Which footballer did you pretend to be in the playground? FourFourTwo readers have their say

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We put out the question on Twitter - and couldn't believe it when more people said Phil Neville than Gary

Wayne Rooney
(Image credit: Future)

"Neil Shipperley."

That was one FourFourTwo writer's answer when we asked him which footballer he pretended to be at school. Not Ronaldo, Henry or Zidane. Not Rivaldo, Nedved or Owen. Neil Shipperley.

"I had no idea who he was," the faux-Shipperley, who shall remain anonymous claimed. "I just heard it once on a compilation of goals."

We all used to pretend to be someone, whether we tucked our shirt in or donned gloves just to be like our heroes for a kickabout during break time. But who did the FFT readers respond with when we asked? Funnily enough, no one said Shipperley...

The obvious choices

Didn't we all? Thierry himself got that look from Sonny Anderson at Monaco. Wonder if the Brazilian knows that kids all over secondary school playgrounds in England unwittingly copied his look... 

Perfect for volleying, to be fair. 

Scholesy walked so that Josh Sargent could run. 

There's a fine line between the two. We love the idea of Tom panenka-ing penalties simply because he can't be arsed to whack them. 

Of course, no playground is complete without one of the lads having watched Football Italia last weekend with his dad. 

Don't worry Chris, no one is judged on their goals and assists at secondary school. It's all about having fun. 

Yep, us too. Even if our mum didn't let us have the haircut... 

And another one we weren't allowed to copy the trim of. Mum let us get a Chadwick cut, though.

Michael Owen even had a show on TV where he helped coach kids to become better players. Most children in the late 90s wanted to be this guy so badly. 

How many kids across the country do you think tried to perfect the goal against Newcastle United?

We wonder if this a self-deprecating comment about your skills or a joke about McManaman's commentary prowess.

Who did you play with, Amar, Thomas Muller?

Well if you'd have played with us Andy, we'd have nicknamed you Fantastic Figo. 

FFT also impersonates Mesut Ozil these days - by spending the weekends in front of the TV watching the football rather than playing. 

The less-so obvious choices

That's right - Des Walker the centre-back, Benito Carbone the forward and Kevin Pressman the goalkeeper. A Frankenstein's footballer if ever we heard of one. 

Someone's been watching too many Nike ads... 

Ahh, the glory of not having refs around. Razor would've been Ballon d'Or level on tarmac. 

Was that you that tweeted this, Fred? Or did your phone do it in your pocket?

OK, former France and Lyon keeper Gregory Coupet is not the first goalkeeper we thought we'd see in our mentions when we posted this question. Hell of a curveball. 

Famously, no one wanted to be Gary Neville - except for Phil. But apparently, someone actually wanted to be Phil Neville. Dan, we're not surprised your mates didn't take that one first.

The jokers

Baddum, tsch!

Very funny, Adam. At least, we hope you're joking.

Come on James, put some respect on his name!

We love your Twitter handle, Mark.

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FourFourTwo Staff
FourFourTwo Staff

FourFourTwo was launched in 1994 on the back of a World Cup that England hadn’t even qualified for. It was an act of madness… but it somehow worked out. Our mission is to offer our intelligent, international audience access to the game’s biggest names, insightful analysis... and a bit of a giggle. We unashamedly love this game and we hope that our coverage reflects that.