Why does Martin O'Neill always wear number 31 on his top

[richcorsavxr]

Any reason why Martin O'Neill always wear number 31 on his shirt?

There seems to be no definitive answer online.

[arfur daley]

Its his mental age.

[fathomfive]

It's his house number.

[RedWhiteMonkey]

I don't know but his birthday is the 1st March, it could be as simple as 3 (March) 1(st)?

[CIE560]

It's the number of STDs he'd rather play upfront instead of Andy Carroll

[zb]

richcorsavxr said:

Any reason why Martin O'Neill always wear number 31 on his shirt?

There seems to be no definitive answer online.

When MON first became Manager of Celtic he inherited a Brazilian defender called Rafael Scheidt (yes, really). Scheidt lived up to his surname. After one of his first friendly games MON informed Scheidt that he and MON were the same; Scheidt's st-eating grin quickly disappeared when MON informed him that what he meant was that, despite being in his late 40s (or it might be early 50s), MON could do everything on a football pitch that Scheidt could do.

Scheidt was shipped shortly after and MON adopted Scheidt's number in recognition of the encounter, and to remind his players what level of performance was required.

You can just about make out the 31 on the shorts in the picture of Scheidt below: