I’ve compiled a list of football clubs named after famous people – both real or myth. The criteria is that they must be named directly in honour of a person, *not* named after a district, town or company that is already named after someone else – e.g. Belgrano in Argentina, which was already named after General Manuel Belgrano. Similarly, PSV Eindhoven (Philips) and Carl Zeiss Jena are named after the companies they sprang out of.
Europe
Ajax (NL)
One of the Netherlands’ ‘Big Three’, Ajax was founded on 18 March 1900 and named after a warrior of Greek legend. Another ‘FC Ajax’ had existed but folded within Amsterdam in the previous decade.
Arminia Bielefeld (GER)
This German second division club, formed in 1905, is named after Arminius, a Germanic chieftain who led a successful ambush against the Roman army.
AS Giani Erminio (IT)
This Serie D outfit was founded in 1909 as Union Sportiva Argentia, but was renamed later in honour of an Alpine war veteran from Gorgonzola
Atalanta (IT)
Atalanta of Bergamo in Lombardy, northern Italy, takes its name from the Greek huntress, who appears in the stories of the Argonauts. No surprise then that the club was founded by students of the classics. A match at Atalanta is time well spent, believe me!
CS Lebowski (ITA)
Centro Storico (CS) Lebowski from Florence was named after the lead character in the Coen Brothers film, The Big Lebowski, so another fictional character. He club was founded as a response to the disillusion many fans in the Tuscan city felt with modern football. The club is a non-profit organisation run by the fans and its statute promotes solidarity and co-operation, anti-fascism and anti-sexism. In August 2021, the sixth-tier club secured the services of former Spain international and Fiorentina star Borja Valero.
You can read an exclusive interview with CS Lebowski in my new book, The Defiant: A History of Football Against Fascism.
Gil Vicente (POR)
Gil Vicente of Barcelos, near the northern Portuguese city of Braga, was founded in 1924 and is named after Gil Vicente (c.1465-1536), a Portuguese playwright who would have been a contemporary of Shakespeare.
Heracles Almelo (NL)
Heracles of Almelo, a town in eastern Netherlands, was formed in 1903 and is takes its name from Heracles, son of the Greek god Zeus. The club has won the Dutch championship twice but was relegated in 2021-22 after a run of 17 seasons in the top-flight Eredivisie.
Hércules de Alicante (ESP)
Heracles’ Roman equivalent is Hercules, son of Jupiter. Hércules de Alicante in the south-east of Spain recently celebrated its centenary. I went there in 2009 and it was a lovely little tight-knit ground. The club is currently in the fourth tier of the Spanish league system.
Odds BK(NOR)
Norway’s oldest football club is Odds Ballklubb, which span out of a multi-sports organisation in Skien, 100km south of the modern capital Oslo, in 1894. Odds is named after the legendary Norwegian giant Örvar-Oddr, whose story appears in The Sagas of Icelanders. The legend was famed for his archery, so Odds BK’s badge features an arrow. The club’s chairman, Ludvig Forvald, was probably the first to introduce the Association rules game into Norway.
There are so many clubs in Norway named after real people and myths, that Norwegian football blogger Marius Helgå, inspired by this post, put together his own list of clubs in Norway named after famous people and legends.
Queen of the South (SCO)
OK, I’ve kind of bent my above criteria to fit this one in. The Scottish town of Dumfries was once referred to by local poet David Dunbar as the “Queen of the South” in the mid-19th century. The original ‘Queen of the South’ is referred to in the bible to mean the Queen of Sheba, so the club is jokingly referred to as ‘the only team in the bible’…which is also the name of the song that the team comes out to.
Sampdoria (IT)
Genoa club Sampdoria was formed in 1946 from a merger between the Sampierdarenese and Andrea Doria football clubs. The later was a famous Genoese statesman from the 15th and 16th century, so the Doria name lives on…
Tottenham Hotspur (Eng)
‘Hotspur’ was the nickname of Sir Henry Percy (1363-1403), a medieval knight who was so named by his Scottish enemies for his horsemanship in battle. The Hotspur Cricket Club was founded in 1880 with its name inspired by the knight. When players formed the football club two years later, they had to add the ‘Tottenham’ prefix because there was already another club in London called Hotspur FC!
Willem II (NL)
This Tilburg-based club was one of the Dutch pioneer clubs, launching in 1896, and is named after the King Willem II (1792-1849). Like Heracles Almelo, it was relegated from the Eredivisie in 2021-22 season and is now in the second tier.
Also in the Netherlands, at least two non-league clubs – Gijsbrecht van Amstel and Jan van Arckel are named after local noblemen. Their castles feature in the background at both grounds.
South America
Almirante Brown (ARG)
Irish-born William (Guillermo) Brown ended up in Argentina via North America, where he’d been involved in merchant shipping. In Argentina, he became involved in the navy in the war of independence from Spain.
Club Almirante Brown, founded in 1912, is based in the Buenos Aires suburb of La Matanza Partido and wears black and yellow stripes inspired by the Uruguayan club Peñarol. It is currently in the Argentine second tier.
There is another Argentine club called Guillermo Brown.
Colo-Colo (CHI)
The Mapuche are one of the indigenous people of Chile and southern Argentina. ‘Colocolo’ himself was a Mapuche leader who fought hard against Spanish colonial forces as they encroached on Mapuche territory. The football club was formed in 1925 and is now Chile’s most successful and popular side.
Club Atlético Colón de Santa Fe (PAR)
Talking of colonisers, ‘Colón Foot-ball Club’ was founded in Santa Fe, Argentina, in 1905 and is named after Christopher Columbus (Cristóbal Colón in Spanish). There’s also a team called Cristóbal Colón in Paraguay.
CD Jorge Wilstermann (BOL)
This side from the Bolivian city of Cochabamba was founded in 1949 by employees of an airline, adopting the name Jorge Wilstermann in honour of the airline’s first commercial pilot. The club won its first national title within a decade and currently has 15 Bolivian titles to its name.
Newell’s Old Boys (ARG)
Club Atlético Newell’s Old Boys was founded in 1903 by alumni of the Colegio Comercial Anglicano Argentino (the Anglican Argentine Commercial College) in Rosario. The school had been founded by Isaac Newell, originally from Kent, England, who had introduced football into the school. One of the founding alumni was Newell’s son Claudio.
The club wears red and black halves – the red for Isaac’s native England and the black for his wife’s homeland of Germany. Newell’s is where Lionel Messi, Gabriel Batistuta and Mauricio Pochettino all started their illustrious careers.
More on Newell’s Old Boys in this podcast about the Rosario derby, El Clásico Rosarino.
CD O’Higgins (CHI)
This Raconcagua, Chile-based club is named after Bernardo O’ Higgins. O’Higgins was born into Chilean aristocracy and was a key part of the Chilean independence movement. The club won the 2013-14 Chilean Apertura title.
Vasco da Gama (BRA)
The footballing arm of Club de Regatas Vasco da Gama from Rio de Janeiro spang out of a rowing club and is named after the Portuguese navigator who found a sailing route from Europe to India.
The club was instrumental in breaking down race and class barriers in early Brazilian football and has one Copa Libertadores title to its name, won in 1998.
I’m sure there are loads to add here, like Marconi Stallions in Sydney, named after the Italian telecommunications pioneer and formed by Australia’s Italian community, or Pune club DSK Shivajians in India, named after Indian king Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. Hit me up on Twitter to alert me and many thanks to those who already have!