Visual Trademarks: The Top 10 Iconic Premier League Accessories
In football, like in fiction, character comes out through symbolism. At least, it did.
Before social media turned seemingly every player into a human perm-fade with ripped socks, many of the country’s greatest players had an aesthetic that encapsulated their playing style.
Here are ten of the Premier League’s finest signature stars – players who wore their identity on their sleeves, or elsewhere, and were happy to stand out from the rest of the starting XI.
Eric Cantona’s upturned collar
“Collar up, back straight, chest stuck out, he glided into the arena as if he owned the f***ing place”. That’s how Roy Keane described Cantona on the Frenchman’s Old Trafford gravitas.
The Manchester United striker’s encircled neckline seemed as regal as any crown, and spoke louder than any words.
Cantona, however, claims popping his collar wasn’t a deliberate statement of intent but simply happened (fittingly) off-the-cuff: “I didn’t plan it. During one game it was cold and my collar just stayed up. We won, so it became a habit”.
How might history have differed if England had better weather, or if Umbro’s designers hadn’t put collars on all of United’s mid-nineties shirts? Who knows.
With Cantona, everything always connected so perfectly (yes, including that kung-fu kick).
Thierry Henry’s knee-high socks
Henry’s triumphant knee-slide along the Highbury turf has featured on dozens of ‘classic Premier League goal celebrations’ lists over the years, so it only seems right to mention the nylon duo associated with it.
‘Stockings and black gloves’ might sound more like the costume attire of a shopping-centre nativity scene than that of a world-class striker but, as with Cantona, Henry’s Gallic flair allowed him to pull it off with aplomb.
His gliding runs, lengthy in both stride and hosiery, became as distinctly graceful as the side-footed far-post finishes that so often followed them.
Nowadays, of course, the fringe-hating Jack Grealish (see below) has put his own spin on the style: short socks. Just not the same, is it?
Juan Pablo Angel’s Alice band
What is it about playing for Aston Villa that makes you want to look like a tennis player? Angel makes this list just ahead of fellow Croydon-facelifted Villains Grealish and Milan Baros.
Like how the ponytail is synonymous with Italian players, South America seems to be the spiritual home of Alice-banded hairdos; Colombian Angel donned the first one in the Premier League, and was followed by the Argentine Hernan Crespo at Chelsea, and Man United’s Uruguayan Edinson Cavani, both equally elasticated.
Perhaps their (very visible) roots go back to legendary Brazilian midfield captain Socrates, who donned a sweatband during the 1970s and ’80s and belongs on any list of stylish players.
Dwight Yorke’s gold chain
If Pele was the King, and Fernando Redondo was the Prince, then this predatory centre-forward was football’s Duke of Yorke.
Photos of Trinidad and/or Tobago’s greatest ever player in action seem like time capsules of Premier League bygones: jubilant goal celebrations, Villa sides that finished in the top four, Reebok-sponsored kits.
Some of those have made comebacks, but jewellery has definitely been consigned to history. Necessary, perhaps, but no longer can players look like a member of Run-DMC while they casually chip in panenkas.
The chain was as golden as a Ballon d’Or trophy, as Cuban as Fidel Castro’s cigar collection, and as linked as the telepathic strike partnership Yorke would form at United with Andy Cole – who, if memory serves, was also quite partial to a carat or two (or twenty-four).
Robbie Fowler’s nasal strips
The most notorious nostrils in Premier League history. If you mention the name Robbie Fowler with the words ‘nose’ and ‘white line’, a certain controversial goal celebration comes to mind.
But this isn’t about the glamorisation of drug use, or the role of sportspeople to set an example to children. It’s about those odd things that Fowler used to stick onto his face.
The company, Breathe Right, claimed – without any evidence – that the product widened the nasal passages to boost oxygen intake during exercise.
But the strips were, essentially, glorified rubber bands, and all they did was make Fowler look sick and cold.
