The Kiss of Good Fortune
One of the most iconic World Cup rituals occurred during France's victorious 1998 campaign. Before every single match, defender Laurent Blanc would plant a kiss on the bald head of goalkeeper Fabien Barthez for good luck. The ritual worked like a charm,
as France went on to lift the trophy on home soil. Even when Blanc was suspended for the final, he came onto the pitch before the game to perform the ritual. The rest of the team joined in on the tradition, along with another superstition: listening to Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive" in the dressing room before each game.
The Case of the Missing Shirt
Even the great Pelé was not immune to superstition. During a slump in form in the mid-1960s, the Brazilian icon became convinced it was because he had given his "lucky" match shirt to a fan. Panicked, he tasked a friend with tracking down that specific fan and retrieving the jersey. The friend returned with a shirt, and Pelé's goal-scoring form miraculously returned immediately. The secret? The friend never actually found the original shirt and had simply given Pelé another one from a previous match. It seems the belief itself was the real lucky charm.
Cruyff's Chewing Gum Habit
Dutch legend Johan Cruyff, a pioneer of "Total Football," had a very specific two-part pre-match routine. First, he would slap the stomach of his goalkeeper, Gert Bals, before they walked onto the pitch. Then, he would spit his chewing gum into the opposition's half. Cruyff believed this system helped him focus. The one time he reportedly forgot his gum was the 1969 European Cup final, where his Ajax team was thrashed 4-1 by AC Milan. Coincidence? Cruyff certainly didn't think so at the time.
The Last Man On The Pitch
For Ivorian defender Kolo Touré, it wasn't enough to just play the game; he had to be the absolute last player from his team to step onto the field. This deep-seated superstition even got him into trouble. During a Champions League match for Arsenal, he waited for a teammate receiving treatment at halftime and refused to re-enter the pitch. The second half started without them, and when Touré eventually ran on without the referee's permission, he was shown a yellow card for his commitment to the ritual.
Argentina's Unsanctioned Relief
During Argentina's run to the 1990 World Cup final, backup goalkeeper Sergio Goycochea became a penalty shootout hero. His secret weapon was, to put it politely, a natural break. Faced with a shootout against Yugoslavia and unable to leave the pitch, he chose to relieve himself on the field. Argentina won. Believing he'd found a winning formula, he repeated the ritual before the semi-final shootout against Italy, and they won again. From then on, it became his unlikely lucky charm before every penalty showdown.
Saving Goals for the Game
It might sound counter-intuitive for one of England's most prolific goalscorers, but Gary Lineker had a strict rule during warm-ups: no shooting at the goal. He feared that he would "waste" a goal before the match even started. His logic was that he only had a finite number of goals in him on any given day, and he wanted to save them for when it actually counted. Given his impressive career tally, it's hard to argue with his methods. He would also change his shirt at halftime if he hadn't scored in the first 45 minutes.
