Lionel Messi signs for English club
PUT a dream football team together and, chances are, a few of the same names will crop up. Pele, Maradona and Messi will inevitably appear as people argue about formations with pepper pots, squabbling about who should sit behind the forwards in a free role and whether or not to play a midfield sweeper.
This isn’t the stuff of fantasy though.
See, down at Farnborough FC, they’ve signed ‘Lionel Messi’, ‘Franz Beckenbauer’, ‘Paul Gascoigne’, ‘Pele’, ‘Diego Maradonna’ and ‘David Beckham’ amongst others, giving their manager a real selection headache.
The manager is Jose Mourinho, for the record.
Don’t get too excited though. This is all thanks to a sponsorship deal with Paddy Power who managed to convince the players to change their names legally by deed-poll, leaving some footballers’ wives-and-girlfriends invariably irritated by their newly named beaus.
That said, this summer has been financially turbulent for Farnborough and this kind of stunt is just the thing to keep them in business. They hope. If not, you’ll have some fella wandering around called Franz Beckenbauer for no reason.
Manager Spencer Day said: “Over the summer it looked touch and go whether we’d even start the season, but now we’ve got by far the greatest team the world has ever seen.”
Paddy Power have also named Farnborough’s stadium Paddy Power Park – they should’ve gone for The Maracana or something, but there you go.
Posted: 14th, August 2013 | In: Sports Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
