666: France, FIFA World Cup Russia 2018, Panini Official Licensed Sticker Album

Today Richard Allinson takes a look at those all-important moments just before kick off when players go through their final mental and physical preparations for the following ninety minutes. As a Catholic I always find it interesting to see players making the sign of the cross before stepping on to the pitch, especially when more than one player from each side does so. Both sides can’t win after all so whom will God bestow his favour upon? Perhaps this explains the proclivity of draws under Patrick Vieira at Crystal Palace. Over to Rich.

When I was a young lad my pre-match ritual was rushing to get in my dad’s car because I’d overslept having stayed up way too late watching Match of the Day the night before; when I was a teenager my pre-match ritual was rushing around because I could only find one of my goalkeeper gloves; when I was in my twenties my pre-match ritual was rushing to the five-a-side pitch because I’d invariably got the kick off time wrong. These pale into insignificance compared to the professional footballers that actually have rituals and superstitions, rather than just being a disorganised moron. 

Let’s start with the subject of today’s sticker, Laurent Blanc. In a move not too dissimilar to Sanka kissing his lucky egg in Cool Runnings, Blanc took to kissing Fabian Barthez’s shiny bald bonce during France ‘98 as a lucky omen. It worked, as the hosts went on to beat Brazil 3-0 in the final. Feel the rhythm, feel the rhyme, get on up, it’s World Cup winning time... 

During the glory days of Match magazine features where players were asked about everything from their first car to their favourite musician, the answer to favourite pre-match meal was invariably chicken and beans. Not for Wayne Rooney though, his pre-match meal always had to be Coco-Pops. However, it is important to note that these were “the normal ones, not the moons and the stars." Thanks, Wayne. Staying with the food and drink theme, during Leicester’s 2015/16 title winning season Jamie Vardy famously used to drink port the evening before every match. Talking about this in his autobiography, he said “I'm not normally superstitious but from the moment I scored against Sunderland on the opening day, I didn't want to change anything. I fill a small plastic water or Lucozade bottle to halfway and just sip the port while watching television. It tastes like Ribena to me, and it helps me switch off and get to sleep a bit easier the night before a game.” I’ve tried this with real ale and long-distance running. It didn’t work. 

You then have those players that have a ritual when it comes to walking out of the tunnel. For example, during the 2014 World Cup Cristiano Ronaldo insisted that he had to be first out. Although considering he was Portugal captain, this was somewhat of a forgone conclusion anyway. At the other end of the scale there is Paul Ince who always insisted on being the last player onto the pitch and wouldn’t put his shirt until he was leaving the tunnel. Taking the last one out thing to an extreme is Kolo Toure. So certain was he that his ritual was key to his success, he once waited for William Gallas to receive treatment at half-time before following him onto the pitch meaning that Arsenal started the second half with nine men. He was subsequently booked for re-joining the game without the referee's permission, which was clever. 

We now enter into the “well that is certainly unique” phase of this post. Let’s start with David James, who alongside tiring himself out by playing too much Tomb Raider before big matches also was partial to spitting on the toilet wall before a game. Odd. Sticking with goalkeepers, we have Argentina’s Sergio Goycochea who, during Italia ‘90 weirdly took a piss on the pitch prior to penalty shootouts. It makes Gary Lineker’s accidental defecation in the same tournament look slightly less grim now. Then there is John Terry, who apparently had in excess of fifty rituals before a game including listening to the same Usher album. Usher! 

There are loads and loads more that I could go into here, including numerous tales of putting socks and boots on in a particular order. However, I think it is safe to say that none of them really work, do they? That said, I hope players never stop being so gloriously eccentric.