Superstitions, rituals, and curses seem to go hand in hand with football its managers, players, and fans.
Some players feel that they need a helping hand to maintain or enhance their form or maybe they just need something to blame when results just don´t go their way.
Either way, these relatively sane people do some pretty strange things to stay on the right side of the footballing gods.
1.
One of the most superstitious football players has to be John Terry, former Chelsea Captin who is reported (The Mirror) to have over 50 rituals he must do before he starts a match.
In his own words:
“I started off with a couple of superstitions and because we did so well, kept winning and winning, I ended up with about 50 of them. Then it was a case of remembering them for every game!”
- Playing the same Usher CD in his car when driving to home matches.
- Having to park in the same parking spot.
- Tieing the tapes around his match-day socks three times.
- Cutting the tubular grip for his shin-pads the same size every game.
- Urinate in the same urinal before home games
In 2004 Terry Lost his lucky shin pads at the Camp Nou Barcelona, after having staff search the massive 100K seater stadium he had to leave without them:
“Those shin-pads had got me to where I was in the game – and I’d lost them, I really felt terrible because they were a big part of my routine." He said
“Before the (2004 Carling Cup) final I was having a go at the kitman even though it wasn’t his fault. I was thinking: ‘f***ing hell, I’ve had those shin-pads for so long and now this is it, all over. Lampsy (Frank Lampard) gave me a pair of his and luckily we won, so they’ve stuck with me. Now they have become my lucky ones.”
2.
Pele is the most famous and recognizable football player in history who is regarded by a lot of people as the greatest of all time, scoring 757 goals in 812 professional matches for club and country.
However, it seems that with great footballing skills comes a great deal of superstitions.
Pele like a lot of footballers had the (normal) superstitions such as touching the pitch with his hand before he went on to play or double-tapping his boots before he left the dressing room, but the biggest story is the legend of the given away shirt.
When Pele was playing for Santos he had a very unexpected dip in form, he tried to recall what he had done differently to attributed this, and all he could come up with was that in the last game he had scored in he gave away his shirt to a supporter. He immediately instructed a friend to track down and the shirt and retrieve it.
The friend managed to find the supporter but the shirt was lost, instead of telling this to Pele he decided to present him with another shirt he had worn previously and tell him it was the real one.
Pele´s form quickly returned and the rest is history.
3.
The Curse of Birmingham City FC (I know its not a player)
Birmingham city was founded in 1875 and moved to there new home St Andrews in 1906 however, according to legend in order to build on the land the Director of Birmingham City Harry Morris had to evict a band of gypsies who cursed the club.
Over the years various managers have embraced the legend and tried to lift the curse such as the 1980´s manager Ron Saunders who tried to exercise the curse by painting crucifixes on the floodlight and painting the bottom of the player's boots red.
Barry Fry, manager between 1993-96 went to the extreme and very wired length of urinating on the corner posts before every game after being advised by a psychic to do so.
More recently local businessman John Baines was brought in to reupholster the seats in the dugout, being a diehard Bluenose, and knowing of the curse he got a local priest to sprinkle holy water on the fabric. Amazingly Birmingham won the next three matches but they're now thinking the curse may have returned again.
4.
Kolo Toure, whilst playing for Arsenal would always insist on being the last player out onto the pitch believing this to be lucky. This spectacularly backfired in 1998 when Arsenal played Roma in the champions league last 16.
At half time Toure´s teammate William Gallas was receiving treatment for an injury he sustained in the first half and wasn´t ready to take the field when the second half resumed.
Tour refused to go out for the second half with the rest of his teammates insisting that he would go out after Gallas, the second half resumed without both of them.
Toure, after much persuasion finally made his way out and ran onto the pitch, only to be booked by the ref for coming on the pitch without permission.
To Toure´s relife Arsenal went on to win the game 1-0.
5.
Gary Lineker, Football legend, sports pundit, and advert funny guy has openly admitted to some bizarre superstitions.
In the warm-up before any match, he would never practice shooting at goal just in case he used up his good shots for the day.
If he hadn´t scored a goal by half time he would change his kit, and if he hadn´t scored a goal for a couple of games he would get a hair cut.
6.
Laurent Blanc in the 1998 World cup made the headlines for kissing the top of Fabian Barthez´s bald head before the start of every match.
Even thou he was suspended for the final he still performed the ritual in the dressing room.
7.
Johan Cruyff the Dutch magician had his own quirks which made him stand out such as slapping the belly of his goalkeeper Gert Bals when he played for Dutch team Ajax and before kickoff spitting his gum out over the halfway line into the opponents half.
On one occasion it is reported that he forgot his gum thus breaking the ritual, Ajax lost that game 4-1 and unfortunately for Cruyff, it was in the 1969 cup final against AC Milan.
Needless to say, he never forgot it again.
8.
As we can see from the picture above Kevin Keegan struggled to keep his shirt on and there where several occasions where he was seen getting dressed in the tunnel just before taking to the pitch.
This is because of his superstition, he always had to be the last player in the team to put his shirt on a ritual that was sometimes exploited by some of his teammates who would hold-off putting their own shirts on till the last minute.
9.
For home games, he always puts his left sock on first and away games the right.
Makes me wonder what would happen at a neutral ground?
10.
David Beckham has a self-confessed obsessive disorder and it is reported that Manchester United, Real Madrid, Milan, and LA star has to ensure that his fridge back home is in perfect order with nothing out of place before leaving for a match.
If you have a story about a football legend then please share below in the comments.
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