Not in the slang sense, as intended, but rather poorly, like a ten-year-old with sinusitis made to participate in a PE lesson. Although, maybe he inspired the rapper Nelly to wear those sticking plasters?
Cristiano Ronaldo’s ankle tape
We all know Ronaldo isn’t afraid of a glow-up. There could easily be an ‘accessories’ list dedicated solely to him: earrings, customised boots, bleached hair… but David Beckham had done all those first.
For all his glitzy flamboyance, the Portuguese found his sartorial USP by utilising the most mundane item around: adhesive tape.
Unlike his fashion-conscious additions, the tape was applied for a practical purpose – to hold his ankle/shin pads in place while opposing full-backs tried to hack said ankles and shins to shreds.
In full-flight, though, the flashes of rayon became like go-faster stripes on a sports car, and young players everywhere wore white ankle liners over their black footie socks to ape CR7’s look.
Joe Ledley’s beard
In the 2010s, hipster-dom seeped into football and turned facial hair growth into a sport-within-a-sport.
Serie A was perhaps the first, where Andrea Pirlo gave his midfield wizardry the elder-beard to match.
In Spain, Sergio Ramos turned ruggedly hirsute, while Arda Turan resembled the very Turkish barbers who he no longer needed for towel-shaving.
The Premier League took a while to follow, but by the end of the decade there were beards everywhere. Only one of those, though, is really worth mentioning – a Cambrian thatch more befitting of Middle Earth than South London, one so enviable it had its own Twitter account.
You have to hand it to former Crystal Palace and Wales midfielder Joe Ledley. How did he get it so thick?!
Fabrizio Ravanelli’s grey hair
Sticking to the theme of male grooming – “Silver hair, silverware” went the media pun as Ravanelli, a Champions League winner and Just for Men sceptic, signed for Middlesbrough in 1996.
The Italian was 27 at the time, although his prematurely salt-and-pepper buzz cut made him appear decades older.
Did opponents underestimate him? That would explain Ravanelli’s debut hat-trick in an entertaining 3-3 draw against Liverpool.
While the (silver) fox in the box couldn’t prevent Boro’s relegation that season, his seventeen league goals and made him a cult hero on Teeside and popularised his iconic shirt-over-head celebration.
Like the ‘divine ponytail’ of compatriot Roberto Baggio, Ravanelli’s au naturel chic earnt him a rare hair-based football nickname: The White Feather.
Petr Cech’s headguard
Cech was clumsily kneed in the head by over-zealous Reading clogger Stephen Hunt in 2006, and suffered a fractured skull.
The injury was life-threatening at the time but not career-ending by any means, with the Czech international returning just three months later, now cranially encased in protective padding.
The headguard resembled a rugby scrum cap, crossed with something a lesser-known Marvel supervillain actor would wear during a green-screen shoot – especially when Cech and mask-wearing forward Demba Ba were playing in the same Chelsea side.
Cech loved wearing a helmet so much, he became a semi-pro ice hockey goaltender after retiring from football. Oh, and speaking of medically protective devices turning into a player’s trademark…
Edgar Davids’ goggles
“Every disadvantage has its advantage”. Johan Cruyff was talking about Total Football, but the Dutch legend’s philosophy often goes beyond strategy or technique; this particular concept of a ‘problem-gift’ epitomises the visual motif of another former Ajax star.
Davids’ problem was glaucoma (that, and having to constantly put up with terrible jokes about swimming). His gift?
The coolest aesthetic in world football. In 2000, while at Juventus, Davids appeared as a footballing cyborg in ‘The Mission’, a Nike advert that encapsulates his vibe: Bespectacled. Bionic. Belligerent.
The Dutchman’s goggles-and-dreadlocks combination eventually reached the Premier League when he joined Martin Jol’s Tottenham on a free transfer in 2005.
Even in the twilight of his career, his gifts – in both ability and appearance – were evergreen, and Davids was still dominant in central midfield. There will never be another player like the Pitbull.
By Jay Ramanee-Murphy
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