9 Famous Football Namesakes

Remember watching some or the other footballer pompously celebrating a goal by showing his back to the crowd and letting them all acknowledge his name? Don’t worry we won’t talk about those self-obsessed footballers, on the contrary, we have handpicked for you footballers, who hardly got a chance to be known for their names.Footballers who rather were haunted by the name at the back of their jersey. Names, that saw them live under the shadow of their more famous namesakes from all walks of life and names, that luckily enough got them featured on Sportskeeda.So here’s a look at footballers with famous namesakes:

#9 John Lennon

This seems to be like a trend now. Another Brazilian footballer who was named after someone who redefined the way the modern generation things, and only to be eclipsed by their more famous namesake.

John Lennon Silva Santos was named after legendary English singer and composer John Lennon who co-founded the Beatles, the most commercially successful band in the history of popular music. Born in 1991, Lennon Silva Santos currently plays for Atlético Goianiense as a left back, the same club where Gandhi plays.

#8 Mahatma Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi or Mahatma Gandhi Heberpio Mattos Pires is a Brazilian professional footballer who currently plays for Atlético Goianiense in the second division of the Brazilian football league. Born in February 1992, Gandhi was too young to realise back then that he was being named after the father of a nation.

Gandhiji himself wasn’t alienated to football as he had helped in setting up three football clubs in South Africa.

“What fascinated Gandhi in particular was the notion he had of football’s nobility. At that time, the idea of team play was much stronger than the idea of individual ‘star’ players, and this is something that greatly appealed to him,” said Poobalan Govindasamy, president of the South African Indoor Football Association, and maybe he did find a tad bit of inspiration from the beautiful game.

#7 Michael Johnson

Michael Johnsons story is one with a grim end. Thought to be one of the brightest talent in a Pre Etihad era Manchester City, Johnson was pipped for big things. Unfortunately his potential never really came forth with successive injuries and long period on sidelines. Unable to show mental resillience to come back from setbacks and injuries he was ultimately released by City.

Contrary to that, his namesake, the American athlete who still holds world and olympic record in 400m has surmounted all in his field. 4 Olympic golds and 8 World Championship gold are enough to supplant his claim to track and field Hall of Fame.

#6 Jimmy Carter

Signed by Kenny Dalglish for Liverpool in the early 90s after some eye catching performance for his boyhood club Millwall, Jimmy carter is mostly remember for his time at Arsenal, where he was a part of cup winners cup winning team. Though his contribution on pitch remained inconsistent, the English winger was tad too unfortunate to share his name with a US President who was not so keen on football or any sports for that matter, using 1980 Moscow Olympics boycott to garner attention on political issues.

#5 Chris Brown

A case of two peas in a pond, Chris Brown, the Blackburn Rovers Striker and his namesake Rapper, both have this habit of being beset by controversies. While we are all aware of the rapper and his violent streak, the footballer has made it a point not to be left languishing in the battle of namesakes.

During his time at Sunderland was involved in a sexcapade along with his team mates that went public and that did not go down well with his then manager Roy Keane. Not only that, he has been involved in other off pitch incident like pelting shots at innocent pedestrians with ball bearing filled guns. In what can be described as keeping up with the Brownses, both the rapper and footballer are neck and neck.

#4 Chris Martin

The Norwich born striker, now leading the lines for Derby County in tier two of English football is the proud namesake of the Coldplay lead singer. The lanky striker must be thanking his stars, mum & dad for naming him Chris.Though not all is hunky-dory being Chris martins namesake, in recent time he has had competition for that spot from a skinhead/receding hair line bearing New Zealand Fast bowler. Song suggestion for the three Chris In my place by Coldplay.

#3 Michael Jackson

The Shrewsbury assistant manager and one time hard hitting defender who played for Preston North End andShrewsbury before hanging up his boots shares his name with the king of pop,but the name kind of does not do justice to a centre back. I mean how can this be it? How can you think of Michael Jackson and emerge with a picture of a no-nonsense defender hacking the ball clear of danger? How can you not want him to do a moonwalk?

#2 Tom Cruise

Plying his trade in the fifth division of English football, Tom Cruise has had too many missions that were impossible in his career. A sturdy looking young defender on the books of Arsenal, he showed great promise to be a Top Gun when he wonthe Youth FA Cup with Arsenal. He played his solitary first team game in the Champions League for the Gunners but ultimately he was let goby the North London club.

That was the long and short of his mainstream footballcareer, as he was not able to learn from his namesake who is still going strong at theripe age of 50.

#1 David Beckham

No, Mr. Posh hasnt got any namesake trumping him in the popularity charts; rather a long lost great uncle with the same name has crept up out of nowhere. Not only that, Uncle David has also been inspired by his great Nephews stint in the United States so as to pen down a mystery Science fiction novel which curiously enoughusesto the pet name of his nephew, i.e. Golden Balls in the title.

Uncle David is also unabashed about the usage of the storyline, title of the book or the big bold By David Beckham on the centre of cover all pointing out to him using his namesake and dotting nephews popularity to turn this book into a success. He was still more sly, as he didnot leaveany personal image on the world wide web for us to document it with this. Well played David Senior.