Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Football/Players/Archive 6

Proposal
,, , , , - thought I'd ping you lot as you tend to be the most active users on this page. Just looking to start a discussion about expanding the Template to give further clarification should users (aka me) encounter the following:

The bold text corresponds to the applicable column.


 * 1) Venue: Should consecutive games at the same stadium be rowspan'd?
 * 2) Opponent: Should consecutive games against the same opposition be rowspan'd - even if the matches are in different tournaments?
 * 3) Score: What should be inputted if there is no reliable source as to what order the goals were scored in? I've seen people just match the final score or put "?" or leave it blank.
 * 4) Score: Should there be an indication that the goal was scored by a penalty kick (during regulation time)?
 * 5) Result: If a game went to a penalty shoot-out, should that be indicated in the Result column?
 * 6) Competition: Should consecutive games in the same tournament be rowspan'd?
 * 7) Competition: Should there be a link to Exhibition games for the first mention of a Friendly?
 * 8) Should links be included to stadiums/cities/competitions that have already been referenced above?
 * 9) How should we reference unofficial games? Which column should this be signified in? Bare in mind that some unofficial games (unhelpfully) take place within tournaments.

I've put two examples below demonstrating the above points (in a bit of a mish-mash way) but am looking for people's preference in order to standardise best practice.

A)

B)


 * Notes:
 * This match is considered an unofficial friendly.

Any other suggestions / thoughts? Felixsv7 (talk) 11:24, 6 August 2020 (UTC)
 * - your ping didn't work, you need to introduce the ping in the same edit as you sign the post for it to work. GiantSnowman 19:31, 6 August 2020 (UTC)
 * ,, , , , Facepalm :). Felixsv7 (talk) 19:36, 6 August 2020 (UTC)
 * That worked! I don't have a view on the tables unfortunately. GiantSnowman 19:37, 6 August 2020 (UTC)
 * Thanks for your help. Felixsv7 (talk) 09:31, 7 August 2020 (UTC)
 * Thanks for starting a discussion. The two examples are helpful but I think it would be very beneficial to a constructive discussion if you were to also add a summary of the exact points you think should be discussed. Kind regards, Robby.is.on (talk) 07:48, 7 August 2020 (UTC)
 * Thanks for your comment, let me know if my amended bullet points shed some light on what I'm asking about. The only point that I feel strongly about is 6. as I feel that grouping a competition together is helpful for easily assessing the information. The rest I am just looking for conformity on. Felixsv7 (talk) 09:31, 7 August 2020 (UTC)

Discussion
Here's my tuppence worth: Robby.is.on (talk) 15:47, 8 August 2020 (UTC)
 * Rowspans: Only "rowspan" cells that belong to the same match. Any more of it makes the table harder, not easier to parse.
 * Penalty indication: No, it's too much. If anything, it's something for dedicated "international goals" articles like List of international goals scored by Lionel Messi.
 * Penalty shootout mention in result: Not sure.
 * Linking: Link every item once, including "Friendly", per WP:OVERLINK.
 * Unofficial matches indication: Not sure. The question of counting of unofficial matches is probably worth a discussion it itself.
 * I 100% agree with Robby. Nehme1499 (talk) 18:11, 8 August 2020 (UTC)

We want justice !
Why we can't create a local Bangladeshi footballer's page who plays at Bangladesh Premier League (Football) ? Fahim Mokbul Ur Rahman (talk) 18:18, 31 August 2020 (UTC)
 * Sorry, what do you mean? Never mind, I see you got a reply at WP:FOOTY. Robby.is.on (talk) 20:24, 31 August 2020 (UTC)

"College career" and "After football"
Are they needed? I would just put the College career info in the Club career, and the After football info in Personal life. Nehme1499 (talk) 12:57, 15 September 2020 (UTC)
 * The college career is somewhat important and as it is (or at least is considered to be) amateur, it should not be listed as part of the player's club career. I have not seen an after football section in any player articles, but depending on how long it is and what it covers, it may not be appropriate to include in a personal life section. Walter Görlitz (talk) 16:54, 15 September 2020 (UTC)
 * Agree with Walter. These are valid, separate headings, though with all cases COMMONSENSE should apply on individual articles. GiantSnowman 18:01, 15 September 2020 (UTC)
 * Agreed. Robby.is.on (talk) 19:31, 15 September 2020 (UTC)
 * And if the youth + college careers are somewhat intertwined in a specific player, should we rename the section to "Youth and college career", keep it as "College career" and also include the youth info, or keep it as "College career" and put the youth info in the "Club career" section? Nehme1499 (<b style="font-size:80%;color:#a9a9a9">talk</b>) 19:36, 15 September 2020 (UTC)
 * Whatver seems appropriate for the individual subject/article. cheers, Struway2 (talk) 19:52, 15 September 2020 (UTC)

