Plus: worst-ever penalty shoot outs, poachers turned gamekeepers … and footballers donating antiques?!
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“Malachi Fagan-Walcott’s final game of last season was for York City against Rochdale in the National League. His first competitive game of 2026-27 season was for Hearts against Sturm Graz in a Champions League qualifier. Has a player ever made a bigger leap in competitive levels between consecutive club games?” asks Tom Reed.
Does a jump from the Welsh League to the FA Cup count as a bigger leap? Probably not, but this was an FA Cup semi-final, rather than a Champions League qualifier, and it’s a cracking yarn regardless. “I’ll nominate Gary Plumley,” writes Russell Connor. “Gary made almost 200 appearances for Newport County in four separate spells over the course of a decade but by 1987 he had effectively retired and was running a wine bar while making occasional appearances for Ebbw Vale in the Welsh League.
“In the build-up to the FA Cup semi-final in 1987, Watford found themselves short a goalkeeper after both Tony Coton and Steve Sherwood broke a thumb and finger respectively. As luck would have it, Gary’s dad Eddie was chief executive of Watford at the time which led to Gary being signed by the club to play in the game.
“Watford lost 4-1, and by all accounts Plumley didn’t cover himself in glory. His reward was a cheque for expenses, which he used to buy a fridge. The family referred it to as the Watford Fridge. Here’s an interview with Plumley about the game.”
You can also read read this from the Guardian archive.
“Erling and Alf-Inge Haaland bought the only surviving copy of the first printed edition of Snorri Sturluson’s medieval history of Norwegian kings and donated it to their hometown of Time in Norway,” writes Kári Tulinius. “Have other footballers bought and donated rare books or other antiques?”
“In 2017, the then Spurs midfielder Mousa Dembélé bought a 700-year-old building in Antwerp which he began converting into a hotel,” writes Tom Reed. “During the renovations a treasure trove of 18th-century porcelain, glass, pottery and tableware was discovered. Dembélé donated a portion of the treasure, reportedly valued at over £1m, to the local museum and the rest went on display in the lobby of the newly renovated hotel which he (perhaps optimistically) named De Gulde Schoen (The Golden Shoe).”
“On Sunday, Sean Murdoch was the referee for St Mirren v Dunfermline in the Scottish League Cup. Murdoch was previously a goalkeeper and played for Dunfermline. Are there any other examples of a former player refereeing a match for a club they had played for?” asks Ian Golightly.
We had this question in 2010, when the answers included:
Steve Baines, the only referee in the English professional leagues to have had significant experience as a player.
Dick Jol, who refereed the 2001 Champions League final between Bayern Munich and Valencia.
Ben Haverkort, who as a player received 73 yellow cards and six reds, many for verbally abusing referees.
There is a more recent example in the women’s game: Cheryl Foster MBE, who won 63 caps for Wales and spent most of her club career at Liverpool. She then retrained as a referee; within three years of playing her final game, she was on the Fifa international list. Foster became one of the world’s best referees and took charge of the 2023 Women’s Champions League final between Barcelona and Wolfsburg.