The Most Bizarre Lucky Charms in Football
Pro athletes are operating at the highest level of physical endeavour, a level where fractions of millimetres and seconds can mean the difference between success and failure. With top sportsmen and women using every advantage that sports science, training and nutrition can give them, it is perhaps no surprise that more than a few of them are superstitious. After all, who knows what could happen if you don’t wear those lucky socks for the match at the weekend? Let’s take a look at some of the strangest lucky charms in sports:
John Terry has attracted a certain amount of stick from opposing fans over the years, but maybe they’d have dished out even more abuse if they knew that his lucky charm was a toilet! That’s right, JT always insisted on relieving himself at the same stall before every game at Chelsea – we wonder if he’s found a new watering spot down at the Villa? Terry would also listen to the same CD (by Usher), park in the same spot, sit on the same seat in the bus and he wore the same shin-pads for 10 years until he lost them in 2005. Superstitious much John?
Sierra Leone international Malvin Kamara knocked around the lower leagues in the UK, but wherever he went he brought one superstitious practice with him. Kamara would insist on watching Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory before every match. The 1970s version, not the more recent and blatantly inferior Jonny Depp re-make. Malvin believed that viewing his childhood favourite film calmed the butterflies and took his mind off the upcoming game, and who knows, maybe he’s on to something!
Even the best of players are not immune to superstitious beliefs. Take Pele for example: he went through a bit of a scoring drought after giving away his shirt to a fan. He decided that the two were connected, and asked one of the club’s employees to track down the shirt and get it back. When the shirt was restored to him, Pele went back to banging in goals. However, in later years the friend confessed that he had just given the great man a random shirt he found in a supply closet at the ground.
Another global superstar put at least some of his success down to humble chewing gum. Johan Cruyff may be an icon of the game, but even he fell prey to superstitious behaviour during his playing days. He would always make a point of crossing the half-way line to spit out his gum onto the opposition’s half of the field before kick-off. When he forgot this little ritual before Ajax’s European Cup Final against Milan they lost 4-1. What more evidence do you need?
As you can see, even the world’s best athletes can be afflicted by superstitious beliefs. So don’t feel too bad when you’re pulling on those ancient lucky socks before the game next weekend: you are not alone!
