to England to play for Chelsea, Petr Čech has become a massive fan of the Australian soap drama "Neighbours" and is hoping to score a cameo role as a randy Czech backpacker looking to score with some Aussie girls on Ramsay Street.

75. Wayne Rooney has shagged your mum

76. Yakubu was born in 1982.

77. All of the above are 100% false

78. The most viewed Youtube clip in Hungary is of Tamás Priskin lip-synching along to "Anthem For The Year 2000" by Silverchair.

79. Arsene Wenger's real name is Paul Wenger, but, being highly superstitious, he changes his forename in honour of which ever football club he is involved in:

At Strasbourg he was known as Lee Wenger
At Monaco, Hooky Wenger
At Grampus Eight, "Gramps" Wenger

The one exception to the rule was the three years he spent managing AS Nancy.

80. Middlesbrough player Lee Cattermole is a cross between a cat and a mole.

81. Massimo Maccarone was most renowned for his ability to pass ta ball

82. Michael Stewart once got a little crazy but he never yeehaw.

83. Wanderers FC player Charles Alcock, later chairman of the FA, accompanied his zoologist father on a trip to Queensland, Australia and brought back a stuffed wombat which was given pride of place in the club's dressing room. His twin brother Roderick dressed up in a costume resembling the wombat and paraded up and down the field at half time, earning himself a place in the histiry books as the first ever club mascot.

84. Jules Rimet was Lister's room-mate in Red Dwarf

85. Oldham Athletic's original nickname was "The Smiths" but was dropped after the 1983-84 season after Joe Royle was hit in the face by a wayward bunch of gladoli thrown by a group of black clad teenagers.

86. Struggling against loneliness and the language barrier when he moved to Celtic, Stiliyan Petrov passed the time by firebombing burger vans. A tearful Petrov vowed to halt the practice when an overthrown Molotov cocktail cleared his intended target and destroyed Glasgow's only Subway restaurant.

87. Your younger cousin's favourite TV funnyman, Julian Barrett, ran with Cardiff's notorious Soul Crew in the late 90s, and is actually banned from all British football grounds after a string of public order convictions.

88. Wycombe Wanderers' boss Paul Lambert is the voice of the speaking clock.

89. Duncan Bannatyne is really only the public face of his business interests, and all actual decisions relating to his so-called business empire are actually made by the real power there, Reuben Sosa.

90. During Glenn Hoddle's inaugural match as Southampton manager, he was angrily berated by his mother for chewing gum with his mouth open.

91 David Corbett, owner of Pickles, filmed a pilot for a television puppet show to rival that created by his brother Harry H. Unfortunately the nation was not ready for a stop-motion taxidermy show, even if its canine "star" had been a national hero whilst alive.

92. Stelios Giannakopoulos came from Greece and had a thirst for knowledge - he studied sculpture at Saint Martin's College.

93. Jimmy Bullard took Stelios to the supermarket, he didn't know why but he had to start it somewhere, so he started there.

94. Ruud Gullit inserted his erect penis into a football live during coverage of World Cup '98 with slightly embarrassing results.

95. Mido has a penchant for riding a Lambretta scooter and listening to the music of The Animals, The Small Faces and The Who - his monicker came about as he thought it was the most euphonic acronym of "I, Mod".

96. Nicky Butt prefers to call himself Nicholas and doesn't understand why people snigger at his full name.

97. Dave Kitson's unlikely career as a football hero was almost scuppered by his father Mike Batt's insistence that he follow him into the music industry. A youthful Kitson reluctantly contributed the lyrics to the Mansun songs "Railings" and "Everyone Must Win", the latter a bruising plea to his father to let him pursue his own dreams, before Batt relented.

98. Ray Stubbs is widely rumoured to have been the man who first alerted Christian Voice to the existence of Jerry Springer: The Opera.

99. Garth Crooks has some talent

100. Ray Parlour Jr. who you gonna call?

101. Michael Dawson is a failed basketball player. Whenever he is reponsible for a Tottenham defeat he can be found in his bedroom, loudly sobbing apologies to an enormous picture of Patrick Ewing.

102. Andy Cole's rap single "Outstanding" was a number one hit in Latvia.

103. Thanks to US ringtone sensation Soulja Boy, the hot new slang amongst American teens is "Paul Jewell that ho", an act involving taking a girl out to a pleasant meal at Pizza Express.

