Father’s Day is celebrated on the third Sunday in June in the United Kingdom and in many countries across the world.
In Africa, 15 June 2025 is Father’s Day in Algeria, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria in Morocco, as it is in the Asian nations of Bangladesh, India, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore and Sri Lanka.
In Europe, Father’s Day is celebrated today in France, Greece, Hungary, Malta, the Netherlands, Slovakia, Ukraine and the UK. In North America, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Canada, Costa Rica, Cuba, Mexico, Puerto Rico and the United States all do so on the same date, as do the South American countries of Argentina, Colombia and Peru.
The definition of Father’s Day is ‘a day set aside for honouring one’s father, as well as fatherhood, paternal bonds, and the influence of fathers in society.”
Father-and-son relationships have always been an important part of football, with the father taking his son to his first match being considered a traditional rite of passage, as it is also for mothers and daughters, fathers and daughters and mothers and sons.
Support for a football club continues from generation to generation, with West Ham United among the many clubs to have fans whose ancestors supported the team from its early years, in our case more than 125 years ago.
Off the pitch, ownership has passed down through families, as it has as West Ham through the presence of the Cearns family and the family of Thames Ironworks & Shipbuilding Company owner and Club founder Arnold Hills for well over 100 years.
On the pitch, a succession of fathers and sons have pulled on the famous Claret and Blue shirt down the decades…
The first were Jim Barrett Senior and Junior, who played for West Ham before and after the Second World War, and actually played a reserve-team match together before Senior’s retirement in 1946.
The father, ‘Big Jim’, as he was affectionately known, had played 553 times between 1925 and 1945, scoring 70 goals and playing in a whole host of outfield positions. On retiring, he joined the coaching staff. A midfielder, son Jim Junior made his own debut in April 1950 and went on to score 26 goals in 91 games before retiring and becoming a coach at the Academy of Football, helping the Hammers win the FA Youth Cup in 1963.
The next father and son combo were the Lansdownes, who also shared a common forename.
A centre-half, Bill made his debut in a Second Division defeat by Lincoln City in April 1956 and went on to appear 67 times over the next seven seasons, the latter part of which he spent as a back-up to the great Bobby Moore. To continue on a theme, he joined the coaching staff after his playing days were over, helping to develop, among others, his son Billy.
A striker, Billy scored four goals in 14 appearances, including a hat-trick in a League Cup third-round replay win over Southend United at the Boleyn Ground in October 1979.
The Browns were the third father and son to appear in Claret and Blue, and the third to share a common forename.
Lifetime Achievement Award recipient and 1959 Hammer of the Year Ken Brown was the only player to feature in the 1958 Second Division title, 1964 FA Cup and 1965 European Cup Winners’ Cup-winning sides, and went on to play 474 times between 1953 and 1967.
Son Kenny was signed by Billy Bonds in 1991 and played 395 fewer games than his famous father, but he did score an historic goal for the already-relegated Irons in 1992, which played a large part in denying Manchester United the last-ever Division One title.
The Lampards come next, and AGAIN the father and son shared the same forename!
Frank Senior was a buccaneering left-back who won the FA Cup in 1975 and 1980 and two England caps during a memorable 18-season West Ham career that totalled no fewer than 670 appearances and 22 goals, including an FA Cup semi-final winner and celebratory jig against Everton in 1980.
Son Frank Junior came through the ranks at the Academy of Football, too. A goal-getting midfielder, he made 187 appearances and hit the net 39 times between 1996-2001, winning the UEFA Intertoto Cup and becoming a full England international in 1999.
He might have been born in Stepney and been a lifelong West Ham fan, but John Moncur was 27 when he signed from Swindon Town in 1994. The midfielder would spend nine years with the Hammers, starring under manager Harry Redknapp as the team achieved a number of top-half Premier League finishes, including fifth in 1998/99, and was also part of the side which won the Intertoto Cup.
Also a midfielder, son George made his first-team debut as a substitute in a League Cup win over Crewe Alexandra at the Boleyn Ground in August 2012 and ended the season by being named Young Hammer of the Year. He made his first and only start in January 2014 in an infamous FA Cup third-round defeat in January 2014.
Next was Dan Potts, who followed his famous father Steve on 17 December 2011, when he started a 1-0 home win over Barnsley in the EFL Championship at the Boleyn Ground. Defender Potts went on to play 13 times in four different competitions – the League Cup, FA Cup, Premier League and the Championship – before joining Luton Town in summer 2015.
Twenty-seven years earlier, Potts’ father Steve made the first of 506 appearances in a 3-1 home defeat by Queens Park Rangers on New Year’s Day 1985. He would win promotion to the top-flight twice, win two Hammer of the Year awards, serve as captain for three seasons and score one goal, against Hull City in 1990.
The older Potts has been a member of the Academy of Football’s coaching staff for many years. Among the players he coached was his younger son Freddie, who made his West Ham debut in a UEFA Europa League group-stage tie with Dinamo Zagreb at London Stadium on 9 December 2021. He has spent the previous two seasons impressing on loan at Wycombe Wanderers and Portsmouth.
Forward Elliot Lee followed his England international father Robert into the West Ham first team in January 2013, when he debuted in an FA Cup third-round tie with Manchester United at the Boleyn Ground. Elliot has since gone on to win three promotions with Wrexham. Before him, Robert played 19 times during the 2003/04 season.
Goalkeeper David Martin memorably followed his father Alvin into West Ham’s history books in November 2019, when he debuted in a 1-0 Premier League win at Chelsea. David went on to play five times in total, just 591 fewer than his defender dad, who won the FA Cup in 1980, reach the League Cup final in 1981, helped the Hammers finish third in the top-flight in 1985/86 and won three Hammer of the Year awards.
Of course, dozens of other West Ham players had fathers who played professional or semi-professional football at other clubs, including current squad members Jarrod Bowen and Andy Irving, while the sons of Vladimír Coufal and former Hammers Mark Noble, Anton Ferdinand and Bobby Zamora are all currently at the Academy of Football.
