By: Coach David Duncan
Most coaches, players and to an extent fans are said to have superstitious beliefs. Many of societies’ traditions are rooted in superstitions, and these date as far back as some many years ago.
Given the colorful array of characters who play football internationally, i thought I could generate some fun if some football related superstitious practices of a couple of fairly successful football icons was shared. It would not be out of place to begin with arguably the world’s best and perhaps the most popular football character, Edison Arantes do Nascimento also known as Pele.
Pele it is recalled in the 60s went through a dry spell where the idol of Santos of Brazil could not score any goals. He attributed this to a specific incident: at the end of the last game in which he scored a goal, he gave his jersey to a fan. After that gesture his goals completely dried up. He asked one of the club’s employees to track the fan and retrieve the jersey. When that was done, he scored in the next and subsequent matches consistently.
Argentine goalkeeping legend, Sergio Goycochea used to urinate on the field before every penalty shoot out. His teammates would form a circle around him to shield him from the crowd and the authorities for obvious reasons as he performed his ritual. This seemed to have paid off because he mostly came out tops in those penalty shoot outs and his side being the ultimate beneficiaries.
Gerd Muller, the ex-Bayern Munich and German World Cup hero of 1974 started wearing his football shoes three sizes bigger after he borrowed the boots that happened to be bigger in size from a teammate and went on to score a hat trick in the match for which the the boots were used. He continued the practice for the rest of his playing career.
English football legend, Gary Lineker never took a shot on goal in warm up, wanting to save that for the game. If he had not scored by the end of the first half, he changed into a new shirt for the second half.
You may recall the ‘ritual’ of Laurent Blanc: the French defender kiss the bald headed teammate in Goalkeeper Fabian Barthez before kick off in all their matches at the France 1998 World Cup. The rest of that story in the said tournament it is said is history.
John Terry would not use any other urinal in the team’s dressing room even if his preferred one had other players in a queue to use it, he would still wait for his turn and not use the others available. Could it be any wonder that he has been arguably the most decorated and successful captain in the history of Chelsea football club?
Coaches as well have their various superstitious practices. Experienced Italian coach Giovanni Trapattoni used to sprinkle what is referred to as ‘holy’ water on the field before every game. His sister who was a nun was known to provide the said water.
Argentine coach, Carlos Bilardo did not allow his team to eat chicken for the 5 weeks duration of the 1986 World Cup tournament, because he believed chicken were a symbol of bad luck. Could this belief have any credence, because Argentina won that World Cup and an incredible Maradona ‘hand of God’ goal and another that saw him virtually take on the entire England players including the great Peter Shilton before slotting the ball into the net.
Some of these beliefs and practices are also held amongst local players and coaches. Some players and coaches avoid handshakes or any form of body contact with opponents prior to the commencement of a match. If it becomes almost impossible to avoid each other, the closest they would come to a handshake, would be a touching of fisted knuckles, one against the other and or a signal to each other to the effect that ‘let pleasantries wait till the match is over’. All these are a belief of avoiding a possible exchange of good fortune for a bad one from the outcome of the match.
Some kinds of postures at the technical area are believed to bring bad fortunes to coaches. Squatting is believed to be one such postures that most coaches frown upon. Andres Villas Boas it’s believed had unsuccessful spells at Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspurs due to his penchant for squatting postures in his technical area.
Jose Mourinho was in a squatting posture during the penalty shoot out in the Real Madrid/Bayern Munich champions league semi-final clash in 2011/2012 season. Real Madrid ended ended up losers in that encounter.
There is even a belief of having good fortune from the choice of clothes worn on match day. Some coaches have admitted to sticking with a particular clothe or a combination of them because they won a crucial game when they wore them. No wonder when yours truly out of convenience was spotted in a lemon green polo shirt over black pair of trousers as against his usual white folded sleeve shirt over black pair of trousers, pieces of sublime mystism was read into it.
These ‘coincidences’ or life’s realities are numerous to list, but studies indicate that holding one superstitious belief or the other tend to promote optimism and confidence in one’s ability to achieve goals and in fact give some people a sense of assurance that things will work out well under some circumstances.