What's in a name? All sorts, it transpires, in the eclectic world of football.
From England to Egypt and Germany to Jamaica, we've trawled the planet in search of some of the most unusually named clubs in the game.
Enjoy!
Formed from the merger of Caledonian and Inverness Thistle in 1994, the Scottish Highlands’ only professional football club started out as ‘simply’ Caledonian Thistle.
They added the city where they’re based in 1996, giving them one of the longest names in world football (it’s no wonder fans tend to call them by their nickname, Caley Thistle).
Aptly named for the social media age, English non-League outfit Hashtag United were founded in 2016 by YouTuber Spencer Carmichael-Brown aka Spencer FC.
Based in Essex, Hashtag welcomed Champions League-winning Chelsea captain Cesar Azpilicueta as a co-owner in 2018 and reached the Isthmian League Premier Division – England’s second tier – five years later.
The most decorated Argentine club of all time, Boca Juniors did not, in fact, break away from Boca Seniors (there’s no such thing).
Nope, the ‘Juniors’ suffix was simply added, on the suggestion of Santiago Sana – one of the men who founded Boca in 1905 – to make the name stand out. The use of English words in football was commonplace, with British railway workers having introduced the sport to Argentina.
Owned by the POSCO steel company, the Pohang Steelers’ name is rather self-explanatory – and we love it!
Sporting a badge focused on what looks like that chunky ‘S’ everyone used to doodle at school, the multiple South Korean and Asian champions have a pretty cool vibe, we have to say.
Unique as the only club in England’s top four divisions with an ‘x’ in their name, Crewe Alexandra were borne out of the local cricket club of the same name back in 1877.
The Alexandra in question? Princess Alexandra, wife of Edward VII – daughter of Queen Victoria and later King of the UK.
Japan’s most successful club of the modern era, the Kashima Antlers were founded in 1947 as Sumitomo Metal FC.
They reformed in 1992, adopting their current name in a nod to their home city of Kashima – which literally translates to English as ‘Deer Island’. Their most notable player (and manager)? A Brazilian fella you might have heard of: Zico.
The New Saints have had several names over the years, beginning life in 1959 as Llansantffraid – the village where they played (fairly standard stuff, right?).
In 1996, however, things changed radically: local computer company Total Network Solutions agreed a sponsorship deal which saw them rename the club – who were more commonly known as just TNS (understandable).
Ten years later, having merged with Oswestry Town (based over the border in England) and with TNS the company being bought out by BT, TNS the football club became… The New Saints.
Set up in 2007 to represent the Japanese diaspora of London, London Samurai Rovers boast one of the coolest badges in the game: a fully-armoured samurai dribbling the ball – obviously.
They actually started out as Samurai United, joining forces with JL Rovers the following year to get their quite sensational current name.
Among Switzerland’s biggest clubs, Young Boys reached the semi-finals of the 1958/59 European Cup – and yes, the actual one, not a youth version of the competition.
Based in the Swiss capital of Bern, they adopted their name upon their foundation in 1898 as a response to Basel-based outfit Old Boys.
We’re not going to beat around the bush here: the Mamelodi Sundowns is just a really, really cool name for a football club.
Among the most decorated clubs in South Africa, the Pretoria-based outfit were crowned continental champions for the first time in 2016 – beating Egypt’s Zamalek in the final of the CAF Champions League.
We assume that Always Ready never have to train; they’re just… always ready to play, surely?
The first Bolivian club to play abroad, touring Europe in 1961, they play their home games in El Alto – one of the highest cities in the world at a dizzying altitude of 13,123 ft.
It sounds like something the great sci-fi writers of the mid-20th century thought we’d all be taking to work by now – but no, Energie Cottbus is a football club from the German state of Brandenburg.
DFB-Pokal (German Cup) runners-up in 1997, Energie have no association with Passion or Footwork Cottbus as far as we know…
One of England’s most distinctively named clubs, Sheffield Wednesday were established in 1867 as an arm of the Wednesday Cricket Club.
Four-time top-flight champions and three-time FA Cup winners back in the day, their name stems from the fact that their founding members had Wednesday afternoons off work – so that’s when they played their games!
South Africa’s best-known club, Johannesburg-based Kaizer Chiefs were formed in 1970 by striker Kaizer Motaung – who had been playing in the USA for the Atlanta Chiefs, whose name he combined with his own.
The multiple South African champions gained prominence further afield in the 00s, thanks to English indie rock band Kaiser Chiefs – all fans of Leeds, whose former captain Lucas Radebe played for Kaizer Chiefs.
Gala Fairydean and Gala Rovers were once separate clubs, merging in 2013 and combining their names to truly glorious effect.
Based in the Scottish Borders town of Galashiels, Gala Fairydean play their home matches at Netherdale – which once hosted a game at the World Cup…
…the 1999 Rugby World Cup.
Are they Bodo or are they Glimt? This lot from the north of Norway can’t seem to make their minds up…
In reality, the club who add a bit of confusion to cup draws are so named because they started out in 1916 as Glimt (Norwegian for ‘Flash’) – only to discover some 32 years later that another, older club already had that name, hence the addition of the town’s name and possibly the only forward slash in world football.
