Bob Wilson’s Wikipedia – Week Three

Welcome to Bob Wilson’s Wikipedia

Wikipedia has changed the educational landscape as we know it. Gone are the days when knowledge was gained through dusty encyclopedias and local wisdom, hearsay and rumourmongering.

Nowadays, people simply need to access Wikipedia in order to pass off facts as their own, plagiarise beyond all means in academia, sully the reputation of Hollywood movie stars – all in the name of ‘free education for all’.

Wikipedia’s framework is built on the Wikimedia Commons project – a media file repository making available‘public domain and freely-licensed educational media content’ – that is, no ‘copyrighted’ content.

Which is why we see Bob Wilson, a Scottish international goalkeeper, a man with more than 230 Arsenal appearances under his belt, a respected television broadcaster, paying for petrol in Hatfield, Hertfordshire as his official Wikipedia photograph. He isn’t the only one however. There are many, many more…

Here are five of the best that were submitted this week, in no particular order:

Ian Wright (@headers_volleys)

Spotted by @Headers_Volleys

Ian Edward Wright, MBE is a retired English footballer turned television and radio personality.

Wright enjoyed success with London clubs Crystal Palace and Arsenal, spending six years with the former and seven years with the latter. With Arsenal he has lifted the Premier League title and both major domestic trophies, and the European Cup Winners Cup.

He played 581 league games, scoring 387 goals for seven clubs in Scotland and England and earned 33 caps for the English national team.

After retiring from the game he has been active in the media, usually in football related TV and radio shows. His son, Bradley and half-son, Shaun are both professional footballers.

Here we have, in all his Machiavellian glory, Ian Wright, on stage, doffing a leather cap? From all the clues, there is only one supposition to be made here… Ian Wright is auditioning for the Village People.

In the navy…

Goran Pandev (@rcammisola)

Spotted by @rcammisola

Goran Pandev, born 27 July 1983 in Strumica (Socialist Republic of Macedonia, Yugoslavia), is a Macedonian footballer who plays as a forward for Italian Serie A club Napoli on loan from Internazionale. He is also considered a key player for the Macedonian national team.

Pandev began his football career with FK Belasica, the club with which he progressed through the youth academy. He only spent one season in the local Prva Liga though, before being signed by major Italian Serie A club Inter in the summer of 2001 when he was just 18 years old.

Having gone through a number of loan spells to Spezia and Ancona, Pandev joined Lazio as part of a co-exchange deal with Udinese for a nominal fee of €1,000 in 2004. Becoming prolific at Lazio alongside Tommaso Rocchi, they bought the remaining 50% of his rights off Udinese for €4m in June 2006. Contract disputes came and went, and so did Pandev in January 2010, signing for Inter Milan.

What do you mean? Of course he knows how to fly that plane…

Peter Reid (jakewindsor82)

Spotted by @JakeWindsor82

Peter Reid (born 20 June 1956) is an English football manager, pundit and retired player, who is currently without a club since his departure from Plymouth Argyle.

A defensive midfielder in his playing days, Reid enjoyed a long and successful career. He built his reputation as one of England’s brightest midfield talents of the time at Bolton Wanderers, before signing for Everton in 1982. It was there that he enjoyed the most fruitful spell of his career, as he helped the club win domestic and European honours, including the Football League twice. He was voted as the PFA Players’ Player of the Year in 1985 and came fourth in the World Soccer Player of the Year award, behind Michel Platini, Preben Elkjær and Diego Maradona.

He has managed clubs such as Manchester City, Sunderland, Leeds United, Coventry City and even the Thai national team, but more recently however, we’ve come to know Ol’ Monkey Features as Plymouth Argyle’s forlorn martyr, battling the bad guys at the helm of the Pilgrims board – namely Peter Ridsdale.

However though, here we have a time when he was happy, when the world smelled of roses, when nothing, not even managing Sunderland, brought him down. It also appears to be a time when it seemed acceptable to tuck a jumper in to some joggers.

Dean Ashton (@jimmydan)

Spotted by @Jimmydan

Dean Ashton (born 24 November 1983 in Swindon, Wiltshire) is a former English professional footballer.

He was highly praised as a talented centre forward, West Ham United paid £7.25m for his services in 2006, but his was constantly frustrated by injury, and ultimately cut short, by injury.

On 11 December 2009, West Ham announced that Ashton had retired, aged 26, after failing to recover from a long-term ankle injury originally sustained during an international training session, in August 2006, following a tackle from Shaun Wright-Phillips

He made over 240 appearances as a forward in the Football League and Premier League for Crewe Alexandra, Norwich City and West Ham United, and was also capped once by England, in a 2008 friendly against Trinidad & Tobago – more than two years after his initial call-up.

Ashton rummaging around in his car boot: “Here you are mate, I’ve no use for these now”.

Denis Irwin (@Exatapo)

Spotted by Exatapo

Denis Joseph Irwin is a former Irish football player, best known for his long and successful stint at Manchester United, where he established himself as one of the most important players in the United team that won a host of domestic and European trophies in his time there between 1990 and 2002.

Irwin was capped by the Republic of Ireland national side 56 times, scoring four goals and featuring in the side that reached the second round (last 16) at the 1994 FIFA World Cup.

Regarded by Sir Alex Ferguson as pound for pound his greatest ever signing. Still, there is no reason why he should be hanging around some bins is there?

As this is a weekly feature, if you spot a funny Wikipedia image of a professional footballer, be sure to let us know by email or Twitter, with the subject or hashtag #BobWilsonsWiki.

We will publish five of the best each week. Find the whole collection of Bob Wilson’s Wikipedia here.

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