The siblings of St James’ Park.
Posted on September 24th, 2010 | 101 Comments |
English football saw the first ever identical twins going head-to-head as managers when the Holdsworth twins, Dean and David, went head-to-head as Newport County took on Mansfield Town in the Conference Premier.
Following this week’s events its certainly good to see two brothers in the news for the right reasons unlike one of our ex-players currently down the road at the Stadium of Light. It’s a historic moment which I suspect may never be repeated, but it got me thinking about Newcastle players past or present who had siblings within the game.
Looking at brother’s and Newcastle United there is only one place to start, the famous Robledo brothers from Chile. Ted and George grew up in Barnsley during the 1930’s with a Mexican father and a mother from Yorkshire. United were orginally only interested in signing George after he impressed for Barnsley but signed Ted after the twins refused to move without each other.
The pair also made history in 1952 when they appeared in the FA Cup Final together. They became part of the first FA Cup Final XI to include two foreign players with forward George netting the 84th minute winner against Arsenal. Compare that with the last FA Cup final, which included 15 foreign players with 8 for Chelsea and 7 for Portsmouth. How times change eh?
Whilst George went on to net 82 goals in black and white, equalling legend Hughie Gallacher’s record of 33 goals in a single season, and his record of the top flight overseas goalscorer in England outlived him and lasted almost half a century before Dwight Yorke beat it.
Whilst George died of a heart attack in 1989, a more tragic end met Ted who died in mysterious cirumstances. It is believed he was thrown from an oil tanker and drowned. Sadly his body was never recovered.
United may never see the likes of the Robledo brothers again, but fear not for we have now the Ameobi brothers! Sammy is progressing well in the reserves and Shola is of course still plying his trade with the first-team on occasion. By the way, did anyone go to the open training day at St James’ Park and see Sammy finishing the ball alot better then big brother Shola?
Less luck for the middle child of the pack, Oluwatomiwo Ameobi, or ‘Tomi’ for short, who can now be found warming the benches of FA Vase winners Whitley Bay following a unsuccessful spell at the mighty Forest Green Rovers which yielded just 5 goals from 28 appearaces.
One name everyone knows at St James’ Park is ‘Lua-Lua’, and the current Lua Lua on the books at Newcastle is the young and promising Kazenga who is currently impressing on loan down at Brighton and Hove Albion.
After alot of confusion and uncertainity, Lomano finally confirmed that Kazenga is in fact his brother, with many including myself beleiving the two were cousins. Kaz certanily has all the flair of his big brother, and attitude! Interestingly Kazenga is also the cousin of Leeds forward Tresor Kandol and Plymouth Argyle’s Yannick Bolasie.
The big siblings to make the news this week however are of course comes from our favorite defensive clown, Titus Bramble, and his big brother and now non-league footballer, Tesafaye Bramble. When not, allegedly, partaking in some brotherly love, the pair actually do have football careers with one playing for the Black Cats of Sunderland and the other playing non league football. Makes you wonder which one is more successfull doesn’t it?
I could make a strong arguement to suggest Tes Bramble is the more successfull brother, after all he does have a 100% goalscoring record for his country, albeit one goal from one cap for Montserrat in the Caribbean Cup in 2004.
Once a Decent goalscorer at Southend, well 29 goals in 139 games, which as a striker is not prolific, it was just about as good as it got for the lesser of the Bramble brothers. Spells at Cambridge and Stockport among other clubs followed before findong himself in the bright lights of Felixstowe and Walton United.
And our good old friend Titus now holds the fort for Sunderland, and proved to us he can still score plenty of own goals off the pitch as well as on it with his latest antics. Of course, he should be innocent until proven guilt in much the same way a more popular ex-mag was, Nobby Solano.
Anyway that about raps up a small collection of the siblings of St James’ Park, although there are probably many more I have missed in fairness! I Think Jamie McClen – once dubbed the luckiest man on Tyneside – has an identical twin who used to take advantage of his brothers footballing ‘exploits’ during nights out in the Bigg Market.
Can you think of any?
NUFCBlog Author: Paul Reece
Paul Reece has written 14 articles on this blog.
Off-topic.
Some nice word from Harper after surgery.
Hope he get well soon. ;)
“There will be the proper protocol, of course, but I will be looking to be back as soon as possible. We’ve got great medical staff here and they know that me even being in the medical room for more than five minutes usually sees me banging my head against the wall so three months will be a long time.
“I was told it could be four months but I was determined to stay positive until we’d had a clear diagnosis. We’ve been told three months, so it will be now up to me and the medical team to get down to work and chisel as many days off that as possible.
“We decided between myself, the club doctor and Shay Given that Andrew Wallace, the Australian doctor in London, was the best option. It’s been frustrating waiting for the next step but the long road is ahead of me now. When the pain subsides it will be up to me to get myself fit.
“I had my operation at 8pm on Wednesday night and when they woke me up they told me Newcastle had won 4-3. I wasn’t sure if the anaesthetic was still in full effect but it was a fantastic result and they fully deserved it. It showed what great team spirit we’ve got these days.
“I think the manager said it was an unnecessary challenge and as soon as I landed I heard a crunch. I couldn’t move my arm after it. But the staff in the hospital were fantastic, although it was pretty much obvious it was a bad one.
“I came out of the hospital and met up with a jubilant team at the airport. After that it was a case of getting together with the club doctor and making a decision on what was the next best step.
“I know that Tim (Krul) had a few offers in the summer from other places – I urged him to stay, ironically. I’m 36 later this season (in March) and I told him there could be an opportunity coming up soon. We didn’t know it would be so soon but I’ve got every faith in him.
“He’s a very good goalkeeper and he’s got the chance now for at least 12 weeks. It’s been a very busy week for him already and it will get busier against Stoke because they do like to target the goalkeepers.
“He was one of the first to come over and see if I was okay and one of the first to ring me afterwards. We’ve got a really good relationship. He’s willing to listen and learn and that’s good.
“We’re lying in sixth place at the moment and hopefully by the time I’m fit again we can at least be in still in the top half.”