As Rovers head into their final two pre-season friendlies up in Scotland, football historian and Rovers supporter Stephen Byrne takes a look at the games played so far and points out a few interesting facts that you may not have known about.
Weston super Mare
- Weston included three players with Rovers connections in our game against them on 7th July, namely Michael Smith, Liam Sercombe and Olle Hulbert.
- While Smith and Sercombe were established first team players at The Mem, Hulbert came through our Academy, captained the U-18 side before signing his first pro contract but was released at the end of the 2021/22 season following loan spells with Cardiff Met, Hereford United and Gloucester City.
Salisbury
- Salisbury’s Mohammad Dabre was born in Lecco, Italy in 2003
- Jaiden Bartolo has 14 caps with Gibraltar
- Luke Russe made three league appearances for Rovers
Leicester
- Wout Faes is the fifth Belgian international to oppose Rovers in any fixture
- Goalkeeper Fran Vieites is the first player to appear internationally for Galicia and also play against Rovers
- Hamza Choudhury has 10 caps for Bangladesh and is the first player to appear for that country and play against Rovers
- Jakub Stolarczyk was born in Poland, Caleb Okoli in Italy, Woyo Coulibaly in France, Wout Faes in Belgium and Nathan Opoku in Ghana
- Wout Faes and Nathan Opoku have both played professionally in Belgium; Faes, Stephy Mavididi and Woyo Coulibaly in France; Vieites in Spain; Mavididi and Okoli in Italy; and Stolarczyk in Poland
Portsmouth
- Pompey’s Nicolas Schmid was born in Austria, Adrian Segecic and Hayden Matthews in Australia, Madiodio Dia in Senegal, Luke Le Roux in South Africa and Rocco Shein in Estonia
- Hayden Matthews has one cap for Australia (27 Australia internationals have opposed Rovers in the League)
- Luke Le Roux has nine caps for South Africa (seven South African internationals have played against Rovers in the League)
- Rocco Shein has played 25 times for Estonia (no Estonia international has opposed Rovers in the League, although two have in the FA Cup)
- Schmid and Ibene Bowat both played professionally in Austria
- Segecic, Bowat, Le Roux, Shein and Arvin Appiah all played professionally in the Netherlands, where Appiah was born
- Appiah has also played professionally in France, Portugal and Spain
- Dia and Shein have both played professionally in Norway
Forest Green Rovers
- Forest Green’s Sydney Agina, though born in Manchester, has one cap for Kenya (five Kenyan internationals have opposed Rovers in the League and two have played for Rovers)
- Kairo Mitchell has 15 caps with Grenada (16 Grenada internationals have opposed Rovers in the League)
- Emeka Obi was born in Nigeria
