Goalkeepers Are Different

"Everything you've ever wanted to know about
goalkeepers and a little bit more"

Getting Shirty

In the early history of the game, teams were identified by the colours of their caps and socks or simply by armbands. But by the time the first ever FA Cup Final was played in 1872, teams had adopted their own distinctive strips and team colours, which in many cases have remained essentially the same ever since.

Green is the colourStrict rules governed what was and what wasn't permissible in terms of colours and patterns. Goalkeepers in particular, until the rules were relaxed in the 1970s, were limited to green, blue, scarlet and white tops except for international matches, where yellow was the colour of choice. Green proved most popular simply because of the law of averages - very few teams wore green as their first strip. But it wasn't until the turn of the century that goalkeepers began to take on a separate identity. Indeed, prior to the First World War, the only way a goalie was distinguishable from his teammates was by the fact that he wore a cap on his head - although it must be said that in 1909 Scottish goalkeepers were instructed to wear different coloured jersey from the rest of their teammates.


Goalkeepers were also a bit behind the times when it came to wearing a number on the back. It was always assumed that the goalie wore the number one shirt, even if in reality he didn't. He didn't need to, really. The colour of his shirt told you where he'd be playing that afternoon. Squad numbers were originally introduced as a way of identifying the players more than anything and although goalies traditionally wear the number one there's no law in the game to say an outfield player cannot wear that number. Indeed, former Tottenham Hotspur favourite Ossie Ardiles wore the number one shirt for Argentina during the 1982 World Cup Finals while fellow midfielder Norberto Alonso wore the same number when they lifted the Cup in 1978.

And he's not the only one. Dutch striker Ruud Geels wore the number one shirt in 1974 after both squads were numbered alphabetically. Closer to home, defender Stuart Balmer was given the same number when Charlton Athletic first listed their squad in the early 1990s.

The earliest record of numbered shirts being worn dates from the 1922/23 American Soccer League season when a team from St. Louis by the name of Scullin Steel wore numbers on the back of their tops for the 1923 Challenge Cup Final. Back home in Britain, numbered shirts didn't appear until August 1928 when Arsenal and Chelsea ran out for the new season, but that little experiment only lasted two League games and they didn't become compulory until 1939, although the experiment was repeated again for the 1933 FA Cup Final. However, on this occasion instead of both sides wearing one to eleven, the two teams were numbered from one to twenty two. Everton's goalie had the honour of wearing the Number 1 shirt while his opposite number in the Manchester City goal had to make do with the Number 22 shirt!

At international level, they first appeared in 1937, when England wore numbers on the back of their shirts for their game against Scotland at Hampden Park. The following year numbered shirts made their first appearace at the World Cup finals in France. Sixteen years later, teams competing in the 1954 Finals in Switzerland were obliged to assign a unique 'squad number' for each player although their names would not appear on the back of their shirts until the 1992 European Championships held in Sweden (although Scotland did experiment with this idea in the early 1980s). The 1954 World Cup also marked the first occasion that an England goalkeeper wore a numbered shirt when Gil Merrick lined up against Belgium.

The colourful Campos Until the mid-nineties, goalkeepers traditionally wore the same shorts and socks as their colleagues. There were exceptions. In the early 1970s England legend Peter Shilton famously wore an all-white football kit until he was beaten by a long-range shot during a mid-week FA Cup semi-final replay at Villa Park by none other than Kevin Keegan - apparently Shilton's kit was too reflective under the floodlights, making it easier for opposition forwards to pick their spot. Conversely, Eastern European goalkeepers, such as the Soviet Union's Lev Yashin and Hungary's Gyula Grosics, favoured an intimidating all-black strip. These days, goalkeepers are willing to sport all manner of lurid concoctions. None more so than Mexico's flamboyant goalie-cum-centre forward Jorge Campos.

