Ecuador have a player called Djorkaeff Reasco. Yep, named after him.
Youri Djorkaeff isn't just a cult figure of the likes of Bolton Wanderers, Monaco and Inter Milan, he's a legend of the World Cup, having lifted the Coupe De Monde on home soil for France back in 1998. The classic No.6 is regarded as one of the finest players his nation produced of that time… good enough for someone to name after their kid after.
That's exactly what Mr and Mrs Reasco thought, anyway. Djorkaeff Reasco currently plays as a forward for Newell's Old Boys – and his dad was a footballer, too.
Reasco's father, Neicer Reasco, played for LDU Quito in his native Ecuador. He never made it to Europe as a player but he was part of the Ecuadorian national team that competed at the 2006 World Cup in Germany – eventually going out at the hands of England in the last-16.
He had good taste, though. According to Djorkaeff himself – the Ecuadorian one – his dad was a big fan of French football and that's where his name came from.
“My father admired the game of the French, that's why he baptized me that way,” the younger Reasco told Ecuador’s El Telegrafo in 2016. “And coincidence or not, I'm also a forward. I have seen in videos how he played. My game is a little like him.”
Youri Djorkaeff has even met Djorkaeff Reasco at World Cup 2022, recreating the Spiderman meme in which the two Djorkaeffs pointed at each other. Who knows – maybe in another 20 years, we'll see Reasco's son, Mbappe Reasco…
