When Louie Moulden puts on a Dale shirt for his competitive debut, he will join an incredibly rare footballing statistic.
The goalkeeper, on loan from Wolves, will become the third generation of Mouldens to represent Dale.
Both his father and grandfather have played for the club before.
PAUL MOULDEN
Father Paul featured for Dale in the 1995/96 season. He was once included in the Guinness World Record Books for scoring a phenomenal 340 goals in one season with Bolton Lads Club.
Manchester City snapped him up as a youngster and he was their top scorer as they achieved promotion to Division One in 1989.
Moves to Bournemouth and Oldham Athletic followed, where he also helped Latics earn promotion to the top flight in 1991.
However, serious injuries stalled his career and following spells at Birmingham City and Huddersfield Town, Moulden moved to Dale.
He scored a hat-trick on his full debut an Auto Windscreens Shield tie and would score six times in 21 appearances for the club.
TONY MOULDEN
Grandfather Tony joined Dale in 1962 following a spell at Bury, but after just five games for the club as a stand-in for leading scorer Ron Cairns, was sold to Peterborough in October of that year.
After over 60 games for Posh and a spell at Notts County, he returned to Dale for a second stint, but for an even briefer period than his first, making a further three appearances.
There have been other instances of three generations of the same family making the grade as professional footballers.
However, there are even fewer examples of them playing for the same club.
The most famous of these are the Maldini family, with Cesare, Paolo and Daniel all featuring for AC Milan through the years.
Louie Moulden could be in-line for his Dale debut on the opening day of the season against Ebbsfleet United, but fans may get the opportunity to see him in a Dale shirt at this Saturday’s pre-season friendly against Chorley.
