Plus: top scorers who only scored penalties; the longest wait between international caps; and footballers mentioned in Parliament. Send your questions and answers to knowledge@theguardian.com or get in touch via Twitter: @TheKnowledge_GU

“Has any player has scored a ‘perfect dead-ball’ hat-trick in a game, coming from a free-kick, penalty and straight in from a corner?” wondered Rob Yeoman last week.

The slightly surprising answer is … yes! “Here in Japan in 2010 the Brazilian midfielder Marcio Richardes achieved the feat while playing for Albirex Niigata against Vegalta Sendai,” writes Alastair Bourne. “And here’s the evidence to prove it …”

GOLDEN BOOT PENALTY TAKERS

“So I was watching the highlights of the CAF U-20 African Youth Championship semi-final between Nigeria and Ghana,” began Tobi Amoo, a couple of weeks ago, “and I observed as Musa Muhammed, Nigeria’s buccaneering right-back and captain, blasted the ball into the net from the penalty spot for the second goal, that would make him the highest scorer at the tournament with four goals, having scored three goals earlier in the group stage, all from the penalty spot. The question is: has a player won the Golden Boot at any tournament, club or country, by scoring only penalties?”

The slightly surprising answer is … yes! Again!

“Well, there is a quite special case, which is the goalkeeper Carlos Fenoy becoming top scorer of a team this way,” begins Jordi Gómez (not that one). “Fenoy was an Argentinian goalkeeper, who arrived to Spain to play for Celta de Vigo in 1976. In the third match of the season, against Real Sociedad, he became a club idol by showing his skills from the penalty spot. First, he saved a penalty taken by Ricardo Muruzábal, and later scored another one against the mystical Luis Arconada to give Celta a 1-0 win. During the rest of the season, he managed to score four more penalties, against Real Madrid, Las Palmas (twice), and Elche. In total he scored only five goals, but it turns out that the forwards at Celta that season were not very lucky, so the goalkeeper was the lone top scorer of the team in that league championship. Celta got relegated with a total of only 22 goals for in 34 matches.”

LONGEST GAP BETWEEN CAPS

“As my house mate and I were half watching the Scotland-Northern Ireland game I completely misheard the commentator say that it was some players first appearance in 16 years,” writes Jamie Dodd. “This turned out to be false following a quick rewind but it got us thinking – which player has the biggest gap between two international matches and how long was it?”

The record for the longest gap between two England caps belongs to the Liverpool legend Ian Callaghan, who won his second cap against France in England’s final group game of the 1966 World Cup but then had to wait 11 years and 49 days for his third cap, when Ron Greenwood recalled him to face Switzerland in a friendly in 1977.

But the world record. Wouter IJzermans reckons it might be the Greek Maradona Vasilis Hatzipanagis. “His first game for Greece was on May 6 1976 (a 1-0 victory over Poland),” writes Wouter. “After his first match Fifa prevented him from playing again for the Greece squad because he had played for the Soviet Olympic team back in 1975 [Hatzipanagis had been born in Tashkent to Greek political refugees]. After a long career, he was offered a chance to play another international match when this restriction was lifted in 1999, which means he got his second cap at the ripe old age of 45 on the December 14 1999 in a friendly match against Ghana (1-1), 23 years after making his debut for the Greek national team.”

Here he is winning that elusive second cap:

And here’s why it’s such a shame he missed out on so much international football:

KNOWLEDGE ARCHIVE

“Apparently, some MP mentioned some footballer in the Commons the other day, or something,” began Andy Jowett back in 2011. “What other examples are there of players being mentioned or discussed in the chamber – in any capacity – by the honourable members? I believe questions were asked in parliament when Alf Common moved from Sunderland to Middlesbrough for £1,000 but are there any others?”

Last week we looked at the footballers who have been namechecked in the House of Lords, with Michael Howard’s 1994 World Cup optimism and John Wells’ 1984 assertion that Glenn Hoddle and Bryan Robson should be the British leaders in the event of an apocalypse particular favourites. But in terms of sheer numbers and, it seems, premeditated action, Stephen Pound deserves special mention. The MP for Ealing North managed to shoehorn an entire Fulham first XI (and a couple of subs) into a debate on the Planning and Energy Bill in May 2008:

“I thank my hon Friend for the positive way in which he is approaching this excellent Bill. New clause 1 would introduce a requirement to exceed building regulations – a Merton plus, plus model. In view of the work done by experts such as McBride and Healey, is it not the case that the building regulations will always be exceeded, regardless of what they are?”



“My hon Friend underlines in many ways the importance of this Bill promoted by the hon Member for Sevenoaks (Mr. Fallon). However, I am concerned about whether there is a lacuna in the area of education. I think of my constituent, Mr. Simon Davies, who told me about the house built in south Wales by my hon. and learned Friend the Member for Medway (Mr. Marshall-Andrews), which is known as the “Teletubbies house” and is built almost entirely underground and covered with what he calls organic insulation and the rest of us call grass.”



