Footballing Brothers - The Younger Brother Rule of Thumb Game

[Box of Frogs]

i think tommy fraser had a brother that was a target for tottenham a few years ago, possibly jamie ??, could be getting mixed up though.

He has a younger brother who played alongside him for Whitehawk in the Sussex Senior Cup Final recently, can't remeber the brothers name though.

 

[Cappers]

Brian and Jimmy Greenhoff. No idea of their ages or who was better, to be honest. They were for some strange reason the first names to come in to my head - classic 70s!

Jimmy was the elder, he was a striker and Brian was a defender (centre half/full back/Midfield). Difficult to compare

 

[Gritt23]

Willie and Eric Young. Not just brothers, I think they were twins. Does the theory change at all with twins?

 

[Cappers]

The Da Silva twins (Fabio and Raphael) That would be difficult even if we knew which one was the eldest (Faibio, I think)

 

[Cappers]

The Shearer borthers, Duncan and Alan

 

[SULLY COULDNT SHOOT]

Brian and Jimmy Greenhoff. No idea of their ages or who was better, to be honest. They were for some strange reason the first names to come in to my head - classic 70s!

Jimmy older, Brian better

 

[Aadam]

Edin > Thorgen Hazard
Filippo > Simone Inzaghi
Xabi > Mikel Alonso

 

[BlueSeagull]

The Shearer borthers, Duncan and Alan

Duncan Shearer (is a wanker, is a wanker! sorry got carried away =P ) is Scottish and no relation of Alan, but does have a brother Dave, who played too.

And what about Denis and Les Compton, both played for Arsenal, but Les (the older one) had far more appearances plus 2 England caps. They also both played cricket for Middlesex, but Denis was one of the best batsmen England ever produced.

 

[Curious Orange]

Yes. Gary is the older brother.

Gary is the Father

You're both right:
* Gary Elphick Snr = well known County League player
* Gary Elphick Jnr = Ex-Albion player and Tommy's older brother

 

[Ninja Elephant]

He has a younger brother who played alongside him for Whitehawk in the Sussex Senior Cup Final recently, can't remeber the brothers name though.

James, I think. He was at Bristol Rovers for a spell. From what I could see, Whitehawk is the best place for them both.

 

[1066familyman]

It's an interesting debate but i would suggest that the initial theory put out there in terms of having to compete with older siblings is not right. I have just read a book called "Bounce" by Matthew Syed that looks at the issue of talent. The idea he proposes is that the notion of natural talent or child genius is not correct, and that it is hard work and practice that gets you to the top. He acknowledges that certain physical attributes can help but argues that hard work and practice, the "10,000 hours" rule is key to being world class at something. The notion here is that a younger brother might be exposed to sport at an earlier age than his siblings and as a result learns the sport earlier and therefore has more hours under his belt.

Well worth a read. People cited the fact that Tiger Woods was a child genius but in actual fact he had gold clubs at the age of 18 months and by the age of 3 could hit a ball 80 yards so the fact that he was so good at such a young age reflected the amount of practice he did at such a young age. Same with the Williams sisters. None of these people had exceptionally talented parents to pass on genius genes" but got them practicing religiously at a young age.

Well worth a read if you get the chance, he also looks at things like superstitions in sport givin a mental edge, religious beliefs in sportsmen etc.

Agreed that the 10,000 hours rule is key to future talent, but then I think natural talent also has a huge part to play too. In terms of that 10,000 hours practice, the famous golfing quote always sums it up perfectly for me - "The more I practice the luckier I get".

In kids football certainly I've noticed quite a few good young players with an older brother playing one or two years above them that's not as good. The younger brother often has advanced game awareness for his age, is more skillful, is hard to get off the ball and definitely stronger in the tackle. I believe all these attributes come from having to work hard to win the ball off of bigger older kids and then having to be skillful and good at shielding the ball in order to then keep hold of it. The older brother will probably be playing down the local astro/park with his mates from an age when his parents are willing to let him out without supervision. The younger brother is probably allowed to go with his older brother though and therefore is getting a big head start on the amount of hours of unsupervised football he's getting compared to the majority of kids his own age?

It's all just a theory and conjecture of course, but I think there could be something in it. To go deeper, it would be interesting to see where the balance between older/younger brother abilty lies over generations. I wonder, with the increase in organised kids sport nowadays and 'coaching' from such an early age whether that difference isn't as great as it used to be when all kids had was street football until they were about 10 and 11 and perhaps chose to join a club . There was no mini minor organised football stifling their creativity back in the day.

Forgive the ramble everyone, but just interested in the debate and how the examples of famous footballing brothers support or dismiss the theory. Oh and by the way, no offence taken at the poster who said early on that 'the theory is shit' - this is NSC after all and I've a fairly thick skin. No harm meant I'm sure, just banter.

 

[Box of Frogs]

Joe and Ashley Cole?

 

[1066familyman]

Joe and Ashley Cole?

Sorry, have to try harder. The Willie and Eric Young post has already won that prize

 

[turienzo's lovechild]

diego maradona had two fairly average younger brothers......

.........and one even more average son

 

[Goldstone Rapper]

Willie and Eric Young. Not just brothers, I think they were twins. Does the theory change at all with twins?

They were triplets with Alan Young.

 

[turienzo's lovechild]

christian vieri (38): 49 caps, 23 goals (for italy)

max vieri (33): 6 caps, 0 goals (for australia)