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Post by staggerstag on Jun 5, 2018 18:06:33 GMT
F***ing hell, how much info do you need? It's all here, though, every player's stats, goals, caps, nicknames, hobbies, favourite sexual position - the lot, all 736 of 'em. I'll now and again highlight some random and just see what it says about him.
Your Complete World Cup Player Profiles
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Post by staggerstag on Jun 5, 2018 23:05:04 GMT
Iceland's first choice goalkeeper Hannes Thor Halldorsson directed Iceland's video for the 2012 Eurovision song contest, while hirsute midfielder Aron Einar Gunnarsson cut off some of his legendary 'Viking' beard after Euro 2016 and used the cuttings to make a fishing fly for his brother. Meanwhile, striker Björn Bergmann Sigurdarson has "absolutely no interest in watching football and will not be watching other matches at the World Cup for fun."
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Post by Carl LaFong on Jun 6, 2018 0:55:05 GMT
Good work, Arthur. I shall enjoy your future random factoids.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 6, 2018 9:03:51 GMT
Iceland's first choice goalkeeper Hannes Thor Halldorsson directed Iceland's video for the 2012 Eurovision song contest, while hirsute midfielder Aron Einar Gunnarsson cut off some of his legendary 'Viking' beard after Euro 2016 and used the cuttings to make a fishing fly for his brother. Meanwhile, striker Björn Bergmann Sigurdarson has "absolutely no interest in watching football and will not be watching other matches at the World Cup for fun." Bristol City's Hordur Magnusson will play for Iceland👍
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Post by Deleted on Jun 6, 2018 9:07:02 GMT
Iceland's first choice goalkeeper Hannes Thor Halldorsson directed Iceland's video for the 2012 Eurovision song contest, while hirsute midfielder Aron Einar Gunnarsson cut off some of his legendary 'Viking' beard after Euro 2016 and used the cuttings to make a fishing fly for his brother. Meanwhile, striker Björn Bergmann Sigurdarson has "absolutely no interest in watching football and will not be watching other matches at the World Cup for fun." Bristol City's Hordur Magnusson will play for Iceland👍 That's local football's claim to fame this world cup, and a good enough reason for me to be supporting 🇮🇸
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Post by staggerstag on Jun 6, 2018 11:42:52 GMT
When Panama missed out on qualifying for Brazil 2014 defender Román Torres, pictured below, pledged there and then that he’d only cut his dreadlocks off if and when Panama did reach a World Cup. He’s still got them, though, because: “My daughter told me she didn’t want me to cut them off, so I still haven’t.” Hmm...okay then (!)
Striker Blas Pérez has a tattoo of his father on his chest. Watch out if he scores because he will celebrate by making the sign of a bull's horns to honour his dad.
Another striker, arguably Panama's first choice, Luis Tejada (The Matador - 43 goals in 105 apps) will quit the national side after the World Cup but will remain playing domestically in Peru because "they want me to keep going until I am 50"
And another striker, Gabriel Torres, is known as “Fantasmita” (“little ghost”) . "We’re going to enjoy it, because it’s our first World Cup," says the phantom-like #9, "but we’ll treat it with real seriousness, too. The last thing we want is to go there and make fools of ourselves.”
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Post by staggerstag on Jun 7, 2018 9:07:10 GMT
Where is grocery shopping cheaper - in Costa Rica or Colombia? Costa Rica's defender Johnny Acosta, now playing in the Colombian top flight, can answer that : “The food here [in Colombia] is similar to Costa Rica but what I can say is that it is much cheaper than back home. I only spend half as much in Colombia in the supermarket.”
Ian (“I like my name, it’s different in our culture”) Smith, defender, was taught English at a very young age because his parents thought he might end up living in another country. He does - Sweden.
Defender Cristian Gamboa may well be familiar to Celtic fans. “One of my kids was born here in Glasgow. So Julian is ‘Scottish Costa Rican’ and wherever I go I will have this piece of
Scotland in my heart. Julian is almost two years old… maybe Julian could play for Scotland one day.”
