Greece’s national soccer team may have valiantly exited Euro 2012 at the hands of Germany but the players leave unbeaten in one respect.
It has been calculated that, on average, they have the longest surnames of any team competing in the Euro, at 8.77 letters per man. The Greek roster includes eight players with last names that include 10 or more letters.
Poland, led by Jakub Blaszczykowski (14 letters), finished second at 8.43 letters per player, followed by Roman Pavlyuchenko and Russia at 8.13 letters per player.
Greece’s Sokratis Papastathopoulos takes the title of player with the longest non-hyphenated name for any player in the field. As his last name won’t fit on the back of his shirt he has to make do with Sokratis, which must rank him as the friendliest player as well.
Just call me Sokratis
Source: The Wall Street Journal