Headings in honours
When was consensus reached to have 'club', 'international' etc subheadings in honours sections, and to further subdivide individual honours into 'awards' and 'performances'? I see the latter as achievements rather than honours anyway, the relevance of which was discussed recently here at #Achievements?. I hadn't seen any articles actually use this format before I was reverted at Álvaro Morata. Mattythewhite (talk) 20:41, 13 October 2020 (UTC)
 * It was discussed at . <b style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:80%;color:#000080">Nehme</b><b style="font-family:Verdana;color:#27B382">1499</b> (<b style="font-size:80%;color:#a9a9a9">talk</b>) 21:02, 13 October 2020 (UTC)

Club statistics
I was sure we were supposed to list the seasons in chronological order. Shouldn't it be "2010-11, 2010-11, 2011-12, 2011-12", instead of "2010-11, 2011-12, 2010-11, 2011-12"? <b style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:80%;color:#000080">Nehme</b><b style="font-family:Verdana;color:#27B382">1499</b> (<b style="font-size:80%;color:#a9a9a9">talk</b>) 23:50, 24 October 2020 (UTC)

Subsections in "Honours" section
Should we keep the sub-headings ("Club", "International", "Individual", "Records") in all cases, just for players who have a lot of honours, or in no cases at all? <b style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:80%;color:#000080">Nehme</b><b style="font-family:Verdana;color:#27B382">1499</b> (<b style="font-size:80%;color:#a9a9a9">talk</b>) 17:28, 29 January 2021 (UTC)

Nationality revisited


May I ask some project veterans to take a look at this article? Were Sterling not a footballer, his intro would say he's Jamaican. However, he has caps for England. —C.Fred (talk) 12:31, 2 April 2021 (UTC)
 * Two problems with "Jamaican-British": we don't use hyphenated nationalities, and we don't use British (as we use English, Scottish, Welsh, or Northern Irish). Sterling's sporting nationality is English, he has only played internationally for England, and has lived almost all his life in England, so English is the correct nationality to be shown. <b style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:80%;color:#000080">Nehme</b><b style="font-family:Verdana;color:#27B382">1499</b> 13:34, 2 April 2021 (UTC)
 * Pinging involved editor. <b style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:80%;color:#000080">Nehme</b><b style="font-family:Verdana;color:#27B382">1499</b> 13:35, 2 April 2021 (UTC)
 * Conventionally, the "nationality" given in the opening sentence for footballer bios is their representative nationality, i.e. the country they could or have represented at international football, which is generally their country of birth or original civil nationality. However, where a subject has more than one "nationality", convention is that none is given in the opening sentence, but the various possibilities are explained later in the lead section. Smith played youth football for her native England and switched at senior level to represent Scotland, for which she qualifies through a Scottish grandparent, or Martin was born and raised in Country-A before becoming a citizen of Country-B, which he represented at the World Cup, or whatever. I'm actually surprised that the opening sentence of the Raheem Sterling article described him as English, because I didn't think that was how we did it. cheers, Struway2 (talk) 14:14, 2 April 2021 (UTC)
 * The difference is that Sterling never played internationally for any Jamaican selection, and basically no source describes him as a "Jamaican" player. The point is that we should omit nationality if there are enough sources describing the player as being, say Jamaican, and enough saying that they are English. This isn't really the case of Sterling, in my opinion. <b style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:80%;color:#000080">Nehme</b><b style="font-family:Verdana;color:#27B382">1499</b> 14:22, 2 April 2021 (UTC)

If there are no hyphenated nationalities to be used, his nationality should be either set to display “Jamaican based in England” or it should be left to display no nationality at all, as he would just be described as a “professional footballer” with no nationality attached to his name. @C.Fred- you’re blatantly skipping over and ignoring all of the important facts that was stated about his Jamaican nationality. It doesn’t matter if he plays for England, he still has strong ties to Jamaica (family there, heritage, culture, and the fact that that’s his birthplace and he spent his early childhood growing up there) and he claims it as his nationality as well. Hence why “Jamaican professional footballer based in England” would be the most appropriate and accurate. All of these opinions as to why he should be referred to as “English”, yet still no source cited to prove any British citizenship or of him referring to himself solely as “English”. So in no way would this be correct. He’s obviously playing for England because that is where he has resided most of his life— he migrated there for a better life— it wouldn’t have been easy for him to just jump up and move back to Jamaica just to play a sport that he loves for his national team. He had the opportunity to do so for England due to him living there and he took that opportunity, as a Jamaican living in England. Playing for the team nor migrating at a young age does not make him any less “Jamaican” and due to him claiming himself as such and being proud of where he is from(Jamaica)—as he stated in interviews, his “Jamaican” nationality should very much be represented in his biography. Either as “Jamaican based in England” or “Jamaican-British/Jamaican-English”— if there are sources cited to prove so. If not, it is best to leave his nationality blank and just display his bio solely as a “professional footballer”. Voice4People (talk) 14:38, 2 April 2021 (UTC)