Midfielder Celso Borges is an accomplished musician (guitar/drums) and has played live covering songs by Metallica, Nirvana, Slipknot, Guns & Roses...When playing for AIK of Sweden he got a very late call up from the manager and made his own way to Gothenberg for the away match. When he got there it was discovered the kit man had not packed his shirt. Borges went trawling the local pubs around the stadium in search of a duplicate shirt. An AIK fan was wearing one, complete with number and name, and let Borges borrow it for the match. The sponsor's name was hastily sewn into the shirt and Borges played the whole game in it before returning it to the owner (AIK won the match 0-2)
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Post by Deleted on Jun 7, 2018 9:18:37 GMT
I knew it... Get your groceries in Costa Rica and they shaft you every time.
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Post by Hairynosedwombat on Jun 7, 2018 12:11:38 GMT
I knew it... Get your groceries in Costa Rica and they shaft you every time. That's because of the flood of tourists on their way to Isla Nublar and Isla Sorna.
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Post by staggerstag on Jun 7, 2018 13:33:39 GMT
Saudi Arabia's 26 year old defender Yasser al-Shahrani was featured on the cover of the Middle Eastern version of Fifa 16 – alongside Lionel Messi.
Midfielder Yahya al-Shehri is one of the shortest players in the tournament at 5ft 5in. He has also appeared as a cover star for FIFA games in Saudi Arabia.
Midfielder Abdullah Otayf is known as the "Saudi Modric".
Another midfielder, Salem al-Dawsari, caught the headlines in May 2015, when he was fined a month’s wages by al-Hilal for aiming a head-butt at Scottish referee John Beaton in their derby against al-Nassr. He eventually received a six-match ban too. “It sounds more dramatic than it was,” said hard man ref Beaton who later went on to deny any suggestions that he was tempted to see off Dawsari's head-butt with a Glasgow Kiss of his own.
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Post by staggerstag on Jun 7, 2018 14:08:43 GMT
Japan's number 2 keeper Masaaki Higashiguchi was released by his Gamba Osaka Academy in 2015 because he was deemed too short to be a player. He was 15 at the time and clocked in at 5ft 6in. Somehow, some way, seven years later he had grown to over 6 feet tall, and his professional career duly began.
Defender Naomichi Ueda represented Japan at a taekwondo world championship. Do not agitate this fellow.
Defender Maya Yoshida will be familiar to EPL followers. He recently published a book “Unbeatable Mind”, written during Southampton’s successful fight against relegation. Sample quote : “Resilience can give you strength to keep moving forwards when you are caught in the rain or a storm, and keep you continuing on your journey through life. And it is a strength which resides in everyone.”
Midfielder Shinji Kagawa has more Twitter 'followers' than any other footballer in Japan.
Midfielder Makoto Hasabe has sold over one million copies of his book 'Kokoro o totonoeru' (“Training the Mind”) - and donated all his royalties ($1.65 million, including proceeds from a charity event) to the 2011 UNICEF tsunami relief appeal.
Keisuke Honda, one of seven strikers in the squad, wears a watch on both of his wrists. Fans nickname him “Honda-san, so cool”. (Gotta remember that 2-watch tactic next time I'm down the singles club)
Leicester's striker Shinji Okazaki certainly isn’t the quickest and this used to be a source of concern for him, but he overcame his fears to write a self-criticial, motivational book called Donsoku (“Slow Feet”) Banzai!
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Post by Pangolin on Jun 7, 2018 19:33:02 GMT
Keisuke Honda, one of seven strikers in the squad, wears a watch on both of his wrists. Fans nickname him “Honda-san, so cool”. (Gotta remember that 2-watch tactic next time I'm down the singles club) He and his brothers also own 49% of a football club in ...... Austria en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SV_Horn
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Post by staggerstag on Jun 8, 2018 1:14:14 GMT
Russia's first choice keeper Igor Akinfeev can boast (or hide) a record 43 Champions League games without a clean sheet, which only ended last November when CSKA Moscow beat Benfica 2-0...but in Russian domestic football he has kept more clean sheets than any other keeper!
Defender Mário Fernandes was born in Brazil and played once for the Brazil national team in 2014 - but as it was only a friendly he was able to switch allegiance to Russia three years later when he earned his first cap after getting Russian citizenship.
