Which footballer is the most prolific scorer against a former club?
Plus: mythical beasts and monsters on shirts, one-cap England hat-trick heroes and much more
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“I’m a Manchester United fan and have just seen Danny Welbeck score against us for what seems like the 97th time. Who is the most prolific scorer against a former employer?” weeps Alex Mount.
Danny Welbeck’s goal at Old Trafford on Saturday was his fifth against Manchester United since leaving the club in 2014. Alex will have happier memories of our first answer to this question. In December 1995, Andy Cole scored with his first touch against his old club Newcastle United, and spent the next decade reminding them what they had. Cole scored 11 goals in all, including four in a 5-1 demolition in August 1999.
Borussia Dortmund’s Marco Reus has also scored 11 goals against the club at which he made his name, in this case Borussia Monchengladbach. Ally McCoist, meanwhile, scored 14 times against his first club St Johnstone, as did Alan Shearer against Southampton.
Leicester probably weren’t Harry Kane’s employer when he joined them on loan from Spurs in 2013, but they do count as one of his former clubs. They’ve also become his favourite opponent: 20 goals in 20 games, including four in a 6-1 win at the King Power Stadium in May 2017.
The man Kane belatedly succeeded at Bayern Munich, Robert Lewandowski, is top of this particular list. After leaving Borussia Dortmund in 2014, Lewandowski bit the hand that used to feed him 27 times in just 26 games. That’s got to hurt.
Monsters and mythical beasts on shirts
“On a recent deep dive into obscure clubs and their kits, I happened upon Scotland’s Loch Ness FC. Their new away kit features various graphics of the fabled Loch Ness Monster – check out the sock details! – and it got me thinking: have any other clubs’ kits (not just the badge) featured mythical beasts or monsters of some kind?” wonders Derek Robertson.
John Curry gets in touch to point out that Dundalk, who play in the League of Ireland Premier Division, have three martlets on their shirt (courtesy of the badge). These mythical birds have no feet and thus are in flight from the moment they are born until their death – a life of continuous effort. Presumably the club demand this from their players.
In last week’s Knowledge we looked at English teams who didn’t score a league goal until the leaves had started falling from the trees. The best we could find was Halifax, who took 729 minutes to get off the mark in 1990-91. But the ever-reliable Chris Roe has an unusual tale from Germany.
In 1995-96, Mainz endured a long wait to score until the 52nd minute of their ninth 2. Bundesliga game – that’s 772 minutes into the season – and even that was an own goal from Wattenscheid 09’s Sven Backhaus. But there’s a but: Mainz, whose team included a rugged 28-year-old defender called Jürgen Klopp, had scored twice in their opening game, a 2-2 draw with Hannover 96.
There was one tiny problem. The first goal was scored by Thomas Ziemer, who some poor flunky at Mainz had forgotten to officially register with the DFB for the 1995-96 season. Hannover were awarded a 2-0 victory and Mainz had to wait almost two months for their first official goal. All’s well that ends well, though: they finished 11th and Hannover were relegated. We’re not sure what happened to the poor flunky.
Benched after a hat-trick (a late add)
“Before you finally bench the ‘omitted after scoring a hat-trick’ question, please spare a thought for Jack Yates of Burnley, Albert Allen of Aston Villa, John Veitch of Corinthians, Sheffield Wednesday’s Frank Bradshaw and Walter Gilliat of Old Carthusians,” writes Chris Rawson. “These gentlemen share the distinction of scoring a hat-trick on their England debut and never being picked again!”
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“Huddersfield were promoted to the Premier League with a negative goal difference,” noted Dave Langley in 2017. “But has a team ever won the title despite conceding more than they scored?”
The first example that springs to mind is from Brazil. Coritiba were champions in 1985 with a negative goal difference, having scored 25 times in 29 games. This was, in part, due to the sort of typically complicated system that you need a PhD to understand.
There were four groups in the first phase, with each playing two mini-leagues. The teams that finished top of each league qualified for the next phase along with the two remaining teams with the best overall record. Coritiba were eighth out of 10 in the first round, losing six of their 10 games, but finished top in the second – so although they were seventh in the overall qualification table, they were one of four teams to go through to the next round.
After that they won their second-phase group, sneaked past Atlético Mineiro 1-0 on aggregate in the semi-finals and beat Bangu in a penalty shootout in the final. Their overall record that season read: P29 W12 D7 L10 F25 A27. The runners-up Bangu won 20 of their 31 games (their mini-leagues had 11 games each, which is why they played two more than Coritiba), were top of every table and ended with a goal difference of +32. But the book will always say Coritiba were champions.
The heroic people at RSSSF found a few other examples – including Posco Atoms, who were South Korean champions in 1986 despite losing more games than they won and finishing with a goal difference of -2.
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Can you help?
“An article on the BBC (other news outlets are available) this week shows a mystery ex-England player selling his Italia 90 shirts. The biggest mystery to me is why Belgium have their crest on the opposite side to all the other teams. Even the Belgium goalkeeper’s jersey from the tournament has the crest on the usual side. Can anyone shed any light on why the shirts were designed like this?” asks Brian Roberts.
“Stuart Findlay recently joined Kilmarnock for his fourth separate spell with the club. What is the highest number of spells any player has had at one club?” asks David Rennie.
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