When Anthony Gibbons joined Sunday's game he could never have imagined that it would lead to him duplicating David Beckham.
It turns out that playing in the world's smallest league is a less predictable experience than one might first assume.
The Scilly Archipelago League consists of two teams - Vulpek Wanderers and Garrison Gunners.
Not only do these two teams play against each other in as many as 18 league games a season, but they also compete in two cup competitions - both with two away goalless games - and a charity tournament similar to the Community Shield.
The duopoly of these two teams makes the league the smallest in the world.
However, as the players of both teams are registered in St. Mary's - a club of the same name from the Cornish coast - technically, these are friendly matches within the club.
That detail did not affect the popularity and the arrival of well-known guests, such as Beckham, who briefly replaced the LA Galaxy by playing on the island, and Gibbons stepped in as a replacement for the former captain of the England national team.
"My five minutes of fame," says Gibbons.
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However, being part of a unique rivalry is very close.
It wasn't always like this. Before the 1950s, four teams competed for glory and trophies.
However, the aging and attrition of the population has put the league under pressure.
Between 2011 and 2021, the number of people on the island decreased by 6,8 percent.
The median age of those who stayed was 46 to 50 during the same period.
Now, only the Gunners and Wanderers remain.
When the weather permits, in the period between October and Easter, the two teams meet every Sunday morning on the same field, in the same formations and in the same jerseys.
"Some people find it a bit funny and it's like that cliché 'can we play you every week?'" explains Will Lethbridge, who grew up on the archipelago and played in the league for several years.
"People ask if it gets monotonous and boring, but we have a nice run and always have a good time. A large number of players have known each other since their school days and are friends off the field, so in addition to sports, the social moment is equally important.
"We know each other, whose leg is stronger, who likes to run in the middle, what are the strengths and what are the weaknesses, but there are also quite demanding starts.
"This year, a bit more yellow cards were shown than usual, there is a certain amount of tension
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thorn and sharpness, but there are no real rivalries and tension - until the end of the game, everything is forgiven and left on the field."
To make things more interesting, no player has a predetermined team at the start of the season.
Instead, the two captains for that season before the start of the competition choose their teams like children on the playground - one by one, until all the players are selected.
The order of selection is something that is not made public, primarily so that those who are chosen last would not know it - with only 2.100 inhabitants on the archipelago, the league can hardly risk upsetting any of the footballers in that way.
Switching sides each year means most footballers have no particular affinity for one of the two teams, although Lethbridge says there are those superstitious who claim it's better to play for one over the other.
The selection process is designed with the aim of making the division as even as possible, although during the season it often turns out not to be quite like that.
"Wanderers were slightly better but it comes down to who the captain picks," says Lethbridge.
"This year, one of the Gunners' first-choice players was expected to be available throughout the winter, but he found work in the Alps in Switzerland and so they lost one of their sound reinforcements.
"Anything is possible, people get injured and have other commitments, but things usually balance themselves out - a team wins two or three games in a row and then loses the same number because some players are missing.
"This year, however, Wanderers secured the title 4 or 5 games before the end of the season."
Formally, they secured the title after a 2:0 victory in the 14th round played on March 5.
Within the small island community, it can often happen that one of the players is forced to leave the field halfway through the game because his presence is needed elsewhere - usually firefighters or police officers.
This type of absence is often crucial for the final outcome of the match.
"There's a guy called Dave Mumford - or Chafer, a farmer who got a call at half-time saying his cows had run away, so he had to go after them," explains Gibbons.
"We were leading 2:0 at that moment, were down a player and lost 3:2. In the end, it turned out that the cows that ran away weren't his."
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Even in a league with only two teams, it is unusual for one team to loan out a player for one game in order to equalize the number of players on both sides.
In recent years, some matches have been postponed due to an insufficient number of available players.
Retention of footballers has been a long-standing concern for the archipelago league - there are no options for further education on the island after the age of 16 and most of those fit to play in the first team leave the islands for Cornwall to continue their education.
Individuals, like Lethbridge, return to the islands in later years and fill the ranks, while most of those of playing age are quickly contacted about participation.
This leads to a large age gap on the field, with a few players over 50 and even one local who occasionally plays in his seventies.
"There's always a danger (of the league running out of players)," Gibbons said.
"As soon as they turn 16, the locals leave for the mainland, so we lose six children a year, although we've been lucky that as many have returned in recent years. Of course, it is possible that one year there will be no one.
"Five or six years ago, we struggled because we couldn't put together teams, so eight players played in each team because there were no more."
If that day comes, it will not be the end of football in the archipelago.
The match between veterans and players under the age of 30 is a long-standing tradition on Boxing Day (December 26), while passing teams are also happy to try out the best players on the island.
Every September, the Mal de Mer Sporting Club, named after the French name for seasickness, comes to Skia from the mainland to compete in several sports - darts, rowing, beach volleyball, and of course soccer.
There is also the Lyoness Trophy, a semi-professional match between the amateur team Dynamo Kougs and the Isles of Scilly - a competition for the trophy which is also known as the smallest in the world, only 1cm high.
This trophy caught the attention of FIFA and initiated negotiations to display the trophy in the official museum in Zurich.
"We started playing against Dinamo in the early XNUMXs, and one of their players who worked with metal decided to make the smallest trophy he could," explains Gibbons.
"When they came from FIFA and said that it belongs in the museum, he made a replica that is now with them. Although it is only one centimeter in size, people have tried and managed to drink beer with a glass, but don't take too much of a sip."
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Gibbons and secretary Matt Simmons were given a VIP trip to the FIFA headquarters in Zurich in February this year to see the trophy on display in the museum and make a deal to keep the Lyons trophy there for another five years.
The footballers of the Scilly archipelago are getting more and more used to the attention of the public and guests in the form of journalists and TV crews from all over the world.
The league also attracts attention by collaborating with some of the biggest brands in the world.
In 2019, Vodafone chose Skili as the base for its FAR (fan assistant referee) campaign - a 5g video system that allows the audience to influence the decision by reaction, that is, by volume.
However, nothing beat 2007 and Adidas' big "Dream Big" campaign.
Beckham, Steven Gerrard, Patrick Vieira, Anderson, Daniele de Rossi and Michael Ballack arrived on the island to inspire the young players, before relaxing with chips and fish on the beach.
Other, less welcome visitors soon followed.
"The guy from Saint-Martin called the press and told them that Beckham was here, so a bunch of helicopters flew in and basically chased him away," Gibbons recalled.
"They still needed one shot and I doubled Beckham."
"Someone did message production asking about a return visit, but I don't think there's been a response," adds Lethbridge.
"We try to find time for everything and we usually have a lot of fun, and it also benefits the island because we live mostly from tourism and people's desire to visit this place, so any kind of public presence helps."
A football league with a lot of repetition, but far from boring.
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