104. Ron Atkinson became the first person to make a Mansun reference on British television in 1998, commenting that Wimbledon winger Neal Ardley "needs a wide open space - he's freezing in that right-back position". Clive Tyldesley's response: "It'll be Joe Kinnear's Taxloss if he doesn't sort that out..."

105. Highland League club Forres Mechanics were the target of a recent failed buyout by an American consortium led by Chuck Eddy and Frank Kogan

106.

107. This:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51PD02Q5YFL._SS500_.jpg

was originally going to be endorsed by Eamon Dunphy, until he was introduced to the joys of Kakuro, a game he now regards as infinitely superior.

108. The Mr Men character Mr Rush was based in every way on Ian Rush. When the Liverpool striker signed for Juventus, the minor British cartoon character-shaped void in the Liverpool dressing room was swiftly filled by Gary Gillespie, whose looks and personality formed the basis for Morph's plasticine pal Gillespie

109. Eamonn Dunphy's famous claim that he wouldn't let Steve Staunton "drive the train to Cork" was a sly dig at the Ireland coach for not returning Dunphy's copy of Microsoft Train Simulator. Dunphy's favourite MTS route is the Hitatsu Line.

110. AC Milan striker Pato takes his name from his favourite ILX poster, King Boy Pato, and actually celebrates every goal in tribute to the former Esteban Buttez by either saying "mah niggah", mentioning some early 80s Manchester bands, or being ignored.

111. Fabio Capello ed il suo delegato Grooverider hanno imparato parlare inglese fluente sopra l'ultimo mese

112. Due to a spelling error, the captain of England's first team under Fabio Capello with be Zesh Rehman.

113. Fabio Capello was disgusted to discover during his first training session with England that Chris Kirkland was the only member of the squad capable of doing press-ups properly, leading him to exclaim "Look at those cunts. The fuck are they doing on their knees?". In order to avoid offence, his translator told the press that Capello had in fact been taken aback by the size of Micah Richards' shoulders.

94. Ruud Gullit inserted his erect penis into a football live during coverage of World Cup '98 with slightly embarrassing results.

114. This incident was recreated by Ian Wright as part of a never-screened ad for his recent 'bloopers' DVD, 'It Really Shouldn't Happen To A Footballer'

115. Southampton's St Mary's Stadium had originally been planned to be built on a purpose built "soccer rig" five miles off the south coast of the Isle of Wight for tax purposes. The plan was abandoned in favour of signing Lee Todd from Stockport County.

116. In 1975, to attract younger fans who would more likely to be getting their news fix at 5.00 in the afternoon, the board at Fulham decided to change the name of their ground from Bosanquet Cottage to Craven Cottage.

117. Willie 'Prince' Albert is not only the oldest professional footballer currently in the game in England, he is also the only man to have scored in every FA Cup final.

118. The white horse of White Horse Final (1923) wasn't white at all, but green.

119. Paolo Maldini attempted to sue singer Scott Walker in 1997 after becoming convinced that the song "Farmer in the City" was a disguised accusation regarding Maldini and an illegitimate son. Maldini dropped the case when Walker personally assured him that the song - and indeed the entirety of 1995's Tilt - was in fact an elaborate criticism of Matt Le Tissier's refusal to leave Southampton for a bigger club.

120. Former WWF favourite Fred "Tugboat" Ottman is a huge soccerball fan, and can now be found writing about his adopted favourite sport for the Times under the pen name Martin Samuel.

In the early 90s, the nascent J-League had its own version of sport prankster Karl 'Fat Neck' Power in the shape of Merzbow, who can be seen playfully tweaking Gary Lineker's nipple in the 1993-94 Grampus Eight team photo

122. As Chris Waddle lined up a free kick in Spurs' fixture against Oxford United in the 1986-87 season, all but one floodlight in the ground was dimmed - the remaining light focusing on one spectator, who had stood idly by as Waddle's best friend drowned some years back. The shot ended up an easy save for Oxford's keeper, but Chrissy was still satisfied to have made his point

1. Claudia Caniggia doesn't sweat.

123. That wasn't a typo.

124. Banksy is actually Gordon Banks's son.

125. Paul McGrath denies all knowledge of his man-of-the-match performance against Italy at USA '94, angrily insisting to this day that he spent the entire group stages of the tournament drunkenly heckling children at a swimming pool in Roscommon.

