9 pairs of footballing brothers who we can’t believe were club team-mates

Slip behind the defensive line, don’t you know you might find a better place to play… Football.

Oasis are reforming; two brothers putting aside their differences to bring the best out in each other, earn absolutely sh*tloads of cash, and inspire an entire generation to get a haircut they’re going to get stick about for the rest of their god-given days.

So, inspired by the big news, we’re exploring footballing brothers who joined forces to play for the same club.

Gary & Phil Neville

Pretty sure these two are the only brothers to win a treble together with their childhood club. Surely? Unless you and your brother won the county 7-a-side league, cup, and summer tournament treble when you were kids. With all due respect, though, we’re not counting that.

Gary & Phil were often Manchester United’s starting fullbacks in the most successful United team of the Premier League era.

Phil joined Everton in 2005, and the two of them had a bit of a Gallagherian moment when they faced off as captains of their respective clubs at Goodison Park in 2010.

There they stood, next to each other in the tunnel, staring dead ahead, doing everything in their power not to look at each other. It was f*cking weird. That’s your brother, man. Grow up.

Give each other a hug, go out onto the pitch and, by all means, kick seven shades of sh*te out of each other, but have a little hug after the game too.

Football is great, and it was literally their job, but it’s not as important as giving your brother at least a little pat on the shoulder. Odd behaviour all round.

TRY A QUIZ: Can you name every member of Man Utd’s 1998-99 Treble-winning squad?

Granit & Taulant Xhaka

Representing different countries at international level, the Xhaka brothers will always be part of the answer to a pub quiz question.

They and their brother Agon (clearly a Game of Thrones character) were raised in Switzerland by Albanian parents who emigrated from Kosovo.

Granit chose Switzerland, Taulant chose Albania. There was a time, though when both Granit and Taulant played for FC Basel.

They only played a handful of games together as, despite being the younger brother, Granit progressed into the first team a little sooner than Taulant, who split his time between the first team and the under-21s back in 2010-2012 when the brothers overlapped.

Taulant is still with FC Basel to this day, whilst Granit has travelled Europe and is now part of Bayer Leverkusen’s invincibles.

Jerome & Kevin-Prince Boateng

And whilst we’re answering that quiz question, let’s have the Boatengs—one Ghanaian international, one German.

The two are half-brothers, sharing a father but not a biological mother. Kevin-Prince, the elder of the two and a creative number 10 joined Hertha Berlin’s youth academy at a young age, followed by his little brother Jerome, a towering centre-back.

For one half a season or so in 2005-06, Kevin-Prince and Jerome took to the pitch together for Hertha. Now, however, Kevin-Prince has distanced himself from Jerome due to the latter being found guilty of assault towards his former partner.

Kevin-Prince is retired now, whilst Jerome is turning out for LASK in the Austrian Bundesliga, aged 35.

Rafael & Fabio

Not content with having a pair of brothers playing fullback for them, Manchester United employed a set of twins to replace the Nevilles.

Brazilians Rafael and Fabio da Silva joined United together the summer they turned 18, in 2008, but things didn’t quite go as well for them as they did for Gaz & Phil.

That’s not to say the da Silvas didn’t carve out perfectly respectable careers for themselves in football, by the way.

Fabio made far fewer first-team appearances for United but, in 2014, he spent a season on loan at QPR before making permanent moves to Cardiff City, Middlesbrough, Nantes, and now Gremio.

Rafael spent seven years at Old Trafford, making 170 appearances for the Red Devils before heading to Lyon in 2015, then Istanbul Basaksehir, and now Botafogo.

The twins both find themselves back in their native Brazil, which is kind of a nice little conclusion to their respective football careers.

Lorenzo & Roberto Insigne

The fratelli Insigne of Frattamaggiore, Napoli. Roberto got the height (he’s 5’8″), Lorenzo got the trophy cabinet. You know all about older brother Lorenzo—ten seasons with Napoli and he left just before they won the Scudetto.

Meanwhile, Roberto, three years his brother’s junior, has played all over the vaguely Southern half of Italy, mainly in Serie B (apart from one full season in Serie A with Benevento), taking in six loan spells as he went.

Back in 2012-13, and then again in 2016-17, though, the Insigne brothers did make a handful of appearances together for their native Napoli. Lorenzo is playing in MLS with Toronto these days, whilst Roberto has recently moved to Serie B side Palermo.

READ NEXT: The story of the day all 3 Maradona brothers played for Granada

TRY A QUIZ: Can you name the top 20 dribblers across Europe’s five major leagues in 2023-24?

Sven & Lars Bender

The Bender boys are on a proper Oasis trajectory. Sven and Lars started off together at 1860 Munich, three years each in the senior team, then both left in 2009—Sven to Borussia Dortmund, Lars to Bayer Leverkusen.

In 2017, after eight years apart, the twin brothers were reunited when Sven signed for Leverkusen. Die Werkself enjoyed four years of the brothers Bender before they retired, at the same time, obviously.

Sven is now assistant manager at Borussia Dortmund—perhaps a managerial career beckons?

Andre & Jordan Ayew

The sons of legendary Ghanaian baller Abedi Pele started their respective careers together at Marseille. They spent four seasons (give or take) playing together in France before Jordan—the younger of the two—signed for Lorient.

The Ayews would be briefly reunited, however, when they crossed paths again in Southern Wales of all places. The two overlapped at Swansea City for the latter half of the 2017-18 season. Got relegated.

Jordan went on loan to Crystal Palace then joined permanently. He’s just moved to Leicester. Andre stayed at Swansea for a couple more years before embarking upon a journey to Turkey, Qatar, Nottingham, and now Le Havre.

Thiago & Rafinha Alcantara

Thiago was born in Italy to Brazilian parents, and raised in Spain. Rafinha was born in Sao Paolo. Hence, Thiago went on to represent Spain, whilst Rafinha chose to play for Brazil.

The brothers both came through La Masia and spent two years in Barca’s senior team together before Thiago followed Pep Guardiola to Barcelona.

Rafinha had a more varied career, turning out for Celta, Inter, PSG, Real Sociedad, and Al-Arabi.

Yaya & Kolo Toure

If you tried to tell us that Yaya and Kolo Toure are the most talented pair of brothers ever to play football, we wouldn’t argue with you.

Got their own song, won a ridiculous amount of silverware and were both arguably in the top five in the world in their respective positions at one point.

The Toures did play for the same youth team back in the day, but by the time they’d started playing senior football, Yaya had signed for Belgian side Beveren.

Kolo played a few seasons with their childhood club Mimosas in the Ivory Coast before joining Arsenal in time to become an Invincible.

Fate threw the Toures together again when Manchester City got rich, and managed to get both of them on their books simultaneously for three years between 2010-13. Smart move.

Yaya was, to all intents and purposes, unstoppable by this time, and Kolo was one of the best centre-backs in Europe.