“I see Serge Gnabry scored a hat-trick on his international debut,” observes Neil Harrington. “Just wondering how many other players have achieved this feat, or even exceeded it? And if any of them had also been sold by Arsenal for a criminally small amount of money?”

“I’m sure you’ve already had it, but Luther Blissett scored one against Luxembourg in 1982,” points out William Paterson. “David Kelly – who always seemed criminally underrated I must say – scored a hat-trick on his debut for the Republic of Ireland against Israel in 1987,” adds Brian Reddy. Denis Hurley points to Arthur Brown, “who won three caps for England between 18 February and 13 March 1882. One game was won and two were lost but England scored 17 goals and conceded 10 and Brown scored four of those, all in his debut against Ireland in Belfast, a 13-0 win. And here’s Kevin Dennehy: “Dieter Müller scored a hat-trick for West Germany on his international debut against Yugoslavia on 17 June 1976. Where it gets interesting is that it was the European Championship semi-finals and he came on as a sub in the 79th minute, scoring in the 82nd, 115th, and 119th minutes.”

Tys Hallema can go one better: “In the Netherlands there have been two players who scored four on their international debut. Eddy de Neve scored four in the first international match Holland ever played, against Belgium in 1905 which ended 4-1. Also, Faas Wilkes scored four on his debut in 1946 against Luxembourg.” Geoffrey van Haarlem was another reader to point in De Neve’s direction, but adds: “I couldn’t leave out this detail: the Belgian goal was an own goal by Ben Stom (whose last name in the Dutch language genuinely translates as ‘stupid’). However, when it comes to hat-tricks in the regular 90 minutes we have the story of Piet de Boer. At the age of 18, De Boer made his debut on 28 November 1937 against Luxembourg and scored a hat-trick in a 4-0 victory. Despite this achievement it turned out to be his first and last appearance for the national team, making him the player with the highest scoring average in Dutch national team history.” Which reminds us of other prolific international scorers.

But back to the matter at hand … “Josip Weber netted five times on his first cap for Belgium, a 9-0 hammering of Zambia on on 4 June 1994,” reports Stijn. “Understandably, Zambia didn’t really put up a fight as they were still coming to terms with the air disaster that took the lives of 18 internationals two months earlier. I should add that it was not technically Weber’s international debut, as he had already played three friendlies with his native Croatia. Weber’s rushed naturalisation in 1994 was controversial and didn’t sit too well with the other Red Devils. Despite him being league top scorer for three seasons running, he was largely shunned by his team-mates during the World Cup in the United States. Weber nevertheless forced a move from lowly Cercle Brugge to Anderlecht, but his career petered out when he injured his knee.”

Bringing it to club level, an excited Gary Fairclough writes in: “Finally! One that I can answer without even looking at Wikipedia having been in attendance of the event. Midfielder Brendan O’Connell was not particularly known for his goalscoring prowess. On his debut for his final professional club, Wigan Athletic, O’Connell enjoyed a dream debut, netting a hat-trick in the 5-2 opening-day win over Wycombe. This feat was made all the more impressive given that Wigan had a penalty when O’Connell was on a hat-trick but this was taken (and missed) instead by Scott Green, rather than giving O’Connell the chance to complete his treble. Thankfully, inept Wycombe defending in the closing stages allowed him to complete the feat regardless. O’Connell’s three goals that day would turn out, if memory serves me well, to be more than half of the goals he would score in a Wigan shirt. Footage, and dodgy Wigan commentary, can be found here.”

Was Reggie Kray really made president of a football club?

“I have a vague recollection of hearing that one of the Kray twins was president of an east London football club but I can’t find any details,” writes Alan Prince. “Which club was it? Or have I made it up?”

Don’t worry, Alan, you’re not losing your marbles, but the club with the Kray connection is a long way from the brothers’ old stomping ground. In 1996 the Nottinghamshire club Ashfield 95 were top of the Mansfield Bitter League but struggling to pay their bills and, having exhausted the more usual channels for funding, turned to the gangster who was then incarcerated in Maidstone prison.

Reggie Kray: convicted murderer and football benefactor? Photograph: John Stillwell/PA

“Reggie was my last chance,” the Ashfield manager David Howard told the Independent. “I know he does good charity work and likes to help old people and youngsters.”

Kray had come into some money – around £100,000 – thanks to his friendship with Karl Crompton, who had won £11m on the National Lottery in May 1996, and duly handed the stricken club £1,000. “I’ve had a soft spot for Notts ever since I spent some time in Nottingham prison,” Kray told Howard. “After London, Nottingham is my favourite city.”

Ashfield made Kray the club president by way of thanks, though others were not so impressed. The FA wrote to the club for an explanation as to why a convicted murderer had been appointed president.

The club has long since folded but was still a going concern when Reggie Kray died in October 2000. “Reggie continued to take great interest in the club along with his wife Roberta. Results, fixtures, tables, etc were sent to Reggie via Roberta on a regular basis,” says the club’s defunct website . “Ashfield 95 will always be grateful for Reggie’s help when it was needed most.”





Long-running sponsorships

“I’m watching the Milan derby and it occurred to me that Inter have been sponsored by Pirelli for as long as I can remember,” writes Terence Davidson. “Is this the longest running active shirt sponsor? If not who is, and which company/club holds the all time record?”

