Brisbane Roar goalkeeper Michael Theoklitos is now simply Michael Theo, after changing his name by deed poll.
Brisbane Roar goalkeeper Michael Theoklitos is now simply Michael Theo, after changing his name by deed poll.
The bizarre name change coming with Theo claiming the name change is a result of years of the fans chanting ‘Theo’ at him, hence he thought why not adopt the nickname.
“Around the football traps, I-ve always been known as Michael Theo so I just thought, why not make it official?” the three-time Hyundai A-League Goalkeeper of the Year said.
“It-s no big deal, I haven-t changed my name completely, just shortened it.
“I-ve been thinking about it for a while and it was a decision I made on my own, it-s really not so hard to do on deed poll.
“My signature has altered, slightly changed but that-s pretty much it.”
Has the newly christened Theo made a rash decision or do you think it is a good move? Should any other players do the same? Leave a comment below
Of course the change did not go unnoticed with plenty of the Roar’s stars taking the mickey out of their keeper at the training ground, shortening their own names on the back of their training gear.
“The day they found out, us goalkeepers started training early and then when the other boys came around doing their warm up, I could see they had names on their shirt,” he explained.
“I said to Matty Acton, ‘Hey, I think we-ve got a new sponsor!- but when we looked on the back of our shirts, we didn-t have anything.
“The boys stopped in front of me and I saw they all had their names shortened – we had Matt Smit, Thomas Bro, Erik Paart amongst others.”
Theo is of course not the first sports star to change his name by deed poll and certainly not the most bizarre, in the 1990s AFL star Garry Hocking changed his name to Whiskas for a brief period and just last year LA Lakers forward Ron Artest changed his to Metta World Peace.