Defender Yuri Zhirkov's main hobby is collecting Second World War memorabilia and even has a Soviet limousine in his collection. He's been wanting to open a museum in an old bunker in Germany for years now but complains there is not enough room for all his collection.
25 year old midfielder Daler Kuzyaev revealed in March this year that he has never been on a date.
Midfielder Anton Miranchuk is ten minutes younger than his twin brother, striker Aleksei.
As a child, midfielder Aleksandr Erokhin lived near a militia (police) station and often played football against militiamen for money. He recalled: “If we won, we went to them and required payment then and there. If we lost, we ran away.”
Striker Aleksei Miranchuk is ten minutes older than his twin brother Anton.
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Post by staggerstag on Jun 8, 2018 9:27:33 GMT
Australia's #1 keeper, Brighton's Mathew Ryan, broke so many tennis racquets as a bad-tempered child that his single mother couldn't afford to keep buying him new ones. So he settled on a career in football instead. It is possible that he broke so many racquets on purpose as a career in tennis was his mother's idea - Ryan wanted football.
Third choice keeper Danny Vukovic is a kind sort. He once rescued a seagull that had been hit by a ball during an Australian cup final, stopping the match, carrying the bird to safety, petting it, then handing it to security staff.
Defender James Meredith of Millwall is a modest sort. “I am Australia’s best left-back,” he asserted recently.
Defender Josh Risdon has a tattoo on his right thigh : Super Mario Bros character 'Yoshi'.
Midfielder Aaron Mooy's £8m transfer from Man City to Huddersfield is the highest ever transfer fee paid for an Australian player.
Midfielder Jackson Irvine's fan song at Hull City is Sweet Caroline: “Jackson Irvine (dah dah dahhhhh) long hair never looked so good ...”
Striker Tim Cahill has scored goals in all three of his previous World Cups ; if he makes it a fourth in Russia he will join Pele, Uwe Seeler and Miroslav Klose as the only players in history to achieve the feat.
Striker Tom Juric turned down a very lucrative 3 year deal to play in China. “You get good coin and that, but it’s hard to keep your body in the right shape and eat the right food,” he said.
Former Hibs loanee, striker Jamie Maclaren was capped twice by Scotland in Under-19 internationals. He now plays in Germany but says he feels most at home in Scotland, birthplace of his father.
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Post by MrFurious on Jun 8, 2018 9:41:17 GMT
Hope Tim Cahill scores/Australia gets a pen
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Post by staggerstag on Jun 8, 2018 11:54:29 GMT
Yassine Bounou, Morocco's first choice keeper, is known simply as Bono.
Second choice keeper Munir El Kajoui Mohamedi was born in the Spanish enclave of Melilla in northern Morocco. Like many of his team mates he chose Morocco over other more promising options - Spain, France, Holland, Belgium, the list goes on.
Defender Manuel Da Costa was born in France to Portuguese and Moroccon parents, and played for Portugal as a youth player. Seven years ago he was cleared of groping a woman in an Essex nightclub during his spell at West Ham but was fined £1,000 for slapping her in the face.
Defender Romain Saïss helped Wolves win promotion to the Premier League in May.
Midfielder Hakim Ziyech, who played for Holland as a youth player, came in for some stick from Marco van Basten a couple of years ago. “How stupid can you be to choose Morocco if you are in contention for the Dutch national team?” ...erm, who's laughing now, Marco?
Midfielder Fayçal Fajr is sh*t scared of dogs after once breaking his leg trying to jump six metres to flee a pitbull.
Midfielder Nabil Dirar knows where his priorities lie. In 2012 he fell out with national coach Eric Gerets after refusing to travel to Gabon for the AFCON tournament. “I'm not going to the Afcon to stay on the bench,” he protested at the time. “My wife is pregnant and she needs me more than Gerets does.”
Striker Khalid Boutaib does not mince his words either. "I was born in France but I am 100% Moroccan.”
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Post by staggerstag on Jun 9, 2018 10:13:10 GMT
Mexico goalkeeper José Corona would rather win the Mexican league with his club Cruz than play in the World Cup.
