15 famous sportsmen and their bizarre superstitions/quirks

The world of sports is highly demanding and the competition to rise to the top is even more challenging. To be the best in a particular sport, an individual must possess certain qualities and abilities such as skills, talent, perseverance, dedication, determination, etc. The pressure of performing at the highest level is enormous and for a professional athlete, dealing with the toll of expectations is not the easiest thing.Having said that, superstitions are a part of an individual’s life, whether it concerns their profession or anything of particular importance. And, sportsmen are of no exception to this. So, let us take a look at some of the most bizarre superstitions or quirks that these famous athletes believe in so as to make their strenuous life a little bit easier.

#1 Bjrn Borg

Björn Borg with his trademark Wimbledon beard.

Let us begin with the legendary tennis player Björn Borg who won a total of 11 major titles. However, it was for Wimbledon that this great Swede had a funny superstition of not shaving his beard since the start of the first round. As this superstition was limited to only Wimbledon, it was not to be seen throughout the year, but it certainly seems to have helped him at SW19 as he won 5 consecutive titles from 1976-1980. This particular quirk can now be seen used by other sportsmen during big events.

#2 Iker Casillas

Casillas has been the starting goalkeeper since many years for both club and country. Being the captain of both teams he has also served as a great leader to go along with his goalkeeping skills. He has been solid in goal which has helped him win some of the major trophies in world football. Yet, it’s not just all talent that he depends upon as he is one of the most superstitious players to have taken the field. For many years, he used to wear his socks inside-out during matches; a habit that he has now reportedly abandoned. However, he can still be seen touching his crossbar every time his team scores.

#3 Goran Ivanievi

This big serving Croatian was also another great in the tennis game. Even though he won a solitary Grand Slam at Wimbledon in 2001, he had the game to trouble the best players on his day. An interesting aspect of his game were his few superstitions. Ivaniševi would always make sure to get up second from the chair and would also never step on the lines of the court. To go along with this, he also had a weird habit. If he won a match at a tournament he would do the same thing he had done on the day that he won. He would wear the same clothes, talk to the same people and eat at the same restaurant.

#4 Valentino Rossi

The talented Moto GP champion also has his superstitious believes. His race day starts with him watching the Moto 3 race, which he watches just to count how many seconds it takes for the green lights to go out to start the race. Before his practice, qualifying and the main race sessions, he always stops about 2 metres from his bike, bending down and reaching for his boots. It’s only after this that he approaches his bike where he kneels down beside it and talks to his bike. And, finally one of his other traits is to mount his bike the exact same way every time. As weird as all this seems, it’s difficult to argue with a 6 time champion.

#5 Pel

Surprised to see one of the best football players on the planet on this list? Well, this just goes to show you that mastery over a sport may not always be enough for professional sportsmen. Pelé features here as he was suffering from a slump in form and even though he still had his skills intact, he reasoned that it must have been because he had given a particular shirt to one of his fans. The shirt was returned to Pelé after the fan was tracked down and immediately there was a surge in his form. The funny part about this story is that the man who retrieved Pelé’s shirt didn’t tell him that he hadn’t found his lucky shirt, but had just handed him the shirt from his previous match.

#6 Lebron James

Lebron James with his customary throwing of chalk.

Lebron is one of the best basketball players to have stepped onto the basketball court. He is an all-round player who has a great game. He can shoot the ball from the perimeter as well as drive to the bucket and in both scenarios he gets the job done. So, what rituals does this 2 time NBA champion follow?

The most prominent one is his habit of throwing chalk in the air and clapping his hands before tipoff of a game. However, it is the second ritual which is a bit intriguing as he is known to have secret handshakes with each individual player in his team. Hence, before the start of each game he will go up to every teammate and perform his secret handshake.