126. The Norwegian commentator of "your boys took a hell of a beating tonight" fame had a preprepared list of famous Englishmen written for him by Norway's most enthusiastic young Anglophile, Geir Hongro

127. George Best is the only football player in history who is known by both The Lex and Tuomas.

128. 'Fistful of Love' by Anthony and the Johnsons is the song his local MLS team Red Bull New York run onto the pitch to.

129. In the 1927-28 season, notorious for its particularly harsh and disruptive winter, Plymouth FC were the runaway champions of the First Division. Experts have since credited the team's domination that year to its decision to play in sweaters during the colder months, the pattern of which was incorporated into the team's name following a fan vote on the 50th anniversary of that championship, their last major trophy.

130. Ron Atkinson's original nickname for Cyrille Regis, Laurie Cunningham and Brendon Batson was Peter, Paul & Mary.

131. When the Football League was rebranded in 2004, the original names for what became Leagues One and Two were to have been Joy Division and Scarlet Division. However, at the last minute these names were changed on grounds of taste, after it was pointed out that Scarlet Division was also the name of Jamie Oliver's group.

132. Yordan Letchkov invented the USB Flash Drive.

danny invincibile's autobiography was adapted for the film 'accidental hero' starring dustin hoffman and andy garcia.

^^^^^
133. sorry.

134. David Ginola is (or was, I guess) an anagram for VAGINA DILDO.

135. The Premier League is considering expanding the league season to 39 games so that an additional ten games can be played abroad, with the extra fixture being determined by a draw, seeded so as to avoid the top five having to play each other.

136. Oh shi-

137. While matches may be played earlier, the Major League Soccer season only officially commences with the first game in which Claudio Reyna injures himself and is replaced before halftime.

(127: are you sure it's false Ken?)

138. I am Takayuki Suzuki.

103. Thanks to US ringtone sensation Soulja Boy, the hot new slang amongst American teens is "Paul Jewell that ho", an act involving taking a girl out to a pleasant meal at Pizza Express.

-- Dom Passantino, Tuesday, February 5, 2008 1:36 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark Link

Prophetic!

This doesn't actually mention Pizza Express though.

How DID Dom know about Paul Jewell and that ho? Still wondering.

I... have no idea.

28. The Brazillian version of Deal Or No Deal is hosted by Cafu wearing a sailor's outfit.

-- Dom Passantino, Tuesday, 5 February 2008 11:33 (3 months ago) Bookmark Link

This is really, really funny

139. Sir Alex Ferguson doesn't actually chew gum through matches but psychoactive plant qat. Explaining why he thought Wes Brown's worth 50 grand a week.

140. A Guy Called Gerald's 'Voodoo Ray' was inspired by Butch Wilkins antics in the Man Utd dressing room where he would stick pins into dolls of opponents (and sometimes, just for laughs, Arnold Muhren) before games.

141. Michael Ballack's aunt was a wasp.

142. 0.07% of phone calls to Pierluigi Collina actually go through to Stan Collymore due to alphabetical proximity and clumsy thumbs.

143. Pierluigi Collina does not have Stan Collymore's phone number, despite repeatedley being offered to swap by the doe eyed former nottingham Forest star at a plumbing trade exhibition in doncaster in 1997.

144. Costa Rica's 1990 World Cup song, "Passes and Molasses", was written by Guru Josh.

isn't that true? or am i thinking of the remix by scooter?

SCOOOTER BACK IN COSTA RICA

145. England are 3/1 favourites to win Euro 2008

146. Hollywood icon Danny Glover was loosely based on Paul Mariner

147. With their domestic league suspended, Bulgarian club Lokomotiv Plovdiv spent the second world war transporting Eastern European Jews to extermination camps.

148. 1967 European Footballer of the Year Florian Albert first hypothesized the supercontinent Pangea in a half-time conversation with Wycombe Wanderers mascot Bodger

Albert:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/2/2a/LeTrotskyDB.jpg/350px-LeTrotskyDB.jpg

Bodger:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/threecounties/do_that/2004/02/wycombe_pancakes/pic_04.jpg

Pangea:
http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/atlas/Images/Glossary/Pangea.png

149. The famous Manchester United haven't been to Rome to see the Pope since 1998, when manager Alex Ferguson was ordained as a minister in the Reverend Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church.

150. Jurgen Klinsmann made a little-known comeback under a false name in 2003. He appeared for the mighty Orange County Blue Star in the American Premier Development League as the mysterious hobo striker "Jay Goppingen". He scored five goals in eight matches with the club, before leaving professional football and disappearing forever.

