Home
There was a time when fashion was not a thing in soccer. Players entered the fields wearing their club's kits and black cleats, and that was about it. Over time, however, the worlds of fashion and soccer collided, unleashing a plethora of trends and fads onto pitches across the planet.
Some of those trends have become staples, such as colorful boots, while several others have faded away in the attempt.
We know fashion is cyclical and anything can have a glorious return, but here we adventure into a list of soccer fashion trends that we will most likely not see again.
8 extinct soccer fashion trends
#1 Baggy shirts
Shirts fit has changed multiple times through the century, but I'm pretty sure we will not see the popular baggy cut we all saw during the '90s again. The reasons? Costs and performance.
Baggy jerseys needed a lot of fabric to be produced and brands today, trying to optimize their earnings, are not going to waste money on extra materials.
Then players are not willing to wear shirts that could impact their performance. Baggy shirts had a lot of fabric and were way heavier than the jerseys athletes wear today.
So returning to that cut doesn't make any sense.
#2 Short shorts
Yes, some players love to roll their shorts to show off their legs, like Cristiano Ronaldo and Alexis Sánchez. But you don't see short shorts like in the '70s and '80s.
Notably, shorter shorts have gone out of fashion in recent decades, and it's unclear what the reason behind this may be, but perhaps the world doesn't want to see dick prints running around a soccer field for 90 minutes.
#3 Goalie sweatpants
There was a time when it was very common to see goalkeepers wearing sweatpants. I remember, for example, high-profile Italians Gianluca Pagliuca and Gianluigi Buffon doing it occasionally and maybe a few games of German shot-stopper Oliver Kahn.
Then you have the fact that a goalie wearing long pants made one of the most famous saves in soccer history.
Yes, René Higuita and his iconic Scorpion.
But today it's really weird to see a goalkeeper in sweatpants. Hungarian Gabor Kiraly used to do it, but he retired in 2019, leaving Canadian Milan Borjan as maybe the last bastion of this trend.
#4 Cleats with oversized tongues
For a long, long time, cleats were only black. But then, brands started to experiment with colors and shapes. One of those experiments was the cleats with oversized tongues that players like Francesco Totti loved to wear.
And let's not forget the iconic adidas Predator on Zinedine Zidane and David Beckham.
Art!
But now we don't see them anymore, because they are in excess of materials and in excess of weight – like the baggy shirts. Besides, companies are moving forward, trying new technologies like slip-on cleats that maybe one day will also retire the beloved laces.
#5 Hats
OK. Hats are not extinct in soccer fields, but they are clearly disappearing.
Worn mostly by goalkeepers to avoid sunrays, the accessory is not that common nowadays for several reasons: more roofed stadiums, late kick-offs and the fact that they are not that comfortable when you are between the sticks trying to deny a goal.
#6 Snoods
Boy, the Northern Hemisphere is cold in winter. So it's not weird to see players with long sleeves and gloves during the worst-most hibernal days. Early in the 2010 decade, there was also the snood, some sort of neckwarmer popularized by players like Carlos Tevez, David Silva, Samir Nasri and Yaya Touré.
They were ugly but unoffensive. However, some macho men and FIFA officials hated them so much that they forbade them. The excuse? "There may be a safety issue - if, for example, a player was running through on goal and an opponent grabbed his snood, that could pose a potential danger to his neck," they said.
And as fast the snood came, it also went away.
#7 Nasal strips
Well, these things were like a big craze during the '90s.
People who created them claimed they optimized breathing, increasing the athlete's performance. And soon, on every field on the planet, at least one player wore it, even in amateur competitions.
Of course, mommy science wanted to check the miracle and discovered the whole thing was a big lie.
Please, someone tell Peruvian Luis Advíncula.
#8 Jewelry, accessories
I distinctly remember seeing Roberto Baggio playing games with an earring, Carlos Valderrama covering his wrists with handcrafted bracelets and several players with chains and crucifixes on their necks.
Today you don't see that, not because of the rhythms and beats of the fashion industry but for safety reasons. FIFA and officials think all those things increase the chances of injuries among players – due to the game's physical nature – and they don't allow them on the pitch.
If, for any reason, a player enters the field wearing something that's not part of the uniform, the refs will eventually ask him/her to remove it.
60': M'Bala Nzola is subbed on.
66': The ref instructs him to take his earrings off before he can continue playing.
70': M'Bala Nzola is subbed off because he can't get his earrings off.You don't see that everyday. pic.twitter.com/3BRwZXBM1D— CBS Sports Golazo ⚽️ (@CBSSportsGolazo) April 15, 2022
