7 forgotten footballers thoroughly overshadowed by their superstar namesakes ft. Pele, Messi, Ronaldo…

There’s only one Messi. There’s only one Pele. There’s only one Ronaldo. Wait, two. But you get the picture.

Except there are some unfortunate footballers out there that were only ever going to thoroughly left in the shadows by their world-class superstar namesakes.

We’ve picked out seven completely forgettable players… besides the fact they share names with footballing royalty.

Georges Messi

Before Leo Messi emerged an all-time great at Barcelona, there was little-known Cameroonian midfielder named Georges Messi.

This Messi played between 1999 and 2016 with a journeyman career that included stints with 10 different clubs. He never played for his country, but he was on Cameroon’s stand-by list when they won the Olympics in 2000.

He represented sides in Turkey (Rizespor), Belgium (Lokeren), Qatar (Al Kharitiyat) and Indonesia (Persiram), while his career highlights included winning promotion from the Portuguese second tier with Olhanense in 2009 and an Angolan title with Girabola in 2010.

While the 43-year-old can’t boast a CV anything like his namesake, he still earned a living for almost two decades as a professional football and sounds as though he’s enjoyed a pretty interesting life around the world.

Lionel Messi’s hometown of Rosario banned parents from naming their children Messi, so there might not be too many more. But there is currently a 22-year-old Argentinian called Joaquin Messi (no relation) who came up through Newell’s Old Boys academy and currently plies his trade with second-tier  Estudiantes de Río Cuarto.

READ: Where are they now? A ‘new Lionel Messi’ for every year since 2006

Ronaldo

As an aside, it’s pretty remarkable that Cristiano Ronaldo can boast a career that can hold a candle to the original. Talk about standards. There are any number of Ronaldos we could’ve chosen here, given how common the name is in Portuguese-speaking parts of the world.

The one we’re looking at here is another that’s simply known as Ronaldo, but his full name is Ronaldo Cezar Soares dos Santos. The forward from Rio de Janeiro was born in December 2000, a time in which O Fenomeno was struggling horrendously with injuries at Inter.

Ronaldo Nazario was already well established as world-class at this point, but it was before his World Cup & Ballon d’Or-winning Real Madrid Galactico renaissance. It’s unknown where this younger Ronaldo was named after his great compatriot.

Moving on, this Ronaldo has had an entirely ordinary career. He started out at lower-league Sao Caetano, briefly turned out in the Brazilian top flight with Bahia and has since spent time in Europe with Levski Sofia and FC Rostov.

Ronaldinho Gomes

Call us lazy, but for effect we’re simply going to paste the entirety of Ronaldinho Gomes’ absolutely brutal Wikipedia page:

Ronaldinho Gomes (born 22 January 1979) is a Santomean footballer.

International career

Gomes played for the São Tomé and Príncipe national football team on November 16, 2003 in a World Cup 2006 qualifying match against Libya in Benghazi. The squad lost 0-8.

Mo Salah

Again, there are a number of Mohamed Salahs out there, given how common both the forename and surname are in the Arabic world. There’s a former coach of Zamalek bearing the name, as well as a striker that won two Egyptian titles and earned 31 caps for the Pharaohs during the 90s.

There may be a number of Mohamed Salahs out there, but we can say with a certain degree of confidence that Liverpool’s Egyptian King will always be no.1 in terms of footballing achievements and ability.

Brighton scouts and Football Manager obsessives may also be aware of Mo Salah, a 20-year-old Belgian winger who came up through Union SG’s academy. Nowadays he’s currently turning out for Club NXT, Brugge’s reserve team, and notched four goals and five assists in 22 appearances in the Belgian second tier last term.

READ NEXT: Ranking the 43 best and weirdest named football clubs in the world

TRY A QUIZ: Can you name every player to win the Champions League & World Cup?

Eusebio

O Rei will always be the one and only Eusebio in most people’s eyes. But there was another Portuguese midfielder, born in August 1966, only a couple of months after the original shone at the 1966 World Cup in England, winning the Golden Boot after scoring nine goals.

The original Eusebio had already won a European Cup with Benfica, as well as being named European Football of the Year, so it would make sense for our forgotten Eusebio – Eusebio Amaro Lopes Guimaraes – to have been named after the footballing icon.

This one played between 1985 and 2002, exclusively in Portugal but never at international level. He won the Taca de Portugal with relative minnows Beira-Mar back in 1998-99. Good for him.

Pele

What, you don’t remember when Pele signed for Nottingham Forest?

That Pele was a defensive midfielder hailing from Guinea-Bissau. He made nine Championship appearances for Forest on loan from Monaco in 2018-19 but spent the following campaign featuring more regularly at Reading.

Earlier in his career, he was contracted to both AC Milan and Benfica but never made it onto the pitch for either. But he did play for Arsenal… Kyiv, the now-defunct Ukrainian outfit.

Like the original, Pele isn’t actually his real name. Judilson Mamadu Tuncara Gomes is his full name. We can’t help but respect the balls of choosing that nickname ahead of a career that’s proven to be thoroughly humdrum.

READ: The day Pele escaped a coup in Nigeria by pretending to be a pilot

Neymar Sanchez

“The name Neymar is a boy’s name of Brazilian origin,” says the assumingly reliable NameBerry.com.

“Neymar was unheard of before Brazilian football sensation Neymar da Silva Santos Junior came to fame. It is thought to be a ‘smoosh’ name of Netuno (Neptune) and Mar (Mars).”

There’s only one Neymar, then.

Except, there’s not. There’s also 20-year-old Colombian winger Neymar Sanchez, who recently joined Millonarios. He told reporters in his home country that he wasn’t named after the former Barcelona and PSG superstar, which would have been a bit weird given that he was 11 years old, five years off his Santos debut, at the time.