“My hon Friend refers principally to thermal insulation, but he is on to something quite important with regard to sound attenuation. On the point about the amount of development in inner-London constituencies, in my area, even where there are cellars – or Kasey Kellers as people call them locally – people have tried to build there. Given his discussions with the Thermal Insulation Manufacturers and Suppliers Association, was he aware of any part of its remit that includes the benign combination of thermal and sound insulation in the same material?”



“I do not think that there will be many arguments in the House today except on points of detail. My hon Friend referred to forward-thinking local authorities. I appreciate that we cannot introduce retrospective legislation, or retrofit legislation, and a builder such as Murphys in my constituency will say that it is perfectly happy and comfortable with the requirements for extensions and new build, but is there not a danger that we could end up with a two-tier system where older converted properties are energy-inefficient and the modern ones are efficient?”



Bearing in mind your rigid strictures, Madam Deputy Speaker, I will not give the warm words of praise to that eager partnership that I would have given otherwise. My hon Friend’s new clause 1 is permissive: he is saying what a local authority may do, not what it shall do, which is implicit in the Bill as drafted. House prices are falling. If one talks to builders such as Mr. Dempsey in my constituency, to whom I talked last week, they will say that in a falling house market, margins are shaved.



I have mentioned former local government planning officers, who seem to work as consultants nowadays. Many of them will be as busy as Jimmy Bullard, as we say in west London, trying to find their way around words such as “reasonable” and around the permissive nature of “may”.



My hon. Friend makes an extremely important point, which is relevant to home information packs, although I do not wish to rehash the whole argument that we had on those. His point chimes with mine, in that, by and large, we tend to seek examples of good practice that have commercial benefit. I remember visiting a property in a place called Hangeland, in Norway, where they use a commercially driven system of heat insulation, not just because that is environmentally correct, but because it is an advantage to do so in that part of the world.



There is no point whatever in having energy-efficient homes if people do not want to live in them or if they cost too much. Prefabs are very popular; Baird Avenue in my constituency was built before the war and it is very popular.



Does my hon Friend agree that it matters not whether a person is called Konchesky or Stalteri, and that what matters is the home that they need, not their origins?



The hon Gentleman is to be congratulated on the way in which he has promoted the Bill. He has not used some of the more flashy and apocalyptic images. He has been more of a Barrington than a Dexter, more of a Gooch than a Gower and more of an Erik Nevland than a Diomansy Kamara. His taut, sparse, precise, elegant Bill has been all the better for that.

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

Can you help?

“Since any player born in the decade of Choppers, glam rock and being fondly remembered by Stuart Maconie – that is, the 1970s – would now be a veteran, I was wondering who was the last player active in any of the top four tiers of English football to have been born in the 1960s?” wonders James Murton.

“The New Saints have won the league cup, the league and are through to the final of the Welsh Cup,” writes Seiriol Hughes. “They are unbeaten in all competitions this season so far, and if they avoid defeat in their final three league games and in the cup final, they will create Welsh domestic football history – the first team ever to complete an unbeaten season in all competitions. Is this unprecedented? How many other teams have completed a perfect season in all competitions?”

“In the recent Concacaf 2018 World Cup qualifiers, St Kitts and Nevis beat Turks and Caicos Islands by 12-4 over two legs, with both matches finishing 6-2,” notes Andrew Willimott. “Has there ever been a higher aggregate score between two teams over two legs where both matches have featured the same score?”

“Last week’s Knowledge mentioned Manchester City’s Uefa Cup campaign from the 2008-09 season,” writes Andrew Thomas. “After a quick look at their campaign trail, I noticed that including the qualifying round they played three teams from Denmark. Has a team ever played more teams from the same country in a European cup campaign?”

“Hibs and Hearts played at the weekend,” begins Paul Reilly. “Hibs are playing in a special all green kit this season (as opposed to the usual white sleeves) and Hearts wore a Argentina inspired away kit rather than the usual maroon. I can’t think of any reason why Hearts would be in their away kit as it’s never occurred before against Hibs (that I’m aware of) and with Hibs also wearing a different kit than usual this got me thinking. Are there any other examples of derby matches where teams have played in kits that broke with tradition? eg Celtic in a black kit against an all red Rangers, Barcelona in green against a yellow Madrid.”

“Hamilton Accies are having a season of two halves: challenging and holding top spot in the Scottish Premiership before Christmas they haven’t won since Alex Neil left to become manager of Norwich, who have since seen their own fortunes change for the good,” writes Andrew Tomlinson. “My question is: what’s the biggest shift in results from before Christmas to after? I remember Villa imploding under Marin O’Neill, and Everton traditionally failed to play before winter under Moyes. Has anyone been top at Christmas but managed to get relegated?”

“Relegation-haunted Orient’s goal difference is currently only -4,” tweets garethjm. “Any teams ever gone down with a better goal difference?”

Send your questions and answers to knowledge@theguardian.com