From Kevin Keegan to David Beckham and Michael Owen, many prolific footballers have won themselves simple-minded reputations as well as trophies.
But scientists say elite football stars are actually ‘super-clever individuals’.
‘Footballers often do not pursue higher education, such as university degrees, because their focus and interests lie elsewhere – primarily in their sport,’ Professor Leonardo Bonetti, study author at Aarhus University in Denmark, told MailOnline.
‘While this may mean they are less knowledgeable in certain academic areas, it does not reflect a lack of intelligence.
‘Unfortunately, people often confuse being less formally educated with being less clever, which perpetuates this unfair stereotype.’
Famously, former striker and England manager Keegan once said of Argentina: ‘They’re the second-best team in the world, and there’s no higher praise than that.’
Meanwhile, Beckham memorably commented after the birth of his eldest son: ‘I want Brooklyn to be christened, but I don’t know into what religion.’
These classic one-liners (scroll down for a full list) may have helped immortalise the ‘stupid footballer’ cliché, but the study suggests this stereotype is way wide of the target.
Among the footballers considered stupid, simple-minded or slow-witted by press and fans alike are Paul Gascoigne, David Beckham, Wayne Rooney, Kevin Keegan and Jack Grealish.
But arguably the king of uttering daft or bleeding obvious sentences is striker-turned-pundit Michael Owen, who once said: ‘It’s hit the facial part of his head, there.’
On another occasion he uttered the now-immortal line: ‘It’s definitely hit Defoe’s hand as it’s gone in, but it’s not a handball for me.’
Another quote usually attributed to Ian Rush – that playing for Juventus ‘was like living in a foreign country’ – is unfortunately apocryphal.
According to Professor Bonetti, many people associate intelligence in footballers with how they express themselves in interviews, which often results in embarrassing but memorable gaffes.
‘This perception can lead to the mistaken belief that footballers are not intelligent,’ Professor Bonetti told MailOnline.
For the study, the researchers examined the cognitive abilities of 204 elite footballers from the highest Brazilian and Swedish leagues and compared them with 124 members of the general public (the ‘controls’).
Professor Bonetti couldn’t disclose the identities of the clubs or the players for ethical and privacy reasons, but said the players were ‘mostly male’.
The team tested a large set of cognitive skills in the participants, including executive functions, such as flexible thinking, inhibition control (controlling automatic urges) and rapid execution of movements in relation to symbols.
They also tested memory, including ‘working memory’, the mental ‘notepad’ that contains fleeting thoughts and is responsible for the temporarily holding and processing of information, as well as planning and logical problem solving abilities.
Perhaps contrary to what the public would expect, the elite players had the better cognitive abilities overall, including improved planning, memory, and decision-making skills.
Footballers performed better in a quickly-changing environment and could plan several steps ahead, inhibit defective behaviours, exercise impulse control and be flexible.
Participants were also assessed for their levels of the ‘big five’ personality traits – openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism.
The elite players were significantly more extroverted, open to new experiences and conscientious than the controls, while the controls scored higher for neuroticism and agreeableness.
‘Being much less agreeable indicates that they go their own way without paying much heed to what other people think,’ said co-author Predrag Petrovic, physician at Karolinska Institute in Solna, Sweden.
The team stress that they tested performance-based metrics of intelligence rather than verbal intelligence, and they did not test for IQ.
They also did not correlate any successful career metrics (such as goals scored or trophies won) with intelligence.
However, the study, published in Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, suggests there are other non-physical, cognitive talents that can be classed as demonstrating intelligence in footballers.
‘We believe that reaching the highest levels in football requires more than just physical skills and game-specific abilities – the psychological dimension plays a crucial role,’ Professor Bonetti told MailOnline.
‘For instance, being able to make rapid decisions is vital, as it allows players to react quickly on the pitch and adapt their actions based on the movements of other players.
‘This ability is essential for skills like dribbling and successfully navigating dynamic game situations.’
There are of course several pro footballers that have bypassed the stupid stereotype, including former Leeds defender Clarke Carlisle, who impressed viewers as a contestant on Countdown after winning two episodes.
Meanwhile, Chelsea’s Graeme Le Saux gained a reputation as a brainbox for his articulate manner, university background and habit of visiting London museums between training sessions.
His former teammate Frank Lampard, who left school with 11 GCSEs including an A* in Latin, scored highly in an IQ test during his time at Chelsea.
