Which footballer has played for the most clubs in their career?

 “Which footballer has played for the most clubs?” asks Paul Gage.

Surprisingly, throughout the more than two decades of the Knowledge, this question has not been answered before. But, fear not, it will be now.

Before we consult the Guinness World Records book, we should doff our cap to somebody who, though well short of the world record, has just moved to their 19th club. “At the age of 45,” writes Mike Kilner, “Derek Asamoah – best known for scoring at Anfield for Carlisle in the Carabao Cup – will be looking to bang them this weekend for his 19th different club, Whitstable Town.”

There is an official answer and an unofficial one. Let’s start with the official. According to Guinness WR HQ, the Uruguayan striker Sebastián Abreu played for the most professional clubs as he competed for 31 different sides across his 26-year career. Abreu, who is the manager of Tijuana, started his playing career in 1995 and retired in 2021. However, unofficially, there is a player who has competed for 20 (!) more clubs than Abreu – Jefferson Louis recorded 51 clubs in a 28-year career.

The Naming XI

“The Wrexham defender Max Cleworth has the letters of ‘Wrexham’ within his name,” notes Mark Lumby. “Have any other players had their club within their own name?”

We had dozens of answers to this, so thank you to one and all. We’ve whittled them down into a star-studded XI as follows. But first, some reasonably arbitrary rules:

1. Prefixes and suffixes like United, City, FC, AC aren’t included.

2. Letters in a player’s name can’t be used twice – in other words, Dani Alves (Sevilla) doesn’t qualify because his name only has one of the two Ls in Sevilla.

Manuela Zinsberger (Arsenal)

Lauren Bisan (Arsenal)

Lucas Radebe (Leeds)

Paolo Maldini (Milan)

Ashley Cole (Chelsea)

Trevor Steven (Everton)

Michael Essien (Chelsea)

Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior (Santos)

Alan Sunderland (Arsenal)

Frank Stapleton (Arsenal)

Victor Anichebe (Everton)

Now this one is a bit more obscure in terms of football knowledge, but the anagram element is easier to spot. David Ekstrand emails: “With regard to Mark Lumby’s question, Ian Sirelius played 152 games for Swedish club Sirius, starting in the third tier and ending in the top flight.”

Dave Mellinger says answers are easier to find in America: “This challenge is probably easier in the States, where teams aren’t necessarily named after their cities, than in Britain. My local NWSL team is the [Portland] Thorns, for which defender Cheyenne Shorts qualifies. An even shorter team name is Bay (FC), for which Dorian Bailey, Brooklyn Courtnall, and Abby Dahlkemper qualify. In fact, Dorian Bailey’s last name works by itself, as does Dahlkemper’s first name.”

“By no means exhaustive and I had to take a bit of leeway with some middle names,” Russell Yong emails. “But here are a few examples …”

Arsenal: Alan Sunderland, Tony Alexander Adams

Chelsea: Michael Essien; Ruben Ira Loftus-Cheek

Celtic: Carlton Michael Cole

Leeds: Eddie Lewis

Leicester: Kasper Peter Schmeichel

West Ham: Matthew Upson

Stuart Basson has taken the next step with his answer. He writes: “Not only did the following players have their club’s letters in their name, their surname was their club’s name!”

Ben Barnett (Barnet) 1993-94

Lewis Bradford (Bradford City) 1940s

Arthur Blackburn (Blackburn Rovers) 1899

Ronnie Bolton (Bolton Wanderers) 1898

Frank Burton (Burton Swifts) 1898

Jimmy Shields (South Shields) 1961

The biggest leap in levels between games, pt II

In last week’s Knowledge, we looked at players who jumped several levels from one professional game to the next. “Kevin Keegan deserves a mention,” writes John Neal. “He played for Scunthorpe v Brentford in the old Fourth Division (they finished 17th) before making his debut for Liverpool against Nottingham Forest in the First Division (and scoring 12 minutes into the game). Liverpool finished third that season, one point behind Derby and level on points with Manchester City and Leeds.”