151. Swiss side Young Boys of Berne were the subject of the 1984 US documentary 'Children of the Corn'. The film was a modest success but ultimately did little to raise the profile of the sport in America.

152. Though not obvious from archive footage, footballs have been getting bigger through the decades. When Herbert Chapman's Arsenal were English champions in the 1930s, the standard football was a lace-up about the size of a regulation ten-pin bowling ball; when England faced Scotland for the first time in 1872, they played with a cricket ball clad in a quarter-inch of pigskin.

Football is of course derived from the Roman game, harpastum, meaning "midget kickabout". Fulham's Johnny Haynes was the first man over five foot allowed to play professionally in England.

153. Pele was named after the telephone, which is called the "pelefone" in portugese.

154. Joe Biden was only named the Democratic VP pick the original choice, Jimmy Bullard, turned the role down over Barack Obama's voting record on fishing rights.

Lord Djibril Cisse, on his return to the UK, stipulated that Sunderland provide him a manservant to look after his grounds while he is at Toni & Guy. This prompted Roy Keane to complete the signing of David Healy.

A possible 'Ted and Ralph' style TV series has been mooted.

155.

156. Peter Thorne is the UK's leading expert on the Big Bang, but declined an invitation to participate in the recent CERN experiments: "I'm under contract at Bradford and I'm fully focused on giving 110% for our fans at Valley Parade, week in, week out, but I do still keep an eye out for the CERN lads' results on Teletext, and I still hope that one day I can have another run out in the Geneva outfit's famous boiler suit and face mask."

157. Katy Perry's "I Kissed A Girl" was originally entitled "I Kisser Amr", detailing the singer's passionate affair with Egyptian Wigan Athletic goal machine Amr Zaki. However, the song's titled was changed as Perry's boyfriend, him with the twatty face from Gym Class Heroes, insisted he'd dump her if he ever discovered she'd touched a Muslim.

158. Yeovil stopper Josh "Count Canuckula" Wagenaar was born a cyclops and wears a ski visor during games so as not to upset the children in the front rows, or squeamish celebrity fan Richard Digance.

159. The shape of Benito Carbone's mother when she was pregnant with him was the inspiration for the shape of the bumper on the Fiat 500

160. Apart from coming up with the Anfield Rap, inventing the Predator boot and adopting a seven-year-old Yossi Benayoun from a Tel Aviv orphanage, Craig Johnston was also the inspiration for The Divinyls' "I Touch Myself".

161. John Wark and Eric Gates will be starring in the title roles of the play 'Romeo Zondervan & Juliet' at the Ipswich Regent Theatre this Christmas.

162. Phil Brown is the latest comedy persona of "Ali G" satirist Sacha Baron Cohen.

163. Members of Reading's squad privately believe that the principal reason for club's relegation from the Premier League in 2008 was manager Steve Coppell's erroneous belief that he had signed midfielder Dušan Švento in the January transfer window of that year. Coppell insisted on selecting Švento in left midfield despite the fact that the player had opted to remain with Slavia Prague; the Svento-shaped hole down Reading's left side left Nicky Shorey exposed, leading to a series of demoralising defeats in the last few months of the campaign.

New manager Brendan Rodgers has vowed that the mistakes of the past should not be repeated, and reiterated his belief that Kevin Doyle can lead the club to a place in next season's UEFA Europa League.

164. Italian-American self-harming performance artist 'Franko B' is in fact the alter ego of Francis Benali. Benali's late 80s/early 90s career doubled as an extensive conceptual piece where he would unleash his rage on society by wounding fellow players; Franko B's later performances served as a mirror to Benali's carefully created persona

165. David Seaman was never a merchant seaman, but he did obtain a dutch seaman's ticket (a Monsterboekje) in order to steam out of Ijmuiden and avoid the queues for the ferry once.

166. Jack Wilshere has no concept of the colour purple.

26. Ulises De La Cruz' real name is Richard Higgins. A native of Blackheath, he adopted the gimmick of an Ecuadorian footballer who donates his salary to his home village from a recurring minor strip in the short-lived 1990s relaunch of Roy of the Rovers. The strip centred around De La Cruz' far-fetched exploits to support the fictional village of Piquiucho and was once famously described by Alan Parry as "the second most racist thing I have ever seen".