“Inter have been sponsored by Pirelli since the 1995-96 season,” writes Dirk Maas. “As far as I know there are three teams that have a longer running active shirt sponsorship. VfL Wolfsburg have been sponsored by Volkswagen since the 1991-92 season (one of three logos on the shirt alongside VAG Bank and Audi, before becoming sole sponsor in 1993-94 – although ‘VAG’ stands for ‘Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft’, AG is the German equivalent of a public limited company, and that was the shirt sponsor in the 1988-89 season) and the kits of Gamba Osaka have had Panasonic on the front of the shirt since 1991. But, VW aside, the honour of longest-running active shirt sponsor would seem to go to Stranraer FC. The Scottish team have a partnership with Stena Line that goes to back to the 1988-89 season.”

“McBurney Transport have been sponsoring Ballymena United shirts (in Northern Ireland’s top division) since January 1988 without break,” offers Neil Coleman. “This sponsorship was marked in unique style in 2012 (25th anniversary) with a specially commissioned lorry featuring artwork depicting some of the club’s best players.”

“If this question was asked last season, I’m quite sure the answer would have been: PSV Eindhoven,” states Stephan Wijnen. “‘PSV’ stands for ‘Philips Sport Vereniging’, founded by Philips in 1913 for its employees. Since the moment shirt sponsoring was allowed in The Netherlands, in 1982, Philips’ name has been on PSV’s shirts, until last summer when EnergieDirect.nl took over. So that’s 34 years. But Philips is therefore not the longest running active shirt sponsor …”

“I might have an answer,” mails Alan Gomes. “Revigrés began sponsoring FC Porto in 1983 – they were the first company to appear on the shirt of a Portuguese club. Porto’s shirt had no other sponsor for 20 years. Eventually the club’s European success made it too big for a small tiling company and, in 2004, Porto got a new main sponsor, a major telecoms company. However, in recognition of Revigrés’s role in the club’s expansion, Porto kept using the Revigrés logo on its shirts for some cup competitions for a few years more. This would bring the shirt sponsorship all the way to 29 years, which would beat the Inter-Pirelli connection by quite a bit.”

Deco and Benni McCarthy wearing their Revigrés-sponsored Porto shirts in 2004. Photograph: Guilherme Venancio/AP

Knowledge archive

“This week Danish tennis world No1 Caroline Wozniacki – a Liverpool fan – warmed up in her Liverpool shirt before beating Nadia Petrova in Doha,” wrote Mikkel Andreas Beck in 2011. “Could the good readers of The Knowledge give more examples of other high-profile athletes who in similar ways have shown support for a football team?”

Wozniacki was far from the first sports star to show her colours on the court. Chris Chan notes that the fun-loving Jensen brothers, Luke and Murphy,wore USA jerseys in the 1994 US Open men’s doubles. “It’s World Cup year,” said Luke at the time. “I wanted to wear an Alexi Lalas jersey with the name and number, the whole thing and, of course, they wouldn’t allow us to wear the names and numbers on the back, but it was cool.” And Ian Poulter wore an Arsenal shirt during his third round at the 2006 Abu Dhabi Championship. “I just wanted to spice it up a bit and would be very disappointed if I was fined,” said Poulter. “I suppose if everyone turned up in the football shirt of the team they support, all hell would break loose. But it was just a bit of fun and I didn’t mean to upset anybody.”

Ian Poulter wears an Arsenal shirt during the first round of the Dubai Desert Classic in February 2006. Photograph: Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images

For thousands more questions and answers take a trip through the Knowledge archive.

Can you help?

“Does anyone know the first game in the UK when there was a minute’s applause?” asks William Paterson. “I have a vague inkling that it might have been at a match in tribute to George Best, to reflect his status as an entertainer, but am not sure if I’ve made this up.”

“While on holiday I was watching the Hull v Arsenal game at an Egyptian hotel,” reports Rob Smith. “After Theo Walcott scored for Arsenal, in perfect English the commentator declared: ‘God save the Queen.’ As far as I remember this was the only English quoted during the match. Was there any particular reason to quote the national anthem in this way, is this quoted often or was it likely to be a one-off? Are there any other phrases used by commentators when a particular player/nationality of player is involved?”

“Rugby was being played at Rugby Park on Saturday, which is unusual, as it’s the home ground of Kilmarnock FC,” notes John Spooner. “That led me to wonder if there are any other football grounds past or present which are named after other sports. All I could come up with were the Baseball Ground, the Racecourse Ground, and the Stade Vélodrome. I’m sure there must be more.”

“With Moise Kean of Juventus appearing and being the first top-flight player to be born in 2000, I was wondering who the last players to play in the Premier League to be born in the 50s, 60s and 70s were?” wonders Tom Worsley.

“As a slight variation on the most headed goals research … I was present at the 1963 Amateur Cup final (Wimbledon 4-2 Sutton United) when all four of Wimbledon’s goals were headed home by centre forward Eddie Reynolds,” writes Keith Whitmee. “Are there any examples greater than four of one player scoring all of his team’s goals in one match with his head?”

Send your questions and answers to knowledge@theguardian.com or tweet @TheKnowledge_GU.