Bob Wilson’s Wikipedia – Week Eight

Welcome to Bob Wilson’s Wikipedia

Wikipedia has changed the educational landscape as we know it. Gone are the days when knowledge was gained through dusty encyclopedias and local wisdom, hearsay and rumourmongering.

Nowadays, people simply need to access Wikipedia in order to pass off facts as their own, plagiarise beyond all means in academia, sully the reputation of Hollywood movie stars – all in the name of ‘free education for all’.

Wikipedia’s framework is built on the Wikimedia Commons project – a media file repository making available‘public domain and freely-licensed educational media content’ - that is, no ‘copyrighted’ content.

Which is why we see Bob Wilson, a Scottish international goalkeeper, a man with more than 230 Arsenal appearances under his belt, a respected television broadcaster, paying for petrol in Hatfield, Hertfordshire as his official Wikipedia photograph. He isn’t the only one however. There are many, many more…

Here are five of the best that were submitted this week, in no particular order:

Ian Porterfield (@MattTickner)

Spotted by @MattTickner

John “Ian” Porterfield (11 February 1946 – 11 September 2007) was a professional footballer, most remembered for scoring the winning goal in the 1973 FA Cup Final shock defeat of then European giants, Leeds United.

He managed a total of 12 teams, including, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Oman, Trinidad & Tobago, Kumasi Asante Kotoko of Ghana, K-League’s Busan I’Park and, up until his death, he was the coach of the Armenian national team.

Despite a footballing career spanning four continents, it would appear that technological globalisation has been unable to afford Porterfield a snapshot of his own, but instead, we’re left to try and pick him out of a crowd.

Kenny Dalglish (@ClikChrisParry)

Spotted by @clikchrisparry

Kenneth Mathieson “Kenny” Dalglish MBE (born 4 March 1951) is a Scottish former footballer and the current manager of Liverpool F.C..

In a 22-year playing career, he played for two club teams, Celtic and Liverpool, winning numerous honours with both. He is the most capped Scottish player, with 102 appearances, and is Scotland’s joint leading goal scorer. Dalglish was voted PFA Player of the Year for the 1982–83 season, and he also won two Football Writers’ Footballer of the Year awards.

In 2009 he was named by FourFourTwo magazine as the greatest striker in post-war British football, and in 2006 he was placed first in Liverpool’s official list of “100 Players Who Shook the Kop”.

There’s an awkwardness to the photo, largely in part to the ambiguity of whether he’s responding to a photograph or delivering a ‘photograph me’ plea. To me however, the most revered striker of his generation looks as if he’s a tourist in Disneyland.

Mats Hummels (@theftblproject)

Spotted by @theftblproject

Mats Julian Hummels (born 16 December 1988 in Bergisch Gladbach) is a German footballer who plays for Borussia Dortmund, as a central defender.

A product of FC Bayern Munich’s youth ranks, Hummels signed his first professional contract on 19 December 2006, until 2010.

On January 2008, Hummels joined Borussia Dortmund, initially on loan. During his first full season, he quickly established himself as first-choice, as he often partnered newly signed Neven Subotić, but also missed a great part of its final months due to injury. In February 2009, he was fully signed to the club.

As is inevitably the case with this Bob Wilson’s Wikipedia feature, we are starting to notice some trends. There are footballers who have average photographs, some extraordinary ones. But the main fascination lies in the trends that are against the ordinary. We have seen two World Cup heroes being stood up in restaurants, talented midfielders of differing dispositions drunk and disorderly and, in this case, little glimpses of mirrored mise-en-scene. Here, we have sunglasses that we have seen before.

Mathias Jørgensen (@Jimmydan)

Spotted by @Jimmydan

Mathias Jattah-Njie “Zanka” Jørgensen (born 23 April 1990 in Copenhagen) is a Danish footballer who plays as a central defender for F.C. Copenhagen in the Danish Superliga. He was recently named as captain for F.C. Copenhagen.

Jørgensen moved to F.C. Copenhagen from neighbouring club B.93, where he had played in first team matches even at the young age of 16. He signed a three year contract with FCK on June 26, 2007. Before signing with the Danish champions, he had visited Arsenal for a one week trial.

His first team debut came on September 26, 2007 in a cup match against FC Fredericia. He substituted Oscar Wendt 5 minutes before full time, in the match FCK won 3–1. Three days later he got his Superliga debut, this time replacing Hjalte Nørregaard about 15 minutes before full time. He is now currently the captain of ‘The Lions’.

The previous point about trends in footballers’ photographs once again gains credence when we see ‘Zanka’ signing football boots in a council estate. Like Dean Ashton before him, is he trying to make a few quid on the side selling merchandise to fans?

Ray Houghton (@chris_harvey85)

Spotted by @chris_harvey85

Raymond James “Ray” Houghton (born 9 January 1962, Castlemilk, Glasgow, Scotland) is a retired Irish Footballer. He now contributes as an analyst and commentator with RTÉ Sport.

Houghton is remembered by Irish soccer fans for being the scorer of two of the most important goals in the national team’s history, which resulted in 1–0 victories over England in Stuttgart at UEFA Euro 1988, and Italy at the Giants Stadium in New York at the 1994 FIFA World Cup.

At club level Houghton is best remembered for his success in the great Liverpool side of the late 1980s

Of course everyone remembers Ray Houghton and that goal (plus his awful, awful celebration) – he’s been dining out on it ever since. But what people don’t recall is the darker side to Ray Houghton’s life. Thankfully someone has managed to photograph it for us. Here we have Ray Houghton, sleeping bag in hand, being woken up after sleeping rough outside Villa Park. How the mighty fall.

As this is a weekly feature, if you spot a funny Wikipedia image of a professional footballer, be sure to let us know by email or Twitter, with the subject or hashtag #BobWilsonsWiki.

We will publish five of the best each week. Find the whole collection of Bob Wilson’s Wikipedia here.

Follow @MattTickner on Twitter.

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