Fellow keeper Guillermo Ochoa plays for Standard Liege - a club whose first Mexican player was the now retired goal-scoring machine Carlos Hermosillo, whose opinion of Ochoa's move to Belgium must have lifted the keeper's spirits no end : “It's a setback. It's a cold place, with lots of rain, and the players are very cold; they don't help you with anything.”
Defender Miguel Layún has suffered heavy criticism for past mistakes, and in 2012 a hashtag #TodoEsCulpaDeLayun (“Everything is Layún’s fault”) ridiculed him online. But he joined in on the joke - tweeting after he got a puncture on his car: “All my fault”.
Midfielder Rafael Marquéz was the first Mexican to win the Champions League, in 2006 with Barcelona, and will be in Russia despite last year being forced to deny alleged links to a drug trafficking organisation.
Midfielder Marco Fabién is a big music lover and is the team DJ at his club Eintracht Frankfurt.
Striker Raúl Jiménez has baffled many an opposition keeper from the penalty spot with his unusual approach. He stands a few yards behind the ball, makes a big step to the left then runs up, able to hit it low to the left or right. “I don’t decide until the last moment, until I’m right on top of the ball. What I do just depends on the goalkeeper. I simply contain my emotion, have confidence and believe that the ball is going to go in.”
Los Angeles FC striker Carlos Vela enjoys the hoops. “I prefer a thousand times to watch the NBA than a game of football.”
Porto striker Jesús Corona's nickname "Tecatito" came about because his surname, Corona, is the rival beer to Tecate, who were the main sponsors of his first club, Monterrey.
Javier Aquino must be one of the most goal-starved international forwards going. 53 caps = 0 goals.
Striker Hirving Lozano's nickname is “Chucky” after the movie horror doll - a name given to him as a youth player due to his hobby of hiding under team-mates’ beds to scare them.
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Post by staggerstag on Jun 9, 2018 12:30:53 GMT
Argentina keeper Nahuel 'Big Foot' Guzmán loves The Rolling Stones, writes children's fiction, saves shots with his chest and has been known to tear up pieces of turf in protest at bobbles on the pitch. He's also known for the passionate on-pitch kiss he gave Tigres team-mate Israel Jiménez in 2015 after Jiménez scored their title-winning penalty – a moment which sparked a rash of homophobic trolling on social media. Guzman shrugged it off. “The kiss was the least I could do after what Jimenez did for us. I'd say he deserved it.”
In April’s Copa del Rey final against Barcelona, Seville defender Gabriel Mercado was all too aware of taking it easy on Lionel Messi just months ahead of the World Cup. “If I smack him one I can never go back to Argentina. That said, you can’t even stop Messi by fouling him: you put one in on him and he just gets up and goes again."
Ex-Spurs outcast, defender Federico Fazio's view of life in England was somewhat influenced by his less than happy time at White Hart Lane. “There’s not much tactical work in England, and when you go out in London nobody knows who you are.”
Defender Marcos Rojo is well known for his body art. His mother, Carina, wasn't happy at first but soon came round. “I wasn't happy when he started getting these tattoos, but he has a way with me. ‘Mami’, he said, ‘this tattoo is of your name.'"
Another tattoo lover is fellow defender Nicolás Otamendi : “The beard and the tattoos help my image” he says.
Midfielder Éver Banega was once run over by his own car having forgotten to put the handbrake on at a petrol station, resulting in a broken leg.
Midfielder Marcos Acuña is known at home as “el Huevo” – The Egg – a childhood nickname rising from the number of bumps he used to get on his head while out playing. In April he made the headlines when he was spotted taking off his jacket before a cold, wet Europa League quarter-final and using it to wrap up the young mascot who was walking with him onto the pitch. Headlines included: “Applause for The Egg”, “A golden Egg” and “The gesture of The Egg that moved Europe”.
Coach Jorge Sampaoli recently said of striker Lionel Messi : “Messi has a revolver put to his head called the World Cup, and if he doesn't win it, he's shot and killed.”
Fellow striker Ángel Di María is also aware of the importance of this tournament : “If we don’t win it, that will surely be the end for this generation,” says the man nicknamed Fideo/”Noodle” for his slender frame.
