Strange rituals of the World Cup

SUPERSTITIONS: SOME WEIRD AND SOME WONDERFUL

Some players believe World Cup success is earned through exercise, diet and endless practice drills – others are convinced it’s a matter of wearing lucky underwear.

Players and coaches can be a superstitious bunch and often have a ritual or item of clothing they believe is a charm that has contributed to a winning run.

They range from former Colombian keeper Rene Higuita’s insistence on wearing blue underpants to current German striker Mario Gomez’s habit of only using the far-left urinal to relieve himself before a match.

Gomez’s team-mate Julian Draxler gives himself a spritz of scent before a big match.

England’s Dele Alli is using the same shin guards he has worn since childhood, hoping they bring the good fortune that has long eluded the Three Lions at international tournaments.

Some players such as England’s Phil Jones do not like stepping on white lines, while Brazilian defender Marcelo always runs on to the pitch right foot first.

The habit is so ingrained that during training in Rostov-on-Don he left the pitch and came back on after realising he had accidentally led with his left foot.

France are convinced superstition played a part in their 1998 World Cup win, when Fabien Barthez’s team-mates rubbed the goalkeeper’s bald head for good luck.

Defender Laurent Blanc planted a big kiss on Barthez’s pool-ball pate before every match.

Perhaps the strangest example of the power of suggestion helping a team to World Cup glory is Argentina’s triumph in 1978.

Argentina’s star striker Mario Kempes was a dedicated follower of fashion, sporting a stylish horseshoe moustache and flowing locks.

But Kempes failed to find the net in the group stages, prompting coach Cesar Luis Menotti to offer a suggestion to the forward nicknamed “El Matador”.

Menotti, who had omitted a teenage prodigy named Diego Maradona in favour of Kempes, pointed out that when he visited the striker in Spain before the tournament he was clean-shaven and scoring freely for Valencia.

Why didn’t he get rid of the moustache and see if it brought a change of fortune?

The impact was immediate. Kempes scored two goals in his next match against Poland, then two more against Peru to seal a spot in the final.

Another two goals in the decider against the Netherlands saw Kempes claim the Golden Boot and gave Argentina their maiden World Cup title.

“The moustache had to go... that was the start of a new chapter for me,” Kempes later said.

“After that, every time (Menotti) saw me he’d say ‘You’re due a shave today Mario, aren’t you’?” –