#7 Serena Williams

As you can make out from this list, many tennis stars have superstitions which they like to call quirks or rituals. Even the ladies are not exceptions to this. Let us take a look at Serena Williams here. This 18 time Grand Slam winner has quite a few superstitions. Starting with her shoes, she ties her shoelaces in the exact same way; she uses the same shower, the same sandals and same bags before every match. There is one more superstition that she has which is just downright disgusting. Most of the players do not like dirty socks and some even change them many times during a match, but Serena has this ritual of using the same pair of socks for every match without even washing them.

#8 Michael Schumacher

Probably the greatest formula one driver ever also makes his entry in this list. The German is well known for his affinity with odd numbers. When Schumacher returned to F1 in 2010, he swapped his number 4 with that of teammate Nico Rosberg so that he could get the number 3 car. Apart from this, the German always wore a ceramic amulet given to him by his wife which carried the initials of his family members while racing for Ferrari.

#9 Tiger Woods

We have seen the great Tiger Woods playing golf so many times in red colour. The most well known superstition of Tiger is playing in red colour on Sundays. Reportedly this superstition was actually started by his mother who is very superstitious. She was of the opinion that red was a colour of power and this particular belief stuck with him mainly because he has played well on many Sundays wearing red.

#10 Roger Federer

Let us now take a look at one of the greatest tennis players ever in the name of Roger Federer. The 17-time Grand Slam champion has a thing with the number 8. Before the start of the match, he wants to serve 8 aces, at the end of the set he wants 8 towel rubs. He even sets up 8 bottles of water courtside and carries 8 racquets with him.

#11 Johan Cruyff

Cruyff is well known as the Netherland’s best footballer player. He had some of the most bizarre pre-match rituals ever. One of them included slapping his Ajax Goalkeeper Gert Bals in the stomach before the kick-off. Another one of his weird quirks was to go over to the opposition side’s half and spit his chewing gum on their side of the pitch. There was one such occasion when he forgot his gum, thus not being able to complete his pre-game ritual. That time Ajax lost the match 4-1.

#12 Maria Sharapova

The Russian beauty is a standout in the tennis world both for her quality of tennis as well as her good looks. Easily the most noticeable aspect of her game is her grunting which can reach pretty high decibels. However, the quirks in her game come after a point is played. Sharapova will turn away from her opponent and talk to the wall. Before serving, she will do a few hop-skips, and pick some strands of hair out of her face. She will then stare down her opponent before bouncing the ball once.

#13 Cristiano Ronaldo

Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the biggest if not the biggest names in today’s football. Highly regarded all over the world for his exceptional skills, Ronaldo is no exception to his share of superstitions. The following is mainly observed when he plays for his country Portugal. He usually sits alone at the back of the bus and is the last one to get down. On the plane, he always sits with Pepe and he is the first one to get off. He must change his hairstyle in the locker room at halftime. He must also touch the ball before leaving the locker room. In the Portuguese national team nobody else is allowed to start the match with full sleeves jersey except for him.

#14 Michael Jordan

Any basketball enthusiast would not require an introduction about Michael Jordan. The six-time NBA champion seemed to have entered the NBA without really leaving his love for college basketball. This can be made evident from the fact that he used to wear his lucky North Carolina shorts underneath his NBA uniform.

This unusual requirement also paved the way for longer basketball shorts and as a result, a new style was developed as Jordan required longer shorts to cover his college ones underneath. When Jordan led the North Carolina Tar Heels to the national championship in 1982, he believed that the shorts he played in were lucky for him. Hence, during his entire career, he continued to wear those shorts for good luck.

#15 Rafael Nadal

Rafael Nadal aligning his bottles to perfection.

Last but not the least is Rafael Nadal. The Spaniard is considered as a master of quirks. He has a full set of routine that he has to observe before any match. He always positions two water bottles close to each other even going to the extent of making sure the label on the bottle is facing the way he wants.

During the match, he drinks from them in the same order. Before he serves, he places some of his hair behind each one of his ears and also tugs on his shorts. Nadal will also make sure that during a changeover his opponent is the first one to cross the net.

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Edited by Staff Editor