People Are Sharing Their Favourite 'Weird Football Fact' And It's Such A Good Read

Did you know that in April 1997, Southend United started the second half of a game against Ipswich with nine men because striker Andy Rammell was still in the dressing room trying to find his contact lenses and midfielder Phil Gridlet had a superstition by which he had to be the last man out.

No? Well, what about Fulham striker Aleksandar Mitrovic taking penalties against goalkeepers with the surnames Southwood, Eastwood and Westwood, or Andy Cole scoring one penalty in his entire career and still ending up with 289 goals?

If you enjoyed any of the above facts, then go and make yourself a brew, sit down and check out this incredible Twitter thread by David Hartrick, who was inspired to tweet his weird football facts after an enjoyable WhatsApp conversation discussing the topic.

Here are some of the best responses to David's post:

"The goalkeeper Jimmy Grimble scores past in the climactic match is the "Well done, he's 13" goalkeeper." - Adam Hurrey

"Stefan Schwartz had a clause in his contract that he 'couldn't become an astronaut' for the duration of his time at Sunderland." - Laura Lawrence

"In 2004-05 Man City beat Barnsley 7-1 in LC then later in the season Rangers beat Dundee Utd 7-1 in Scottish LC. On both occasions Ronald Wattereus was in goal for the winners and Nick Colgan for the losers." - Gareth Friel

"I think Nicolas Bendtner having 9 Serie A appearances with 0 goals and still having the same number of Scudettos as Francesco Totti does it for me." - Casey Evans

"In 1987 Mark Hughes played for both Bayern Munich and Wales on the same day." - Sam Whyte

"At Euro 2016; the Northern Ireland manager was Michael O'Neill, whose middle name is Martin. The Republic of Ireland manager was Martin O'Neill, whose middle name is Michael." - Colin Millar

"Between 1975 and 1988 West Bromwich Albion’s managers were called; Johnny, Ronnie, John, Ron, Ronnie, Ron, Johnny, Nobby, Ron, Ron." - Nick McPhie

"Everyone knows this obviously but I’ve a lot of time for the fact that Wolfgang Wolf used to managed Wolfsburg." - Simon Banoub

"Zinedine Zidane received more red cards in his career than Vinnie Jones." - Craig Fairlie

"Russia’s Oleg Salenko won the golden boot at USA ‘94 with six goals (including a record five in one game against Cameroon) - and these were the *only* international goals he ever scored." - No Score Draws (Sian & Alex)

"Rio Ferdinand was in four World Cup squads but was never involved at a Euros." - Richard Holden Shower

"Andy Hessenthaler was given a red card whilst managing Gillingham away at Cardiff so brought himself on a sub as he was player-manager and there's no rule against it (or there wasn't at the time) - Michael Cannon

"Buffon played with 1984 Euro winner Daniel Bravo and 2018 World Cup winner Kylian Mbappe." - Load-bearing poster

"Dion Dublin briefly shared a flat with Jason Statham in Great Yarmouth in the late 80s." - James Maw

"17 year old Grant Holt and 34 year old Paul Stewart were joint top scorers (11) as Workington won 14 in a row to win the 98/99 North West Counties League." - John

"Ephraim "Jomo" Sono got married, left his wedding to come on as a sub for his Orlando Pirates team that was down 2-0 at half-time, assisted three goals and scored one, then went back for the wedding reception after the match having won 4-2." - Kutlwano K. Molete

"The 1930 World Cup Final used 2 different balls (1 in each half) because neither Argentina or Uruguay used the same type in their leagues and neither could agree to which one would be used." - Lee

"Between them, Stanley Matthews, Peter Shilton and Gianluigi Buffon have made at least one appearance in every season from 1931-32 on." - Andy

"Steve Finnan is the only player to appear in the World Cup, Champions League, UEFA Cup, and the top five divisions of English football." - Gilles

"Hull City are the only football team in the Football League in which you can’t colour in any of there letters." - Char

"Ryan Bertrand’s Champions League debut was in the 2012 final, which he won. Playing out of position at LW." - Oskar

"Eidur Gudjohnsen was subbed on for his Iceland debut in 1996, replacing Arnór Gudjohnsen, his father." - Jordan

"Cristiano Ronaldo is 869 days older than Lionel Messi. Cristiano Ronaldo's first child is also exactly 869 days older than Lionel Messi's first child." - Colin Millar

"Having watched the first 90 minutes of the 1999 Champions League final, UEFA President Lennart Johansson missed both Manchester United goals because he was in the stadium lift." - KP

"Andrey Arshavin made his professional debut against Bradford in the Intertoto Cup." - Liam Banks

"Stuart Pearce won Premier League player of the month four years after winning Premier League manager of the month." - craig blackhall

"Fillippo Inzaghi scored as many goals in the 06/07 Champions League final as he did in the entire 06/07 Serie A season, 2." - Mark McKillen

"Roy Hodgson is 127 days older than the Bernabéu." - Duncan Alexander

"Tony Adams captained the same club to a league title in three different decades." - Lewis

"Carlos Tevez didn't score a single Premier League goal against Arsenal. He played 11 times (for West Ham, Manchester United and Manchester City) against them." - Joey Savvy

"The only Premier League footballers to score a penalty with both feet are Bobby Zamora and Obafemi Martins." - Sam Jones

Let us know your favourite weird football fact in the comments.