Posted on Sunday, 21st March 2010 by Aron Dankamp
Being a goalkeeper requires a different set of mental attributes to being an outfield play in a football team. Goalkeepers experience extreme pressure and isolation every time they play a game and this is why it is said that goalkeepers need a different personality to outfield players. Their personality isn’t the only difference however, goalkeepers also dress differently to the rest of the time.
Goalkeepers wear a shirt that is different to the other members of the team so that they stand out. They also wear goalkeeper gloves which were invented to protect their hands from damage when saving shots with their hands. This article focuses on the shirt and explains a little about it’s history.
When football became popular towards the end of the 18th century, it was commonplace for goalkeepers to wear different coloured socks than the rest of the team to help identify themselves. They then started to wear stripes on their shirts, and this practise eventually lead to them wearing a different shirt all together - what we now know as a goalkeeper shirt.
The rules regarding the appearance of a goalkeeper shirt were very strict until the 1970’s when they were relaxed. Up until this point goalkeepers shirts could only be made out of four colours- white, red, green and blue. Green was the most popular out of these colours as it rarely clashed with outfield shirts as very few teams have green as their primary shirt colour.
The position of goalkeeper was the last position on pitch to adapt the shirt numbering system. It was thought that goalkeepers were already different enough to other members of their team so didn’t need a number to identify them. A good pub quiz fact - The first outfield player to play a game with the number 1 on his back was Ossie Ardiles during his spell at Tottenham Hotspur.
Goalkeepers shirts come in two main varieties - a v neck polo sweater or a tighter vest with long sleeves. Both are worn today by modern day keepers dependant on the conditions. The tight vest is probably the more popular of the two with professional players as it is lighter so restricts the goalies movement less and therefore enables them to be more agile.
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Tags: football, goalie, goalkeeper, history, history of sport, soccer, soccer equipment, sport, sport equipment
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