Monday, June 23, 2014

Harald's Original Miscellany - The Truth about Football

The England National football team, 1893, photo: wikipedia
Well, it's the time of the Worldcup 2014. Why should I bother you with the peculiarities of authors and writers, when we can also have a look on Football! As you might remember, we had about 15,328 individuals in Wikipedia classified as authors [1]. What do you think, how many footballers are there compared to authors? Well there's a huge difference: 162,597 referenced footballer players, i.e. about 10 times as much as authors [2]. Maybe you think now there might be an overlap. How many football players are also listed as authors? I am sorry to disappoint you, but there is no overlap. No football player is also listed as being an author.

Fact No. 1: Footballers are no authors, and vice versa.

So you might wonder, what other categories these football players are in to get a better overview about what we are talking about. Interestingly, when looking at the most popular categories, you will soon find the large number of expatriates among those players. The Top5 expatriate nationalities among football players are: Brazil, Argentina, Russia, France, Serbia [3]. If you look at the bottom of the list, you will find the more or less exotic combinations, such as e.g. Hungarian expatriates in Uzbekistan, or Cameroonian expatriates in Venezuela, or even German expatriates in the Netherlands ;-)

Fact No. 2: Only a few Hungarian football players emigrate to Uzbekistan.

And in which countries they prefer to emigrate? The Top5 countries for football players to emigrate are: England, Germany, Spain, Italy, France [4]. At least for France the statistics seems to be balanced somehow, while England and Germany are the leading nations to attract foreign football players all around the world. Very interesting also the bottom of the list, where as the "least attractive" countries Gambia, Guam, Nepal, or Antigua and Barbuda are listed.

Fact No.3: French football players seem to be undecided whether to stay or leave the country.

But what about the categories that do not have a direct relationship to football in the first place? Let's filter out these categories and let's have a look on what football players are up to.

alternative professions of football players #players
http://dbpedia.org/class/yago/Director110014939 279
http://dbpedia.org/class/yago/Migrant110314952 271
http://dbpedia.org/class/yago/National109625401 250
http://dbpedia.org/class/yago/Intellectual109621545 237
http://dbpedia.org/class/yago/Alumnus109786338 234
http://dbpedia.org/class/yago/Scholar110557854 234
http://dbpedia.org/class/yago/Striker110663996 134
http://dbpedia.org/class/yago/Worker109632518 73
http://dbpedia.org/class/yago/SkilledWorker110605985 64
http://dbpedia.org/class/yago/Unfortunate109630641 56
http://dbpedia.org/class/yago/Trainer110722575 55
http://dbpedia.org/class/yago/Coach109931640 54
http://dbpedia.org/class/yago/Communicator109610660 51
http://dbpedia.org/class/yago/Serviceman110582746 51
http://dbpedia.org/class/yago/Expert109617867 43
http://dbpedia.org/class/yago/Observer110369528 33
http://dbpedia.org/class/yago/Cricketer109977326 32
http://dbpedia.org/class/yago/Adult109605289 28
http://dbpedia.org/class/yago/Victim110752093 28
http://dbpedia.org/class/yago/Rival110533013 27
http://dbpedia.org/class/yago/Official110372076 26
http://dbpedia.org/class/yago/Adjudicator109769636 26
http://dbpedia.org/class/yago/MilitaryOfficer110317007 25
http://dbpedia.org/class/yago/EnlistedPerson110058777 25
http://dbpedia.org/class/yago/Soldier110622053 25
http://dbpedia.org/class/yago/Referee110514429 25
http://dbpedia.org/class/yago/BadPerson109831962 23
http://dbpedia.org/class/yago/Wrongdoer109633969 23
http://dbpedia.org/class/yago/Writer110794014 21
http://dbpedia.org/class/yago/Professional110480253 21
http://dbpedia.org/class/yago/EnglishCricketers 20
http://dbpedia.org/class/yago/OlympicBronzeMedalistsForGermany 18
http://dbpedia.org/class/yago/Creator109614315 18
http://dbpedia.org/class/yago/AsianGamesGoldMedalistsForIran 16
http://dbpedia.org/class/yago/OlympicGoldMedalistsForTheUnitedStates 16
http://dbpedia.org/class/yago/Presenter110466387 16
http://dbpedia.org/class/yago/Survivor110681194 16
http://dbpedia.org/class/yago/Entertainer109616922 16
http://dbpedia.org/class/yago/Performer110415638 16
http://dbpedia.org/class/yago/Captain109893191 15
http://dbpedia.org/class/yago/CommissionedMilitaryOfficer109943239 15
http://dbpedia.org/class/yago/CommissionedOfficer109942970 15
http://dbpedia.org/class/yago/Artist109812338 15
http://dbpedia.org/class/yago/OlympicSilverMedalistsForParaguay 14
http://dbpedia.org/class/yago/OlympicSilverMedalistsForPoland 14
http://dbpedia.org/class/yago/Journalist110224578 14
http://dbpedia.org/class/yago/Principal110474950 13
http://dbpedia.org/class/yago/Criminal109977660 13
http://dbpedia.org/class/yago/OlympicGoldMedalistsForArgentina 12
http://dbpedia.org/class/yago/OlympicBronzeMedalistsForItaly 12
Please find the entire list in the references [5].

Fact No. 4: There are more intellectuals among football players than bad persons.

Wow, 237 football players are also categorized as being intellectuals, while 23 football players are listed as "bad persons". But, in this statistics, we will also find 21 writers(!) among the football players, as well as 15 artists, 14 journalists, and 13 criminals.
Further down the list, you will also find
  • 12 politicians, 
  • 8 identical twins, 
  • 8(!) head of state, 
  • 7 musicians, 
  • 4 comedians (I'll bet there are more...), 
  • 4 scientists, 
  • 3 singers, 
  • 2 mammals,
  • 2 Gentleman Cricketeers,
  • 2 gambling addicts,
  • 2 aviators,
  • 2 painters,
  • 1 UFO conspiracy theorists,
  • 1 bank robber,
  • 1 rapper,
  • 1 plumber,

etc.

So what does this tell us about football players?

Fact No. 5: There are more politicians among football players than comedians.

Well, in general, and according to Wikipedia, football players most times stick to their original profession. While emigrating here and there sometimes, there are only a few among them who actually have a second career outside of their original profession. Please note that we did not follow categories like football manager, football trainer, football coach, etc. Anyway, we finally did find also some authors among them....

Fact No. 6: There are writers among the football players...although they are not listed as authors.

to be continued....


Please find the full tables with all the results listed here in the References:

[1] total number of authors (?author rdf:type dbpedia-owl:Writer .)
[2] total number of football players (?player rdf:type dbpedia-owl:SoccerPlayer .)
[3] expatriate football players by home country
[4] expatriate football players by emigration country
[5] occupations of football players other than football