family ties in professional soccer

frederic38

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Rigobert Song is the cousin of Alex Song. Rigobert played for Liverpool in 99-00 among other clubs.

Rigobert was laughing at the way Carragher played defense so in practice Carragher nailed him with a rough tackle.

He started out at Metz.

i had no idea that song played for liverpool

"Song walked on to the training pitch with a smile on his face. He was limping off it with a grimace an hour later. The first chance I got, I did him. Never have I hunted down a 50–50 tackle with greater appetite. 'You're not ****ing laughing now, are you, you soft cunt?' I said as he hobbled away."

:icon_lol:



i remember him from lens
lens had a lot of africans
now they are in 2nd division

there's an interesting story on how he went to europe
he sent many letters to european clubs
at metz, his letter was in the trash (because he was just an obscure defender) but his friend jacques songoo, cameroon's goalkeeper, who played at metz back then, told the manager to give him a chance

here's an interesting thread about klinsmann:

http://www.bigsoccer.com/community/...linsmann-kinder-and-german-americans.1793385/



Christian Herrera and Jonathan Klinsmann are two of the more interesting cast members of a goalkeeper group that features six players this week at the U.S. U14 National Camp.

...

Count Herrera and Klinsmann - the only two of the bunch who were not a part of last month's U14 gathering - among those happy that it is.
Klinsmann, that would be the son of German great Jurgen Klinsmann, is making his first ever appearance in camp in what's been a major highlight for a kid who has seen a lot in his young career.

eddie johnson, who scored against antigua, explains why klinsmann called him:
credit goes to sigi schmid
[...]
"we talk about, in this business, about relationships
fortunately my coach is of german background
and him and klinsmann have a good relationship
and he told me from day one
from doing the business here
he has a good relationship with klinsmann
you'll know he'll put a good word in with me

[...]

"going into this game the coach had a ton of confidence in me
put me out wide on the wing
my teammates had a bunch of confidence in me
so it's easy to come in these camp when everyone believes in you
and the coach believes in you from day one"

i also realised that fellaini, an arab playing for belgium, was the son of a professional player (goalkeeper)

also, benjamin stambouli who plays at montpellier and started at marseille is the son of henri stambouli, who's responsible of the youth categories at marseille...

i also heard a scout saying on a radio show that in cameroon everything is corrupted, especially when it comes to picking young players (he said that to explain cameroon's bad results recently - they lost to cape verde and won't be at the next african cup of nations)
 

Europe

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John Rooney, brother of Wayne, was just signed by Barnsley from Orlando, a third tier league in the US. He was at the New York Redbulls, but was released.

He scored 5 goals in 13 apps at Orlando, but is signed by a Championship team? This really is odd.

How could he go from Macclessfield Town ,a 4th division side, to the Redbulls? He scored 3 goals in 41 games as a forward/mf at Macllesfield, but then he is signed by NY?

He was released by Everton Academy as a 12 year old. He couldn't even make it to the u16 before he was released. How many professional players are released as a 12 year old, even at a Premiership academy?

He is certainly given chances because of his name.
 

frederic38

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in MLS there's also federico higuain, brother of gonzalo higuain from real madrid, both are the sons of jorge higuain, who played in france
there are also other former professional players in their family
 

Europe

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Did we mention Kaka's brother plays for the NY Red Bulls?

Craig Bellamy's son is playing for the Wales national u16 team.

Gary Speed's son also is on the team.
 

Phall

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in MLS there's also federico higuain, brother of gonzalo higuain from real madrid, both are the sons of jorge higuain, who played in france
there are also other former professional players in their family

fede higuain is overachieving over here in MLS, i'd give him a shot in a "real" league in europe.

kaka's brother "digao" made his first appearance in stoppage time of a 1-0, season-ending defeat. he's not actually a striker, but red bulls fans would be plenty pleased if he convinces his sibling to sign up here.

and yes, even wayne rooney's scrub brother got a contract from red bull new york. he never saw the field though, so i take it that new york will not be graced by that bald chav's presence anytime soon.
 
