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We all have heard of fans having different superstitions before and during games, but it should be no surprise to know that players, managers and owners also have their own rituals before games.After all, the stakes are much higher for them than they are for the fans. But a few of these rituals border on the ridiculous, and here are 10 of them that are downright weird
#1 Laurent Blanc
During the 1998 World Cup, France’s Laurent Blanc would go up to goalkeeper Fabian Barthez before every match and kiss his bald head for good luck. As bizarre as the ritual was, it seems to have worked considering the end result was a World Cup win for his country.
They were, of course, not the only ones in the team indulging in such rituals, with the entire team doing some superstitious thing or the other!
#2 Kolo Toure
Kolo Toure always insists on being the last player to come on to the field. He would wait for all his teammates to enter the pitch before he would join them. This came to light when he got yellow-carded in a Champions League game for Arsenal for entering the pitch without the referee’s permission. He was waiting for Gallas who was getting treated for an injury, and so didn’t get on even after the game started.
With Arsenal playing with lesser number of players, he came on without asking the referee.
#3 Romeo Anconetani
The president of Pisa Football Club, Romeo Anconetani, believed that throwing salt on the ground before games brought his team luck. It must have worked considering he was in charge of the club’s most successful time. The bigger the game, the more the salt that would be thrown on the ground.
In fact, for a game against rivals Cesena, which was particularly important at that time, he had 26 kilos of salt thrown on the ground. One can only imagine how the ground must have been for the players!
#4 Vincent Tan
Another head of a football club who had a crazy superstition is Cardiff City’s Vincent Tan. While his insistence on changing the club’s colours to red from the traditional blue may have a scientific explanation to it, however obscure, his preference for signing players with the number 8 in their birth dates is a lot less scientific!
You can understand why fans can be a bit skeptical about the man in charge of their club, when such eccentricities can affect the club in a major way.
#5 Sergio Goycochea
Goalkeepers are meant to be eccentric, and we all know how Jens Lehmann decided to take a loo break on the field while the match was going on. But to make it a ritual is taking a bit too far! That’s what Sergio Goycochea has made of peeing on the field.
Apparently, this ritual started when he had to take a leak before a penalty shootout against Yugoslavia in the quarterfinal of the 1990 World Cup. Since the rules didn’t allow him to go out of the field, he had to relieve himself on the pitch itself. But they won, and the same thing happened in the semifinals too. Since then, he made it into a ritual.
#6 Adrian Mutu
Wearing your favourite socks, shin pads or even shorts is not such a weird superstition as almost all players in different sports do something similar. But to wear your underpants inside out is taking it a bit too far!
But that’s what Adrian Mutu did as a ritual for every match. One can only hope that such eccentricities can also help in the long-running breach of contract saga!
#7 Raymond Domenech
For a manager who was supposed to be choosing his teams based on form, tactics, opposition and fitness, horoscopes are not exactly the statistics that he needs to be looking at. But that’s what France manager Raymond Domenech did during his stint, which meant players such as Robert Pires could not get into his teams.
Surely, the French team lost out more than they gained due to this particular superstition?
#8 Tony Sylva
As a goalkeeper, if you want to be invincible, what do you do? Train hard and try not to make any silly mistakes, right? That’s for silly people really! Why bother with all that when all you need is a witch doctor and some magic paint?
Apparently that’s what Senegal goalkeeper got done during the 2002 African Nations Cup, and he went a total of 448 minutes without getting beaten. So, there’s a trick!
#9 Winfried Schafer
There are intimidation tactics, tactical masterminds, and just plain badgering through the press. Managers have known to have taken various routes to try and put their opposition on the back foot. But Cameroon coach Winfried Schafer took it a bit too far during the 2002 African Nations Cup.
He and Thomas Nikono, his assistant, tried to place a voodoo curse on the opposition! They got arrested for their troubles!
#10 Johan Cruyff
Even the world’s greatest players have some bizarre rituals. Dutch legend Johan Cruyff took to slapping his teammate, goalkeeper Gert Bals, in the stomach before every game. Not only that, he also would go to the opposition half and spit his gum on their side.
The one time he forgot to do that was during Ajax’s Champions League final against Milan. And we all know how that ended!