There are sources that describe him as English, because of the fact that that is what his main Knowledge Panel on Google states, due to Wikipedia having his biography set to only “English” nationality. If you watch his interviews, etc.- he is stated as a Jamaican and represents himself as such as well. He just plays for England’s team due to him residing there. Voice4People (talk) 14:40, 2 April 2021 (UTC)
 * I wrote most of the below as a reply to Nehme, but here will do. The convention was supposed to avoid controversy in the opening sentence by putting "is a professional footballer" and then explaining a subject's various national allegiances, so that the casual reader, without an in-depth understanding of football's peculiarities, wouldn't be confused or misled. The unequivocal "is an English footballer" in the opening sentence and no more than "Born in Jamaica, Sterling moved to London..." in the lead, almost implies that he was an English boy who just happened to have been born in Jamaica. The reader has to go past the lead to find out he was Jamaican by birth and parentage, only became eligible for England at all after the Home Nations Agreement was updated in 2009, and said that same year that he'd decide who to play for when the time came, "but if Jamaica calls for me, why not?" We can't put all that in the lead, but we souldn't be obfuscating it. cheers, Struway2 (talk) 14:55, 2 April 2021 (UTC)

@Struway2- I agree, reasons why I strongly feel as if “Jamaican professional footballer based in England” would be the most accurate and appropriate description. Voice4People (talk) 15:02, 2 April 2021 (UTC)


 * Replying to both Struway and V4P: the key thing is, as Struway says, either to put one nationality or none. So either "English professional footballer" or just "professional footballer". Neither "Jamaican-British", "English-Jamaican", "Jamaican-born English", "England-based Jamaican", "Jamaican based in England", etc... I have no problem in omitting the nationality and keeping just professional footballer, but this shouldn't be done for every player who was born outside of the country that they represent internationally. The key thing isn't whether they were born outside or not, but whether the player is known to be Jamaican, or English, or both. If, indeed as you two say, his Jamaican nationality is also notable, then we should omit the nationality. If the fact that he was born in Jamaica is just "trivia" (I'm not saying that it is specifically for Sterling, just that it might be for any given player), then we should just list the notable nationality. We don't say that Zinedine Zidane is Algerian or Amin Younes is Lebanese in the lead, as it's not that notable (it's just "trivia"). <b style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:80%;color:#000080">Nehme</b><b style="font-family:Verdana;color:#27B382">1499</b> 15:34, 2 April 2021 (UTC)

@Nehme1499, that is why you should do your research before contributing. If you did so, you would know that Sterling is known to be a “Jamaican” that plays for a England’s team. Even many YouTube videos and interviews of him are based around him being Jamaican and migrating from Jamaica to England. He was displayed on Wikipedia solely as an “English” so that is why quite a few sources describe him as such, because that is what is represented of him on his main Knowledge Panel of Google (which is based on Wikipedia’s biography). Majority of people know that he is a Jamaican-born and of Jamaican ancestry. Only those who don’t follow the sport wouldn’t be aware of this. As @Struway stated as well, it’s quite misleading when you search up “Raheem Sterling” and all that appears is him being an “English” footballer with no form of his real “Jamaican” nationality stated. This implies that he’s an English boy that just happened to be born in Jamaica with no form of Jamaican ties- which would mean he has no family/ancestors from there, his parents weren’t born there, etc., but that’s not the case at all. He has no ties to England besides residing there and now playing for their team, so he isn’t “British/English” in any form, unless he was to obtain citizenship there and identified himself as such. That’s like if he was to now move to China and reside there for the rest of his life and decided he wanted to play for the Chinese team— it would be in every bit of way irrational and inaccurate to describe him as a “Chinese professional footballer”. It would have to accurately be “Jamaican professional footballer based in China” Voice4People (talk) 16:38, 2 April 2021 (UTC)
 * China's example isn't entirely correct as one has to renounce their former citizenship to obtain the Chinese one. You say "quite a few sources describe him as such". This is exactly the point. We should be following what sources say (however "right" or "wrong" they are in omitting Jamaica). Also, why are you fixated on "based in England"? Sterling has English citizenship as much as he has Jamaican citizenship. This makes it sound as if he is just happening to reside in England as a Jamaican. Sure, he is Jamaican, but he is also English (I would personally phrase it the other way around, but I digress). If >95% of sources call him "English", he is English. If, instead, a good part of sources also call him Jamaican, then we can omit the nationality. The point is I don't think there is any source calling him solely Jamaican. At most, they will say that he is English AND Jamaican. The overwhelming majority says he is just English. Anyway, I've updated his lead a bit, let me know what you think. <b style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:80%;color:#000080">Nehme</b><b style="font-family:Verdana;color:#27B382">1499</b> 16:58, 2 April 2021 (UTC)