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This guy Craig Bellamy is a nutcase investing in Africa:

Quote from Wikipedia:
On 6 May 2008 plans were announced for the building of the Craig Bellamy Foundation for disadvantaged children in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Bellamy has visited the war-torn West African country and has invested £1.2m of his own money since 2007 to help build a not-for-profit football academy in the Kono region and, along with Unicef, a national league in a country where the existing top-flight league has been suspended due to lack of funds[SUP].[/SUP]
:der::mad2:

All this while Welsh football is being driven into obscurity:
The Welsh Premier League is ranked by the UEFA coefficient in 48th place out of 53 current members.
:yell::icon_cry:
Next time look closer to home,eh?:suspicious:
 

Europe

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There is an 18 year old German of Brazilian descent who plays for Dortmond named Bittencourt, whose father played in Germany.

He seems to be white.
 

Rebajlo

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You may be interested to know that Arsenal's Wojciech Szczesny is the son of Maciej Szczesny, who was - funnily enough - a goalkeeper with Legia Warszawa, Widzew Lodz, Polonia Warszawa, and Wisla Krakow (even making a handful of appearances for Poland in the 1990s).

Legia Warszawa's Jakub Kosecki (whose goal against Widzew Lodz I recently posted in the Great Goals Thread) is the son of ex-Poland international Roman Kosecki.

Anyone remember Euzebiusz Smolarek (Feyenoord, Borussia Dortmund, Racing Santander, Bolton Wanderers...oblivion...)? Well, he just happens to be ex-Poland international Wlodzimierz Smolarek's son...

The list can go on and on and on...
 

frederic38

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yes, i remember seing this brazilian player in the dortmund squad
i noticed him because he has a french name

and i didn't know about smolarek
i used to see him at international competitions playing for poland, he looked mediocre to say the truth

there is another thing, not family-related, but still related to nepotism: the representatives
i've posted about the black bum van der wiel, who signed for PSG, nobody understood why PSG bought him (and he was expansive, 10 millions)
then it was revealed that van der wiel's representative was also ibrahimowicz's representative
it's also the same representative as maxwell who plays for PSG too (that's why ibrahiwicz and maxwell both played at the same time for ajax, internazionale, barcelona, then PSG)
in the french national team there was also an issue related to this
it was said that it was easier to be called in the french national team if you had the same representative as the coach (jean pierre bernes)
a similar thing happened in portugal, with jorge mendes
 

frederic38

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i noticed a few black players named "john" coming from netherlands (the first one i knew was ola john from benfica)

after a quick search, ola, paddy and collins john are 3 brothers and they are professional players

here is the cover of a french magazine about young footballers who are the sons of french international players who won the 1998 world cup:

32378_10151142652117066_1207971235_n.jpg


enzo zidane and the djorkaeff family were already mentionned, but we also learn about lilian thuram's son ( i knew about his cousin who plays as a goal keeper in ligue 1, but not about his son, marcus thuram)
 

frederic38

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yesterday in bastia-nice gregoire puel started a ligue 1 match for the first time in his life
he's the son of nice's coach claude puel
he played in lyon's B team while puel was coaching lyon at the time, then he went to nice with his father
 

frederic38

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another chelsea player with family ties in professional soccer:
bertrand traoré, from france, is the brother of alain traoré, a known striker in the french league (known for his spectacular goals in the 1st half of the season, then nothing during the second half)
both are the sons of a professional player, don't remember the name but they are in the list in the first post
at the time he wasn't officially with chelsea (probably there living in a flat in london without an official contract)

bertrand traoré is playing for chelsea for the first time this summer, in the friendlies the club is playing in asia during the pre-season to make sure that these living asian money bags still know that suporting chelsea is cool and will make them fashionable

i don't know what they are expecting from this kind of player, they'll probably make money with him by selling him to a bad club, and since he was trained in france he cost them 0 money
modern slave trade
 
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frederic38

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when i say that soccer looks like organised crime, sometimes soccer IS organised crime
the son of marseille's manager jose anigo was killed in marseille in a mafia-style shooting, by professional killers
jose anigo is known to have relations with marseille's organised crime
 

frederic38

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frank ribery's brother played for the first time for bayern munich's reserve team in 4th division
shcweinsteiger's brother also played
 

Arend

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Daley Blind (Ajax Amsterdam) is the son of Danny Blind (Ex-Ajax). Danny Blind is also the current assistant coach of the Dutch National Team (together with Patrick Kluivert) and will be Bondscoach after the 2016 European Championship.

dannyendaleyblind_gr.jpg
 

frederic38

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adebayor during a facebook rant:

"When I was in Monaco I thought it would be good to have a family of footballers. So I made sure my brother Rotimi gets into a football academy in France. Within a few months; out of 27 players, he stole 21 phones. "

jblX2kNrREBqA3.bmp
 
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