Striker Sergio Agüero is still looking for his first World Cup Finals goal, in this his third tournament. As for the 'Kun' in his name? “It was a Japanese cartoon I used to watch when I was very young, set in the Stone Age, where the main character was a boy called Kum Kum, the little caveman. My Grandpa started calling me Kun because all I could say was ''koo'' or ''koom''. He’d say 'Kun, come over here' or 'Kun, go over there.' It came from that.”
Striker Paulo Dybala has Sony to thank for his goal-scoring technique. Or should it be Sony thanking him? “I call him ‘Square R2’,” said his former team-mate Paul Pogba last year. “That’s the key combination you press on PlayStation to do a turn and shot. He always scores like that.”
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Post by staggerstag on Jun 9, 2018 21:39:57 GMT
Nigeria keeper Ikechukwu Ezenwa is known for his “bum-bouncing” celebrations after goals and victories, in the style of the former DR Congo keeper Robert Kidiaba.
Defender Shehu Abdullahi believes the friendly win over Argentina makes Nigeria favourites when the pair meet again in Group D, and thinks Iceland are their most dangerous group stage opponents.
Defender Kenneth Omeruo joined Chelsea in 2012 but is yet to make a senior appearance, instead forming part of their sizeable loan army ever since.
Defender Leon Balogun revealed after a Bundesliga game for Mainz in Hanover earlier this year that he and Anthony Ujah – another Nigeria international – had been racially abused by some home supporters while warming up as substitutes. “I’m shocked that such behaviour exists in 2018 in the Bundesliga, where players of differing backgrounds, skin colours and religions fight daily for their fans,” he tweeted, before Hanover apologised for the incident. Balogun joined Brighton last month.
Defender William Troost-Ekong is the only player to have played every minute of Nigeria's World Cup qualifiers.
Mikel John Obi's wife is a Russian and many of his relatives and friends are from Russia. "I think they will kill me if I fail them," he says. Not sure they'd kill you if you failed in an important Russia/Nigeria game, Mikel.
Midfielder John Ogu is a masterful exponent of a viral Nigerian dance called “Shaku Shaku” - hard, nay impossible, for me to describe except maybe just to say it's a rich man's version of that bloody annoying Daniel Sturridge 'wavy arm' celebration in the days when he used to pot.
Striker Victor Moses' parents were both killed in religious riots when he was just 11. He still carried on playing street football, though. "No boots, just in your bare feet, a little ball got chucked in and we started playing.”
Striker Simeon 'Simy' Nwankwo was once asked to pick out his best ever goal. “My wife is the best goal I ever scored. In everybody, there is a need to find someone who completes your puzzle and she completes mine.” Awwwww...
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Post by staggerstag on Jun 10, 2018 12:57:42 GMT
Egypt's number one keeper Essam El-Hadary is 45 years old.
Defender Ali Gabr left Zamalek in January in a £438,000 loan move to West Brom and a right to buy for £1.1m. He didn’t play a single game during the club’s relegation battle.
Aston Villa defender Ahmed Elmohamady enjoys life in the Midlands because “the sun comes out a little bit more”. Huh?
Defender Ahmed Fathi spent 10 days visiting the families of people who had died during the Port Said tragedy in 2012, when at least 74 supporters were killed after a match between al-Ahly and al-Masry.
Wolverhampton-born midfielder and Wigan captain Sam Morsey speaks no Arabic.
Striker Mo Salah used to travel five hours every day to get to training at his first club, Arab Contractors in Cairo. Not so long ago two things happened online when Sergio Ramos brought Salah down in the Champions League final. First, Twitter crashed. Second, when it came back up, the top Arabic trending subjects in Egypt were: 1: “We are all Liverpool”; 2: “Son of dirt”; and 3: “Ramos the dog”.
Striker Mahmoud Abdel-Moneim ‘Kahraba’ got engaged last year to Shadwa El-Hadary, daughter of that 45 year old keeper I mentioned earlier. The engagement lasted 48 days after it emerged that he was already engaged to an actress. He enjoys driving his Bentley around the fine restaurants of Cairo - so far no member of the El-Hadary clan has cut the brake lines on the vehicle.
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