Which footballers have had unlikely guests at their weddings?

“After Mesut Özil’s government-endorsed nuptials, have any other players had an equally unlikely or high-level wedding guest?” asks Tony Crawford.

We should point out that Turkey’s president clearly loves a footballer’s wedding. Perhaps it’s the tasty canapés on offer or, more likely, the effect such appearances can have on his popularity. Just over a year before he was best man for Mesut Özil, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan played the same role on Arda Turan’s big day. Erdoğan was also present at Hakan Şükür’s wedding in 1995. But on this occasion, as the mayor of Istanbul, he actually conducted the ceremony. Curiously, the best man was Fethullah Gülen, the leader of the Gülen movement, now a vocal critic and enemy of Erdoğan who is exiled in the United States.

Related: What is football's biggest David v Goliath victory? | The Knowledge

We haven’t found any other guests with with such political heft playing such a central role, but the Libyan dictator Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s third son, Saadi, flew in to shower Jay Bothroyd with confetti when the former Cardiff striker tied the knot. “Saadi is a friend of mine. His dad is obviously a tyrant and he dictated over his countrymen through fear but Saadi was never like that,” said Bothroyd in 2011, who got to know Saadi at Perugia, where the dictator’s son made one appearance in the 2003-04 season before eventually being made commander of special forces in Libya. “He was always friendly and polite. He even came to my wedding. Obviously he used to have parties and stuff and he would invite me to Cannes to watch the Grand Prix. For his birthday he would fly me over on his plane.

“People who don’t know him might say he’s like this or like that or like his dad, but I’ve never seen that. I looked at him like a friend. He wasn’t the best [footballer] but he did it as a hobby. He’s a billionaire but it was something he wanted to do. He never expected any special treatment … People will say to me, ‘how can you be friends with this guy?’ But you can only judge people on how you see them. He was always nice to me … It has been weird. He paid for my honeymoon.”

And then there’s Sergio Ramos, who married the TV presenter Pilar Rubio recently and reportedly forked out around £900,000 to fly AC/DC in to play at his reception. They’re perhaps not as unlikely an attendee as, say, Mo Salah would be, but even for a master of the dark arts, having a 1970s hard rock band to entertain guests is an eyebrow-raising choice.

Any more for any more?

Born close to the scene of trophy-lifting success

“What is the shortest distance a cup-winning captain has had to travel from his place of birth to where he received the cup?” asks Kevin Gilvary.

Let’s start with an 80s FA Cup hero, Dave Beasant. “He was born in Willesden, which is 3km from Wembley Stadium, where he lifted the FA Cup for Wimbledon in 1988,” writes Wayne Ziants. “It was widely reported at the time that he could see the twin towers from the house he grew up in.” Dan Fagan takes us all the way to Uruguay for a similarly close example involving the Jules Rimet trophy. “José Nasazzi, captain of Uruguay in 1930, lifted the World Cup in the Estadio Centenario, just three miles from his place of birth in Bella Vista, Montevideo.” But Dan has found a famous Glaswegian whose birthplace was even closer to the scene of his future success. “Kenny Dalglish lifted the Scottish Cup in 1977 two miles from his place of birth, Dalmarnock in Glasgow’s east end.”

David v Goliath (2)

Last week, we looked into football’s biggest international population discrepancy results. But there’s more to spin off into …

“Curaçao’s win is impressive, but far from the best,” writes Ravid Alon. “We need to look into geographical area as well as population. Curaçao’s area is only 444km², which is small enough, but India is ‘only’ the seventh biggest country in the world, at over 3mkm², for a ratio of 7,403.7. The obvious candidate for Goliath is USSR, with a whopping 22.4m km². Unfortunately, they only managed to lose to Israel, which is 20,770km², for a ratio of 1,078.6. Its successor, Russia, is smaller, at just over 17mkm², but managed a bit better with a loss to Qatar, whose area is 11,586km², for a ratio of 1,475.8.

“Next we go to the second biggest country, Canada, at just under 10mkm². Their loss to the Faroe Islands is a good starting point, as the Faroes’ area is only 1,393km², for a ratio of 7,167.7, narrowly beaten by India’s loss. But Canada has not had the last word. In 2001 they traveled to Malta for a friendly. Their 2-1 loss is a record breaker, as Malta’s area is only 316km², for a massive 31,597.1 ratio. There aren’t many optional match ups with a higher ratio, so I’m gonna go ahead and say it’s probably the record.”

Meanwhile, Opeyemi Ajal is of the opinion that “the relative footballing terms can top the absolute population terms. Despite the 169-place distance between Faroe Islands with a population of 49,117 and the 2004 European Championship winners Greece with 11,183,716, Faroe Islands beat the Greeks 1-0 in 2014, a feat repeated on 13 June 2015 by a score of 2–1.”

Knowledge archive

“Fulham defender Zesh Rehman made his debut for Pakistan, who are ranked 168 by Fifa. Is that the lowest-ranked country a Premier League player has played for?” wondered Zulfiqar Shah in January 2006.

“It’s not actually,” says Paul Waiting. “During Shaun Goater’s final season as a Premier League player with Manchester City, Bermuda (his country) fell as low as 180, giving him the dubious record of playing for the lowest-ranked team of any then-Premier League player. Interestingly, if it hadn’t been for a change of international allegiances, the mark would be held by Everton’s Australian international, Tim Cahill. He represented Samoa at under-20 level, before switching – Samoa currently lie 182nd in Fifa’s rankings.”

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“Kevin Lankinen, who tended goal for the 2019 World Championship-winning Finnish ice hockey team, relaxed during the tournament by reading Hanya Yanagihara’s A Little Life, which is 945 pages in Finnish translation,” reports Kári Tulinius. “Have any winners at major international football tournaments read notable literary works between games?”

“What’s the longest a club has gone without having had a player sent off?” wonders Rashaad Jorden.

“What’s the fewest number of touches made by an outfield player who has completed the full 90 minutes of a match?” asks James McHugh.

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