Football trivia often throws up quirky coincidences, and one that has captured the attention of fans recently involves players whose surnames correspond to the calendar month in which they found the net. The phenomenon was sparked after Birmingham's August Priske scored the only goal in a League Cup victory at Swansea on 8 August, prompting a wave of similar discoveries spanning nearly every month of the year.
The hunt for examples took supporters beyond English-language surnames into other tongues, uncovering a rich variety of instances. In January, Nicolas Janvier found the net for Lannion against Rennes Reserves on 30 January 2016, with "Janvier" being French for January. February had its own match when Jayden Fevrier scored for Colchester against Forest Green Rovers on 3 February 2024.
March produced multiple examples, including Heiko März, who scored twice during that month for Hansa Rostock in the 1992-93 German second division. Brighton's Solly March also fits neatly into this category, having scored FA Cup quarter-final goals in March against both Millwall in 2019 and Grimsby in 2023.
April Heinrichs delivered for the United States, netting twice on April Fools' Day in 1991 against Yugoslavia before adding further goals that same April against Hungary and in a tournament final versus the USSR. May supplied one of the more historically significant examples: David May opened the scoring for Manchester United in their title-clinching 3-0 win at Middlesbrough on 5 May 1996, a result that set up United's Double that season. Alfie May also scored for Cheltenham Town against Charlton on 7 May 2023, shortly before his move to the London club.
June's contribution came from Brazilian forward Edigar Junio, who scored for Yokohama F Marinos against Matsumoto Yamaga in Japan's J-League on 22 June 2019. July proved fruitful for players named Julio, with Ecuador's Anderson Julio and Jhojan Julio both finding the net in matches during that month, alongside Armenia's Junior Julio Bueno.
August itself yielded a lesser-known case in August Lohapresert, a Sweden-born player capped by Thailand at under-23 level, who scored twice for Gais Under-19s in a 2012 youth match. September's example came via Polish football, where Mateusz Wrzesien—whose surname translates to September—scored for Baltyk Koszalin in 2018.
October was represented by Pasquale Ottobre, who netted a brace for Fidelis Andros against Virtus Lanciano in Italy's Lega Pro back in 2009, despite ironically being born in November himself. That same month provided its own answer through Ukrainian player Tymofiy Lystopad, whose surname means November, and who scored for Desna Chernihiv in 2015.
December remains the only month without a confirmed goalscorer bearing a matching surname, though researchers did uncover Frantz Décembre, a Haitian manager active in the 2010s, even if no specific goal from one of his teams during December has been pinpointed.
The collective effort to complete this unusual calendar highlights the depth of football trivia enthusiasts' knowledge, drawing on leagues and competitions across multiple continents and languages. While some entries required flexibility—accepting foreign-language equivalents of English month names—the overall exercise underscores how football's global reach creates opportunities for such playful coincidences to emerge across professional, youth, and international competition alike.
Based on reporting from The Guardian.