Identical twins in football

The signing of Fabio De Silve by Cardiff City has made me think about the number of identical twins who have become famous football players. Fabio and his twin brother Rafael are of course monozygotic twins, they originated from a single fertilized egg and are in effect genetically identical, they are clones of one another!
Unlike other siblings, they share very similar physical characteristics, IQ's, talents and interests. They should in theory have the same level of ability and attainment in professional sport! So will Fabio be the equivalent of Rafael? Obviously, injury and personal problems can have a dramatic effect on the development of a player,
However, evidence suggests that identical twin professional footballers do have similar careers.
Rene and Willy Van Der Kerkoff both played in the 1978 World Cup final for the Netherlands.
Frank and Ronald De Bowr both had glittering careers with Ajax and a number of other teams as well as the Dutch national side.
For other old timers like myself, perhaps you remember Ian And Roger Morgan who played for QPR during the seventies as maurading wingers.
Let us hope that Fabio fulfils the potential that his brother has shown with Manchester United.

In theory I agree

But say one is coached at man utds academy by a world class coach and the other is at say accrington Stanley's academy by joe bloggs they will be nowhere near the same level by the time they reach the age to play professionally .

Talent can't be coached but technical ability can

Is that true of any of the identical twins I have mentioned?
Happy to see evidence of nurture having a bigger influence than nature, a very interesting point.
Can you name an identical twin who has achieved much more than his genetically identical sibling?

i'm an identical twin, my brother is a much better footballer than me

I had a similar discussion with a fly caster once. Obviously the rest of the world recognize talent, but from his point of view talent dosent exist. The level you reach at any sport is reach through methodical hard work. Scientific research show to reach world class in any sport would require an average of 10000 hours high level training. So according to his theory (which is wrong)
and research (which is right) the work you put into it is what you get out of it. Nothing to do with twins but genetics is ranked behind training imo.

You may be right Ray, I respect your views and the argument is persuasive. However, how many members have made it as professional footballers without their siblings?
Perhaps because they spend so much time together they have similar opportunities, similar training regimes and the motivation of competing with an equally talented sibling.

Is that true of any of the identical twins I have mentioned?
Happy to see evidence of nurture having a bigger influence than nature, a very interesting point.
Can you name an identical twin who has achieved much more than his genetically identical sibling?

Rattled my brain but the only ones I could come up with without cheating on google were dean and david holdsworth who both had football league careers , and the Georgian boy arveladze who played for rangers his twin was stuck in some Eastern European league .
Other than that your probably right fair play , most seem to have very similar careers
I still believe technical ability can be trained into most people with the right coaching from an early age . Like I said Even though it's not really possible to prove , I believe if one was at a world class academy the other in lower leagues the difference in there games would be massive .

Perhaps because they spend so much time together they have similar opportunities, similar training regimes and the motivation of competing with an equally talented sibling.

Absolutely agree with this, and to find that level of motivation to train, sibling rivalry must be right up there.

i'm an identical twin, my brother is a much better footballer than me

... Has Cornelius got a twin brother?

"sidenote" I have read Daehli stays behind after cardiff training to work on finishing to improve his game.
Surely someone else could take notice of this

A young man destined for great things, obviously has the right attitude, attributes and aptitude for the Premier League.

Perhaps because they spend so much time together they have similar opportunities, similar training regimes and the motivation of competing with an equally talented sibling.

Absolutely agree with this, and to find that level of motivation to train, sibling rivalry must be right up there.

I'm not a twin but wanted to be better than my brothers at absolutely everything nothing better than a siblings success to drive you on. Shame their not a success though.

Matthew Syed/Gladwell and other writers address the idea of natural talent head-on and state that it is not so much about something already there that is in some way superior, but more about being in the right place at the right time with the right attitude to hard work and perseverance.
I'd agree with that since it gives us all hope that the playing field of life is more or less level.

The signing of Fabio De Silve by Cardiff City has made me think about the number of identical twins who have become famous football players. Fabio and his twin brother Rafael are of course monozygotic twins, they originated from a single fertilized egg and are in effect genetically identical, they are clones of one another!
Unlike other siblings, they share very similar physical characteristics, IQ's, talents and interests. They should in theory have the same level of ability and attainment in professional sport! So will Fabio be the equivalent of Rafael? Obviously, injury and personal problems can have a dramatic effect on the development of a player,
However, evidence suggests that identical twin professional footballers do have similar careers.
Rene and Willy Van Der Kerkoff both played in the 1978 World Cup final for the Netherlands.
Frank and Ronald De Bowr both had glittering careers with Ajax and a number of other teams as well as the Dutch national side.
For other old timers like myself, perhaps you remember Ian And Roger Morgan who played for QPR during the seventies as maurading wingers.
Let us hope that Fabio fulfils the potential that his brother has shown with Manchester United.

There was Ron and Paul Futcher who played for Luton. Ron got most of the plaudits being a centre forward however some used to rate Paul better but being a defender they tend not to get as much recognition.

i'm an identical twin, my brother is a much better footballer than me

Is your name Fabio?

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the ... -identical

Not genetically identical.