When Football And Pop Music Collide

Dan Fitch looks at the best and worst songs ever recorded by footballers.

Rock and pop stars are forever banging on about how they'd rather have been footballers. The opposite is also true.

A large number of footballers have released singles over the years, in a bid to break into music. You'd say it's because they covet the money, fame and groupies, but these days they probably get enough of all these in their day jobs.

Nevertheless footballers continue to try to hit the charts. Here is what happens when football and pop music collide.

Asamoah 'Baby Jet' Gyan - African Girls

He might be known as plain old, mild-mannered Asamoah Gyan when turning out for Sunderland and Ghana, but he's 'Baby Jet' when laying down a track.

~~Baby Jet~~... this is just silly, Gyan, teamed up with Castro The Destroyer to record the energetic number African Girls.

Ian Wright - Do The Right Thing

Having tried most things in a bid to carve out a career in show-business, before inevitably proving annoying and getting the push, it's no surprise that Ian Wright once recorded a single.

The best thing we can say is that they resisted the temptation to spell the word 'right' as Wright'. We preferred him singing the Chicken Tonight song.

Johan Cruyff - Oei, Oei, Oei

When he wasn't smoking and doing 'that turn', Johan Cruyff found the time to release Oei, Oei, Oei.

It's a jaunty number of the type that you might expect to hear at the Oktoberfest, which just goes to show that the Dutch and the Germans aren't so different after all.

Terry Venables - England Crazy

Terry Venables has always fancied himself as a crooner, recording What Do You Want To Make Those Eyes At Me For in the sixties and singing with an orchestra on Catalan TV when manager of Barcelona.

He's got a decent voice, but his jazz stylings just didn't work when applied as a cheerleader for one of England's many failed World Cup campaigns.

Ricardo 'Bibi' Gardner - Move To Your Goal

Like Asamoah Gyan, Bolton's Ricardo Gardner uses another name for his singing. Probably so he doesn't appear on lists like this one.

As 'Bibi', Gardner recorded Move To Your Goal, the lyrics to which are absolutely impenetrable unless you are fluent in patois.

Martin Buchan - Old Trafford Blues

The blues was a musical genre that originated from the oppression of African-Americans in the heat of the deep south of the United States.

We imagine that Robert Johnson and his contemporaries didn't expect that one day a Scottish centre-half would be singing the blues about how tough it was to play for Manchester United.

Neil Danns - Survive

Unlike a lot of footballers who use their fame to promote their single, this wasn't an option for the journeyman Crystal Palace midfielder Neil Danns.

Danns had more serious issues on his mind than the shortcomings of his career when he recorded Survive - such as the future plight of the world and trying to get the auto-tune to work properly.

Vinnie Jones - Bad, Bad, Leroy Brown

Having carved out a movie career, Vinnie Jones set about becoming a star of the music scene. Could the former Wimbledon hard-man replicate his celluloid success and become just as successful as a singer?

No.

Andy Cole - Outstanding

If you're a famous footballer and you release a song called 'Outstanding', then it had better be pretty good if you don't want sarcastic hacks having a pop at it until the end of time.

Perhaps a better title would have been 'Poor To Mediocre'.

Franz Beckenbauer - Gute Freunde

'Der Kaiser' released a number of easy listening singles in his native Germany during the sixties.

Beckenbauer had quite a soft voice, but it was pleasant enough. His team-mates look a bit sheepish as he interrupts a pre-match tactical discussion to whisper his way through Gute Freunde.

Morten Gamst Pedersen and The Players - This Is For Real

Perhaps annoyed with himself for not pushing for a transfer when Manchester United and just about everyone else was after his services, Morten Gamst Pedersen formed a band called The Players with his fellow footballers Freddy dos Santos, Raymond Kvisvik, Kristofer Hæstad and Øyvind Svenning.

Their single This Is For Real was a hit across Scandinavia, despite sounding so bad that even Louis Walsh would think twice before giving it to Westlife to record.

Glenn Hoddle and Chris Waddle - Diamond Lights

Billing themselves as 'Glenn & Chris' the Tottenham team-mates got to number 12 in the UK charts with Diamond Lights.

You sense that it was mainly Glenn's idea, as he confidently handles lead vocals, while Chris mumbles in Geordie behind him.

Ruud Gullit - South Africa

Before becoming a coach so desperate for cash that he would literally live anywhere in the world if the money is right, Ruud Gullit was a brilliant player who was very interested in music.

Back in his rasta days, Ruud released Not The Dancing Kind and then had a number three hit in the Dutch charts with the anti-apartheid song South Africa, with the reggae band Revelation Time.

Clint 'Deuce' Dempsey - Don't Tread

Clint Dempsey is another footballer turned rapper, who has tried to divide his careers by singing under a pseudonym.

'Deuce' isn't quite Eminem, but holds his own as a rapper, as he opines about his tough life on the mean streets of the Fulham Palace Road.

Kevin Keegan - Head Over Heels In Love

When Keegan played for Hamburg he released Head Over Heels In Love, a song written by Chris Norman of Smokie fame.

The record reached number 31 in the UK charts and number 10 in Germany. We bet that he would 'love it' if he'd got to number one.

Paul Gascoigne - Fog On The Tyne

When Gazza returned from the 1990 World Cup as a superstar, his agents were clearly the first in the queue to welcome him back and rubbing their hands in anticipation at the commercial opportunities.

It is often forgotten that Fog On The Tyne was released as the first single from an actual album, entitled Let's Have A Party. It reached number two in the UK charts, which remains the best effort by any footballer.

Basile Boli and Chris Waddle - We've Got A Feeling

In truth, Waddle played second fiddle to Hoddle, during Glenn and Chris' glory days - shuffling around in the background, looking embarrassed and miming backing vocals.

But with Basile Boli, Waddle found a truly collaborative partner and the result was We've Got A Feeling, which was accompanied by the finest pop video ever made by a footballer.

Published: 27 Jan 2011