But not all keepers are happy with their kits. David Seaman in particular was less than overawed at the all-red strip that made him look like "a packet of sweets" while former England goalie Chris Woods was once forced to wear lilac socks when playing for Sheffield Wednesday. Others have taken a dislike to their shirts purely for superstitious reasons. Arsenal goalies, for example, never wear a new shirt unless it has been washed. This practice dates back to 1927 and the FA Cup Final after Gunners keeper Dan Lewis blamed his slippery new jersey for his failure to save the goal that spelled defeat.


Shirty Tales








Similarly, when Poland's Jerzy Dudek played his last game - and 60th appearance in total - for Poland against Liechtenstein in June 2013 he wore number 60 on the back of his shirt.

Bill Lloyd was once ordered to change his jersey before a league match in the 1950s after the referee complained it wasn't a regulation colour. According to reports, the former Millwall keeper had decided to wear something that bore more resemblence to something his grandmother had knitted rather than a traditional goalkeeper shirt.

Former Derby County, Millwall and Sheffield Wednesday goalkeeper Stephen Bywater wears the number 43 shirt as a tribute to his mentor and former goalkeeping coachat West Ham United, Les Sealey, who tragically died at the age of 43.

Having twice broken his leg while assigned the number 13 shirt, goalkeeper Nick Hammond decided to take the number 23 shirt for The Robins 1993/94 Premiership campaign because he considered his old number to be bad luck.

Former Partick Thistle and Scotland keeper Alan Rough always wore his original number 11 shirt from his first club under his goalkeeper's jersey for good luck.

Peter Schmeichel used to wear a XXXL-sized goalkeeper shirt.


When England faced Romania in their first game of the 1970 World Cup finals keeper Gordon Banks had to change his shirt half way through, switching to a red shirt - England's change strip at the time - because the yellow jersey he was wearing clashed with the Romanians' strip.

A similar thing happened to Millwall's David Forde before the start of The Lions' game against Preston North End in December 2010 when the referee decided that his light grey jersey was too similar to the home side's white shirts. A red North End training top was eventually found and the Irishman went on to keep a clean sheet.

Shilton - Scotland's Number OneRomania's choice of strip proved problematic once again during a World Cup qualifying match in Bucharest in October 1980. Keeper Ray Clemence was forced to run out in a green and black Adidas shirt borrowed from England's opponents after it was discovered that the FA had failed to pack the alternative blue strip that was traditionally worn if the opposing team wore yellow.




Manchester United's Tomasz Kuszczak once had to put up with having his name mis-spelt on the back of shirt and was forced to play as "Zuszczak" during a League Cup tie against Crewe Alexandra.





In February 2014, Egyptian goalkeeper Mahdi Soliman was forced to wear a Liverpool shirt after Ghazl Mahalla's kitman left his top behind ahead of their match with Al Ahly. With no alternative top available, the club were forced to buy a shirt from a neighbouring sportshop and opted for the kit usually worn by Liverpool's Simon Mignolet. The club still had time to stick the logo of their own sponsors, McDonald's, on the front. Al Ahly won 1-0.

Leeds United's David Harvey wore a red Scotland international jersey during a league match against Leicester City in 1978.



By a quirk of fate, neither goalkeeper wored the number one shirt in the 1978 World Cup Final. Holland's Jan Jongbloed, who replaced first choice Piet Schrijvers, wore number 8 while Argentina's Ubaldo Fillol wore the number 5 shirt at the other end.

Before fashions changed in the 1990s, Grimsby Town's goalkeepers traditionally wore a red jersey rather than the conventional green as this colour was considered to be unlucky within the local fishing community, who made up the club's fanbase.







All You Need Is Gloves

Not strictly shirt-related but Germany's Jens Lehmann was once told he would be dropped from the national side if he continued to wear Nike goalkeeper gloves instead of the pair supplied by Adidas! The warning came in 2004 ater the keeper had just kept a clean-sheet against Iran.

The first goalkeeper to wear gloves is reputed to have been Argentina's Amadeo Carrizo.

Scotland's Alan Rough was the only goalkeeper not to wear gloves during the 1978 World Cup finals.