IF you think Danny Shittu and David Seaman are shocking footballer names wait until you meet Osama Vinladen.
The 22-year-old footy ace plays in the Peruvian first division and has made more headlines off the pitch than on it with his bizarre name almost identical to the evil terror kingpin Osama Bin Laden.
Despite his full name being Osama Vinladen Jimenez Lopez, the footballer goes by Osama and even has it sprawled across his kit each match.
The 5ft 9in midfielder is known for his ability to spray passes across the pitch.
He has racked up an impressive 53 appearances for his club Unión Comercio since breaking through as a youngster in 2018, netting three goals in that time.
The Peruvian also managed to get himself in the international team when he was younger when he took part in the 2017 South American U-15 Championship for his country’s U-15 side.
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Terrorist Bin Laden was shot dead in 2011 at his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, by US Navy SEALs.
He was most notoriously known for his group’s role in the tragic 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers in 2001.
As the founder and leader of the Islamist militant group al-Qaeda, Bin Laden became the world’s most wanted man after claiming responsibility for the horrendous event.
His name quickly became plastered over newspapers and TV reports across the world and to most he was considered an evil maniac.
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But to the parents of a newborn Peruvian child, he just had a pretty interesting name.
Just over a year after the Twin Towers collapsed, the future football star was born and was given the name Osama Vinladen.
Osama said the name was “fashionable” in the early 2000s and that his dad “liked it”.
In Spanish, the letter “v” is pronounced like a “b” so the footy star is essentially named exactly after the world-renowned terrorist.
Osama doesn’t think too much about the name and says in Peru people barely bat an eye as there is even a Hitler in the country.
In the 2018 Peruvian municipal elections, Hitler Alba Sánchez ran for a seat causing the Hitler name to make waves in the political world for the second time.
FAMILY TIES
The player has admitted that being named after Osama Bin Laden is not the only unusual thing about his family.
To add to the problematic nature, Osama’s brother is called Saddam Hussein and his sister was going to be bizarrely named George Bush if she was a boy.
He told the Spanish outlet Què T’hi Jugues: “I thought about changing my name but now I like it, it was fashionable in its day.
“When Osama Bin Laden knocked down the Twin Towers, the name was in the news and I was born on October 7, 2002.
“There aren’t any other people who call themselves this.
“It’s strange, but it seems normal to me. I’ve become used to this situation and it is normal for me.
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“My brother’s name is Saddam Hussein and my father wanted to use George Bush for his third child, but it was a girl.”
There is also a Brazilian player in Russia named Marx Lenin and he unironically loves the left wing.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