Folkestone United or Folkestone Rovers would have been perfectly passable names for a non-League club from a medium-sized town in Kent – but why settle for English when Latin exists?
Yep, ‘Invicta’ is the Latin word for ‘Invincible’ (it’s also the motto of Kent, which probably had something to do with the decision of Folkestone’s football forefathers – but not everyone would have been as bold).
Modern Future FC started out as Coca-Cola FC (the Egyptian branch of the soft drinks giant owned the club from its first 10 years), before becoming Future FC in 2021.
That name lasted just under two years, though, with new owners deciding upon Modern Future FC (which is worse but still firmly in the ‘unusual’ category).
The dominant footballing force in the South American nation of Suriname, SV (which stands for ‘Sport Veriniging’ – Dutch for ‘Sport Association’) Robinhood’s name has a brilliant backstory.
Founded in 1945, they originally provided an outlet for poor members of the local community (just like England’s favourite arrow-shooting outlaw lent a helping hand to those less fortunate).
Swindon is miles from the coast – which doesn’t matter here, to be honest, as their top non-League club’s name has nothing to do with the sea.
Supermarine was the aircraft manufacturer which built the famous Spitfire fighter plane, and their factory club merged with Swindon Athletic in 1992 to become Swindon Supermarine.
Hailing from Transnistria, a Russian-backed breakaway state which is internationally recognised as part of Moldova, Sheriff Tiraspol came to mainstream attention in 2021 when they stunningly beat Real Madrid at the Bernabeu in the Champions League.
Owned by Transnistrian company Sheriff – hence the name – their badge looks rather like something you might ‘design’ by bunging various together bits of clip art in Microsoft Word.
Promoted to the Jamaican top flight for the very first time in 2009, we can only assume that Humble Lions were extremely modest about that particular achievement.
Set up by Rastafarians in 1974, their crest features a very concerned-looking red lion (but maybe that’s just how a humble lion looks?).
If someone told you that you had a heart of oak, you probably wouldn’t know whether to take it as an insult or not.
Just to clarify, there’s nothing insulting about the name of Ghana’s biggest club – one of the most successful in all of Africa; it refers to the tree found throughout the West African country.
Based in the capital, Accra, Hearts of Oak won their first CAF Champions League title in 2000.
Coffee, that irresistible pick-me-up in a cup, is widely considered to have originated in Ethiopia – and Ethiopian Coffee couldn’t reference that aspect of the African country’s history any more clearly.
Crowned national champions for the first time in 1997, their emblem centres on a traditional coffee pot adorned with the pattern of a football. Amazing.
This name could have backfired horribly, but The Strongest are one of Bolivia’s strongest clubs in terms of titles won – so they get away with it.
Fun fact: they’re the only club in the world with a literal battle named after them – the 1934 Battle of Cañada Strongest, during which hundreds of players, staff and members played a vital role in the Bolivian Army’s most important victory of the Chaco War with Paraguay.
Unfortunately and annoyingly, the true origins of Grasshoppers’ (or Grasshopper Club Zurich, to give them their official title) name have been lost in the sands of time.
But we like the theory that it refers to energetic playing style and nimble, grasshopper-like goal celebrations of the Swiss club’s early players.
A hand grenade and a football: that’s the badge of Grenades FC, champions of Antigua and Barbuda for the first time in 2022/23.
They play at the Antigua Recreation Ground – which has also hosted the West Indies cricket team – and their opponents in the Caribbean nation’s Premier Division include Pigotts Bullets, Hoppers and Aston Villa (not that one, obviously).
When we first came across FL (Fotballaget) Fart, we thought there must have been a Norwegian town called Fart – but there’s not, which makes this one all the funnier (very immature of us, we know).
Based just outside Hamar in the east of Norway, Fart’s women’s team have finished bottom of the top flight multiple times.
Legend has it that Rovaniemi is the hometown of everyone’s favourite bearded, red-and-white clad bringer of Christmas presents – so it’s only right that the local football club pays homage to the main man.
FC Santa Claus (who, you’ll be relieved to know, play in the appropriate colours) have previously made it as high as the third tier of Finnish football.
Hailing from the Deventer in the east of the Netherlands, Go Ahead Eagles have been preying on their opponents for well over a century.
Starting out as Be Quick in 1902, they became Go Ahead in 1905 at the request of the Dutch FA (what was wrong with ‘Be Quick’?! then added the ornithological suffix in 1971.
Would you hire a bear to take care of your insurance affairs? Probably not – which makes the name of this club from the Bahamas even more comical.
We’re no big fans of sponsors taking naming rights, but these guys were just plain old Bears FC before – which would have them nowhere near this list.
And we end our journey through the weird and wonderful world of football club names in the North Atlantic Ocean, in the sun-soaked British Overseas Territory of Bermuda – with their regular champions, the Dandy Town Hornets.
As far as we can tell, their kits aren’t any more ostentatious than those of your average team, but WHAT a name!
