Joe Hart and 6 other footballers whose names aren’t what you thought they were

All it took was a move from Manchester City to Torino for people to discover that Joe Hart's real first name is Charles.

We're a little disappointed that, if he wasn't going to publicly go by Charlie, he didn't just go the whole hog and put 'Hartdogg' on the back of his shirt. But the England number one isn't the only player to brush a forename under the carpet when beginning their professional career. Here are a few more. https://twitter.com/AlexShawESPN/status/770940346691911680

Mark Hughes

The Stoke manager and former Manchester United and Barcelona striker has one of the most ordinary names in football. So ordinary in fact that it belongs to a former Tottenham youngster, a current Accrington Stanley defender and a former Ireland youth international. All three of those, as far as we can tell, were christened 'Mark'. Not the silver-haired Welsh international though. He was known to his parents as Leslie, at least until he learned to talk.

David Cannon/Getty Images

Alan Curbishley

What is it with managers of a certain age being reluctant to acknowledge their Welsh heritage? Long before he adopted the Pele-like moniker of 'Curbs', the former West Ham boss was given the forenames Llewellyn Charles. His decision to go by 'Alan' sees him combine the Hart/Hughes modi operandi.

Allsport UK/Allsport

Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink

When Hasselbaink first arrived in the Premier League with Leeds United, he made a point of asking to wear 'Jimmy' on the back of his shirt. Some thought at the time that it was an act of egotism. Maybe he was just establishing that he had no plans to use his real first name, Jerrel.

Alex Livesey/Allsport

Kevin Keegan

Alliteration can be a powerful thing. Would Joseph Keegan have been as big a world star as KK? It doesn't roll off the tongue as easily, that's for sure, so Kev plumped for his middle name.

Allsport/Getty Images

Charlie Oatway

Stop us if you've heard this one before. And then keep reading anyway, because we're not actually going to stop. Oatway's parents named him after the entire 1973 Queens Park Rangers squad, meaning his forenames are Anthony Philip David Terry Frank Donald Stanley Gerry Gordon Stephen James. That's Terry Venables and Gerry Francis, among others, making him the only player we know who is named after more than one Premier League manager.

Stu Forster/Getty Images

Eriberto/Luciano

This one's a little different to the rest. When Chievo won promotion to Serie A in the early 2000s and started like a house on fire, one of their stars was a Brazilian called Eriberto. The thing is, that wasn't his real name. The winger had assumed the identity of a Palmeiras team-mate in order to appear four years younger than he really was, something which helped him move to Italy a few years earlier as a '21-year-old'. He eventually admitted to the deception and returned to football with Luciano, his real name, on the back of his shirt. When Saturday Comes have the (pretty remarkable) full story.

Dino Panato/Getty Images

Do you know of any other footballers who don't use their real first names? Let us know on Facebook or Twitter. Read more