7 footballers more committed to wearing gloves than to their clubs: Summerville, Martial…
Footballers are always looking for ways to stand out and innovate on the pitch, and if they can’t do it with the ball, they’ll always do it with their style.
Baselayers, long sleeves, snoods, jewellery, ankle tape – we could go on. The ballers in question will argue that these key additions to their kit are merely a performance benefit and nothing more, but the one item proving that is 100% a myth is the gloves epidemic.
Once a winter luxury, gloves have now become a staple in the game across all conditions. And it’s mildly infuriating.
But in honour of those troopers so committed to fashion on the pitch they’ll risk heat stroke for it, we’ve pulled together a list of players who are more loyal to the gloves than they are their clubs.
Crysencio Summerville
Not only is Summerville committed to the gloves, he’s made the gloves x wrist tape combo his own, rocking it every matchday without fail. We’re not exaggerating, either.
As Leeds lost the 2023-24 Championship play-off final to Southampton – at the end of May with the sun beaming down on Wembley – Summerville was strutting around the pitch with the gloves and wrist tape very firmly on.
He’s absolutely mad. And your dad is raging about it. ‘Woke nonsense’ he screamed at the telly, we’ve heard.
‘You’re lucky I’ve not already booked you for those gloves, son…’
Anthony Martial
Before the injuries truly had him in a chokehold, if you saw Martial on the pitch, the chances were that he’d be donning a pair of gloves and there was nothing you could do to stop it.
And for a while, we think it actually worked.
Say what you like about the Frenchman’s longevity, but when Manchester United needed a goal and he was fully fit (not very often) defences were in trouble when he took to the pitch in those short sleeves and black gloves, chalking up his boots and devastating defenders before slotting one home.
Black gloves Martial, we’ll never forget you, even if you did wear them way too often.
Pascal Chimbonda
It does not get more Barclays than Wigan’s Chimbonda being so committed to the cause in 2006 that he wore the long sleeves and gloves combination on the final day of the Premier League season against Arsenal.
On Highbury’s curtain call, one of football’s most iconic and emotional moments, the Frenchman stole the show with a display of fashion that might never be eclipsed, at perhaps the most inappropriate time of the year with the sun actually beaming down for once in England.
Did that matter to Pascal? Absolutely not. The sweat is worth the style. Upstaging Arsenal in their own backyard with the power of Barclays. 
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Michail Antonio
Another new-age offender, Antonio doesn’t feel like a player who would concern himself with needless gimmicks and on-pitch trends, but he weirdly does love a pair of gloves.
It’s made even funnier by the fact that we’re pretty sure he’s never worn anything other than a short-sleeve shirt and almost always rocks low socks, so keeping warm clearly isn’t the priority for the West Ham striker.
We’re beginning to think there’s a secret power held in wearing gloves that we don’t know about. Matt Le Tissier probably has a thousand conspiracies about them…
Jean-Philippe Mateta
If we want to go down the conspiracy route, there’s got to be some kind of investigation into Mateta’s very sudden resurgence in 2024. Is it the shaved head? Possibly. Is it the tucked-in shirt? Perhaps.
Could it be the commitment to the black gloves? Going off the evidence, it seems like the only logical explanation.
The big French forward has finally found his groove at Crystal Palace and has done so while embracing football fashion, tucking in the shirt and pairing the short sleeves with gloves, as seemingly every Frenchman ever in the Premier League has done.
Maybe we should all start to rock them at five-a-side.
Sergio Aguero
One of the founding fathers of the short sleeves and gloves movement, Aguero was in his final form when the winter accessories came out to play.
After he realised the power of the gloves, the Argentine slowly began to bring them out in all seasons of the campaign. Before we realised, it was April and Aguero was still rocking the gloves, desperate to look cool in celebration while decimating opponents.
Given just how lethal he was in his prime for Manchester City, we can’t really criticise his choice. Manchester is also very cold. Crack on, Sergio.
Riyad Mahrez
Aguero and Mahrez doubling up on opponents while both wearing black gloves might a Hall of Fame Barclays era.
We actually think there’s scope for the pair to become a pretty handy WWE tag team who wear black gloves as their gimmick.
While the Argentine was slipping through the gaps and smashing them home from the penalty spot, the Algerian was dropping the shoulder and bending them into his partner for a laugh.
Again, the type of footballer your dad loathes. ‘None of this in my day!’ He wails. He’s right, but players like Mahrez are a different breed and we’d never be without them again.
Hook the gloves to our veins and feed us for the rest of time – even if it’s 30-degree heat.
Solo wrist tape for added flair…