― That mong guy that's shit, Tuesday, 5 February 2008 11:31 (2 years ago)

wish that dude came back tbh

167 loïc rémy has adverse reactions to sulphites and cannot drink cognac

168 urby emanuelsson was upbraided by geert wilders for appearing to suggest that polygamy was compatible with liberal values, prompting then manager martin jol to threaten to 'cunt [his] fucking skull in' when he confronted the controversial politician at a livestock auction

169 Gabriel Batistuta speaks Welsh.

169 joachim loew combines a stellar managerial career with critically acclaimed jazz freestyle sets, playing sax in a troupe called 'cooking on loew'. Many speculate that the group were never picked up by a major label because that's not how you pronounce 'loew'

170 the welsh community of patagonia presented batistuta with a golden leek for his contribution to fiorentina's demolition of inter in 95-96, considering it a belated revenge for the milanese swindler who had convinced them of the transmutative properties of llama urine, a costly delusion that bankrupted many in the 1920s

'llama urine' was a welsh inside forward who ran a successful bar in bridgend after retirement before it was burnt to the ground by an angry mob in the 1920's

171 artem milevskiy is known as 'piki', a reference to a controversial leaked video which appeared to show the then dynamo kyiv striker trying to hyponotize a capybara

172 rivaldo responded to suggestions that he was accepting blood money during his lucrative stay at budyodkor by telling journalists that he was 'not shami fucking chakrabarti'

173 jerome boateng is a wiccan

174. Martin Taylor's dad believes that 'Dune' is historically accurate.

175 eidur gudjohnsen's transfer to stoke was cast into doubt by an interview given to icelandic tv in which he compared the town's inhabitants to 'the kyphotic orcs who live in the cesspool [by the] bridge in akureyri -- inbred fucking scum, basically'

176 the daily sport reported in 2008 that ugo ehiogu had suffered an ectopic pregnancy, a mistranslation that caused the censure of a sub-editor and much mirth in the west midlands' retired footballer community -- 'to be honest with you it came out of the blue', says ehiogu, 'joachy [julian joachim] gave me a bit of stick but at the end of the today i wasn't even pregnant in the first place so it didn't effect things too much'

177 Today, 9th December 2010, Mike Ashley will propose the capture of Eddie McAvoy as Newcastle United's next manager and that he has the full support of the board.

178. Most football fans know that Alf Common was football's first £1000 transfer. Not many know that Common was also the first footballer to sign a sponsorship deal, which led to him playing the 1904-05 season with the Bass Beer Red Triangle tattooed on his face.

179 jordan henderson can be seen dressed as an SS officer in the background of the 22/10/02 edition of 'songs of praise'

180 ian holloway was deported from israel for defecating beside the wailing wall

181 during chris hughton's time writing for the morning star, he was among a delegation to albania that kicked to death an 'ideologically unsound' parrot for the personal entertainment of enver hoxha

182. Tony Pulis reproduces by parthenogenesis.

183. Owing to a rare genetic abnormality, if you cut Trevor Brooking he bleeds Claret and Danish Blue.

184 neil ruddock attributes his lactose intolerance to a curse from a gypsy girl who he projectile-sharted all over in nursery school

185 adam lallana was convicted for stealing a bart simpson toothbrush from the havant branch of superdrug

186 ruel fox was fired from the fox soccer channel in 2005 when execs discovered a passage in the news corporation 'ethics' guidebook that prevents employees from sharing the name of a product

187 Lee McCulloch was born Zephyrinus de Roumanie Mircea Bourbon-Parma, Prince of Hohenzollern and twenty-sixth in line to the Romanian throne, but for twenty years has lived life as a Caledonian commoner following an unfortunate impulsive decision made after watching Disney's 1990 adaptation of The Prince and the Pauper.

188 sidney samson's dance hit 'riverside' was inspired by chod, a teeside hardcore continuum offshoot that samson discovered during visits to his stepbrother, marvin emnes

189 hugo viana curbstomped a gateshead bookie in a 2004 dispute over the authenticity of pessoa's english-language poems

190 yuri zhirkov received a fine for littering in New Haven CT, pleading via an interpreter that he believed this was within his rights as a visiting dignitary

191. Mark Bright delivered his first son, specifically so he could ensure the first words the child heard were "There is no Father Christmas".

192. The French FA refused to recognise the Offside law until 1983 as they were unable to agree on a suitable Gallicisation of the word.

193. Peter Withe is a popular manga character in Japan due to his resemblance to the deity Ebisu.

194. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dubious_Goals_Committee&diff=412443044&oldid=412441598

Trying to take this concept out into the wider world a little.

