It’s All in the Family for Some World Cup Teams

May 29th, 2006 | by: WC Bob | Comments Off

For a good number of years I have wondered why I never got to play in a World Cup. Sure I was merely an average football player with a below average work ethic, but that never stopped a guy like David Beckham from wearing his nation’s uniform. No, it had to be something else. We’ve already established that my June birth month didn’t help. Now I have a couple more reasons for my shortcomings. My father never coached my national team and I have no brothers.

If dear old dad had not been such a slacker, I could have been like Dusan Petkovic. The Serbia and Montenegro defender has been called up by his father/coach Ilija Petkovic to replace injured striker Mirko Vucinic at the World Cup. That is an interesting selection and one that surely is a hit with Mrs. Petkovic, but necessarily with the Plavi fans.

Lest you think nepotism is confined to S&M, you should also know that Croatia also features a father-son combination. Zlatko Kranjcar is the team’s boss, while his son Niko does the real work in the family by playing midfield. The kid has game.

The family connections don’t end there for Croatia. The team has two sets of brothers on its World Cup roster. Robert and Niko Kovac are bringing pride to Kovacs everywhere, while Ivan and Jerko Leko (my favorite name in the entire tournament!) are also brother teammates.

The Swiss go one further by featuring a set of twins on their roster. Phillip and David Degen are only the fifth set of twins to ever participate in the World Cup. David is the older of the two by a full 20 minutes. We can only hope that they pull off some crazy twins tomfoolery like switching uniform numbers at halftime. Why else would you want to be a twin if you couldn’t completely mess with people?

There’s also Poland’s Euzebiusz Smolarek (the most difficult name in the tournament), who does not have a twin playing beside him, but who did have a father who wasn’t a complete hack. You’ll recall that his father Wlodzimierz (the most difficult name in history) was an important part of the Poland team that finished third at the World Cup in 1982.

While my own father never played or coached in a World Cup, he did turn me on to sports. I can thank him for that, while still knowing that he is the reason I am blogging about this World Cup instead of leading my country to glory.