You missed the point I made. When I said “quite a few describe him as such”— referring to “English”, I stated that it is BECAUSE of the Fact that Wikipedia editors had has his biography solely as “English”, which is a representation of the Google’s main Knowledge Panel of an individual. In simpler words, The Knowledge Panel of a person on Google is based off of Wikipedia’s biography, so whatever he is referred to on Wikipedia— will be displayed on the Knowledge Panel. Being that his biography only mentioned “English” that is what his Knowledge Panel mentions as well- “English professional footballer” and when sources begin to gather their information to write their articles, they see his representation on the Knowledge Panel as an “English” so that’s why they refer to him as such in articles. If Wikipedia correctly displayed his Jamaican nationality or added it to his biography, I’m pretty sure there would be way more sources that refer to him as a Jamaican instead of English. How do you state, “This makes it sound as if he is just happening to reside in England as a Jamaican”......... Do you hear yourself? That statement is 100% correct. How on living Earth would he be English or British if he wasn’t born there or doesn’t have any family from England??? How????? It would obviously have to be by citizenship only, right? You stated that Sterling has British citizenship, okay- so cite the source that supports your claim. That is what I’m trying to say, if he obtained British citizenship, cite the source that proves he has dual citizenship or became a citizen of England, it’s that simple. You said “sure he is Jamaican, but he is also English”... One, English is an ethnicity and not a nationality, so if he would be labeled for representing England, it would be as “British”, because his ethnicity is “Jamaican”— due to the fact that his family/ancestors are from Jamaica. It’s really not that hard to comprehend. Either his real and authentic nationality be stated— “Jamaican professional footballer based in England” or none at all, since hyphenated nationalities aren’t represented. Voice4People (talk) 17:20, 2 April 2021 (UTC)
 * If you believe that newspapers and articles describe Sterling as English indirectly because of Wikipedia, you are delusional. Sure, some blogs might do so, but reliable sources don't base their information on the Google Knowledge Panel. Also, there is a thing called naturalization. See Patrice Evra, Mario Balotelli, and many more. Born abroad, obtained the country's citizenship through naturalization. For sportspeople, we don't use British (this has been discussed a lot), rather one of the constituent countries. <b style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:80%;color:#000080">Nehme</b><b style="font-family:Verdana;color:#27B382">1499</b> 17:54, 2 April 2021 (UTC)

The wording saying he is an English footballer is absolutely fine in Sterling's case. GiantSnowman 18:03, 2 April 2021 (UTC)

Doesn’t take away from the fact that he is Jamaican though. In actual real life, not Wikipedia, he is solely Jamaican. Unless he chose to identify himself as a “Jamaican-English” due to British citizenship. The only reason why I feel as if it should’ve been updated is because as previously stated, it is very misleading. People who just stumble upon his name/biography would think he is an “English” who just happened to be born in Jamaica with absolutely no Jamaican ties whatsoever, when this is not the case at all— which is my point. I don’t care if I moved to the U.S. and started playing for their team, I would want to be described as my original nationality because that is who I authentically am, not an “American”, I just play for an American team because that is where I reside. However, Wikipedia is full of opinionated-based guidelines instead of strictly factual information so I’m going to leave it at that. Voice4People (talk) 18:26, 2 April 2021 (UTC)


 * has now been indef blocked. Ghmyrtle (talk) 07:50, 5 April 2021 (UTC)
 * even disregarding the whole playing for England thing, he moved to England when he was 5 and has spent 20 years in England and only 5 in Jamaica. He probably doesnt even remember anything from Jamacia, and he was raised in England. Kane was born in Spain, but his article says hes American and he doesnt consider himself Spanish as he moved when he was a kid. I doubt he even has a Jamacian passport. if youre under the age of 16, your passport expires after 5 years so his jamacian passport expired at the age of 10. do you think he got a new one when he lives in england???? pretty sure the only passport he would have right now is a british one. Emma Watson was born in France but no one says she is French. Watson *also* moved at the age of 5, this one from France to England. Should we be switching Watson to French and Kane to Spanish? pretty sure the wrestling and acting teams will revert you for that.Muur (talk) 22:37, 31 May 2021 (UTC)