The general theory of 6 degrees of separation implies that everyone on the planet is six or fewer steps away from each other in regards some kind of common connection. Of course in these days of social media that is likely to be an even smaller number of steps and for those of you with linkedin accounts you'll know it's rare to come across another member who is more than 3 connections away from you - it's a small world and it's getting smaller.
Some of you may also have played the game 6 degrees of separation before and one of the most popular variations is with the American actor Kevin Bacon. The basic idea is to name any actor/actress and then find the chain of other actors/actresses that link them to Kevin Bacon. Of course, you can do this with pretty much any famous person and it works particularly well with footballers. Here's an example with former Republic of Ireland left-back and a man with a sledgehammer of a left foot, Ian Harte.
The graphic shows he is 4 degrees of separation from Argentine legend Lionel Messi in that Harte played with Steve Finan for Ireland who in turn played with Fernando Torres at Liverpool who in turned played with Xavi at Spain who in turn played with Messi at Barca. I actually think you could make the chain in 3 steps because Steve Finan also played with Javier Mascherano at Liverpool who played with Messi at both Barca and for Argentina. That, of course, is the whole aim of the game - to find the shortest possible link between 2 players!
For this week's quiz, I have devised a challenge to find the links between footballing great and one of the most recognisable athletes on earth, David Beckham and a man who is best known as the strongest player in world soccer, Adebayo Akinfenwa. I've found there are fewer than 6 degrees of footballing separation between these 2 men and my challenge to you is not only to try and find it but also if possible better it! In fact, there are definitely several ways to link these 2 players in fewer than 5 steps, can you find them?
The links must be when players have been teammates at club or international level (just like the Ian Harte example above). As with last week, testimonials or one-off charity matches don't count, these need to be proper competitive games.
For every unique set of steps found that is under 5 or fewer degrees of separation you will get 5 SCR. It's first come, first serve and my guess is that once you or someone else has found one route then several others will quickly present themselves!
To limit my exposure here I am going to set a 30 SCR cap on the prize fund that means only the first 6 correct answers under 6 steps will win a prize, however, users are free to have as many goes as they like i.e. someone could win all 30SCR
Please leave your answers in the comments section and be sure to show your workings
Good Luck!
Correct Answers so far
- Barbadosso
Adebayo Akinfenwa (Swansea) -> Joe Allen (Liverpool) -> Steven Gerrard (England) -> David Beckham
2. Philnewton
David Beckham (Manchester United) > Ryan Giggs (Wales) > Sam Ricketts (Swansea) > Akinfenwa
3. Lama10
Ada Akinfewa (Millwall) > Jamie-O'Hara (Tottenham) > Dimitar Berbatov (Manchester United) > Wayne Rooney(England) -> David Beckham
4. Cayelispor53
Adebayo Akinfenwa (Swansea City)> Joe Allen (Wales)> Gareth Bale (Real Madrid )> Di Maria (Argentina)> Javier Pastore (PSG )> David Beckham
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