EXCLUSIVE
Ray Parlour reveals how Marc Overmars gave him ‘Romford Pele’ nickname – but Arsenal teammate had no idea where Romford was!
Ray Parlour has credited former Arsenal teammate Marc Overmars with assigning him the nickname the ‘Romford Pele’.
A native of the Essex town, Parlour told talkSPORT that he has donned the nickname ever since an exchange with the former Dutch international winger in training.
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“I went through a few players in training one day and I hit the ball,” Parlour explained.
“It went straight into the top corner and he [Overmars] ran past me – this was the 1997-98 season – he said, ‘you are like the Romford Pele’.
“I said, you don’t even know where Romford is? He said, ‘No I don't.’
“He had to do the press that afternoon, it when when Arsenal were trying to get close to Manchester United.
“One of the questions to Marc Overmars was, 'can you beat Manchester United this season?'
“He went, ‘We’ll definitely win the league because we’ve got the Romford Pele on our side' - and they put it in the paper!"
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That season, Arsenal did go on to win the Premier League title - one of the three Parlour won during his illustrious Gunners career.
Despite many not knowing how it came about, the nickname has stood the test of time and will continue to as long as he keeps his Twitter account open.
Parlour’s Twitter handle goes by the name of @RealRomfordPele, an account set up by Sky Sports presenter Kelly Cates at a time when the former Arsenal midfielder was oblivious about the social media platform.
He added: “Kelly Cates, I was doing a show with her and there was something about Twitter, I’d never heard of it, what’s that, Twitter?
“She said, 'I’m setting you an account up now' and she called it the ‘Real Romford Pele’.
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