Nani replaces Manuel Almunia (o.g.) in Manchester United's 3-1 win against Arsenal.

this is such, such bullshit

Former Tottenham and England midfielder Darren Anderton was breastfed until the age of 32, and was only weaned because his mother refused to move to Birmingham with him in 2004. As such, his apparent calcium deficiency remains a scientific and medical mystery.

move to ILF

196. bradley pritchard has a higher bleep test score than usain bolt

197. Ryan Shawcross speaks fluent Tagalog after he found an injured Filipino man on the street as a child and nursed him back to health in his parents' shed.

198. In the 1994/5 season, Skonto Riga played away games in 'Frankie says relax' t- shirts

199 avant garde techno producer actress once had a contract with west bromwich albion before being forced to retire at 19 due to injury

200. Tony Cascarino's left nipple is Taiwanese.

201. BBC foreign correspondent Orla Guerin is a former member of the Derby Lunatic Fringe

202. https://www.instagram.com/p/BCJQ1mVtsLC/

203 Aleksandr Kokorin is the second-highest paid Russian player in the Premier League after Igor Denisov, his former team-mate from Dynamo Moscow. Kokorin is now so rich and famous that his bulldog, Rony, has his own Instagram page.

204 Ansi Agolli has played for Qarabag since 2010 and has become a fans’ idol there while winning in three league titles, and two domestic cups. His status as well-loved player in Azerbaijan was boosted after Albania’s qualification for Euro 2016. Agolli will be part of Azerbaijani football’s history books, through being the league’s first player to take part in the competition.

205 Razvan Rat is an avid wine collector, a hobby he began while playing for Shakhtar Donetsk in Ukraine – where he met his wife, too. He grew up in a small Romanian town, Piatra-Olt, where he watched the country’s legendary 1994 World Cup campaign at his neighbours’ house because his family did not have a television.

Despite being affectionately nicknamed "Thor" by Aston Villa fans, Birkir Bjarnason's name is actually the Icelandic for "Bucky Barnes". The Captain America sidekick is by a significant margin the most popular Marvel character in Iceland, with 8% of Icelandic men being named after him.

Bjarnason himself credits his 2012 transfer to Standard Liege to feeling more motivated as a result of Marvel's early 2010s revival of the character.

Javi Martinez is a World Cup champion and multiple Bundesliga title winner, but the Bayern Munich man also claims to have come up with the concept for ‘The Hunger Games’.

Suzanne Collins is the published author of a series of books which have been turned into Hollywood blockbusters.

The first instalment of her trilogy was released in 2008, with subsequent offerings hitting the shelves in 2009 and 2010.

‘The Hunger Games’ focuses on a futuristic world in which the inhabitants of impoverished ‘districts’ fight for survival in a compulsory televised battle royale.

By the time the books became movies in 2012, over 26 million copies had been sold.

Bayern star Martinez claims he missed out on a piece of that profit having come up with a similar idea in his youth.

The 30-year-old Spain international told German magazine Socrates : “Writing is a great pleasure for me, even as a teenager I started to write a book.

“And believe it or not, the plot was pretty much the same as 'The Hunger Games'.”

When Collins’ version of events hit the big screen, Martinez admits he found it difficult to watch.

He added: “That was strange, I was sitting in the cinema and thought: ‘It does not exist, that's my idea, which I had years ago, the creators must have stolen my computer’.”

Marvel Cinematic Universe mainstay Sebastian Stan was given a custodial sentence in 2009 for the aggravated stalking and subsequent attempted kidnap of then-Birmingham City midfielder Sebastian Larsson. The Acocks Green native, born Jordan Scuggins, later adopted his stage name as a tongue-in-cheek reference to the incident, quipping to Tim Lovejoy that it "might help me remember about the restraining order."

Disgruntled former romantic conquests of Rohan Ricketts at one point organised into a support group named "The Riders of Rohan". The collective's efforts to raise awareness of the former Wolves midfielder's apparent shortcomings in the bedroom ultimately floundered amid confusing legal action from the Tolkien estate and New Line Cinema.

I had read that separately tbh

1. Claudia Caniggia doesn't sweat.

― That mong guy that's shit, Tuesday, 5 February 2008 11:12 (thirteen years ago) bookmarkflaglink

more sinister now ofc

This thread is very funny. For some reason I am particularly enjoying “Jerome Boateng is a wiccan”

210. Declan Rice exudes a unique pheromone which makes him sexually irresistible to English commentators and pundits