10 Worst Headgear Choices in Football History
Memphis Depay likes his hat, and he doesn’t care what you think.
Following a promising start to his Manchester United career, the Dutchman has come under fire from fans following a drop-off in his performances, and obviously walking around wearing a hat simply isn’t OK when you aren’t playing well.
The winger seems OK with it, though, and as reported by JOE.co.uk, he seems to not unreasonably believe that wearing a hat now and again has anything to do with his displays for United—a defiant stance and one that doesn’t look like changing.
Not to worry, though, dear Memphis. We’ve had a trawl through the archives and have discovered that plenty of other big names have committed headgear fashion crimes in the past...
Arjen Robben
1 of 10
We’ll kick off with Memphis’ fellow countryman Arjen Robben, who—although admittedly forced into it by the mischievous soul that is Dirk Kuyt—opted to celebrate scoring the only goal in the Netherlands’ 2006 World Cup victory over Serbia and Montenegro in Leipzig by donning this piece of head furniture.
Looking a bit like a cross between the Dutch Statue of Liberty and a punk rocker, Robben was clearly inspired by this piece of headgear as he went bald soon after; although mercifully he’s now ditched the orange spikes.
Sir Bobby Charlton
2 of 10
In 1970, England were the defending champions when they arrived in Mexico for the World Cup, and so all eyes were on Sir Alf Ramsey’s men as they looked for a repeat of their 1966 triumph.
What a time, then, for star player Bobby Charlton to pay tribute to the locals by donning a hat that even Speedy Gonzales would have baulked at.
In fairness, it’s clear from the look on Charlton’s face that he’s about as happy to be wearing this as he would be to criticise Manchester United, which, as we know, is something he’d never dream of doing.
Kenny Dalglish
3 of 10
The sight of Liverpool players holding trophies used to be a regular one in the 1970s and 80s—a time when fashion decreed that the majority of their players had to sport huge comedy moustaches.
But it isn’t Ian Rush’s face fuzz that we’re interested in here, but rather the huge sombrero being donned by Kenny Dalglish, who had just masterminded the 3-1 win over Everton in the FA Cup Final of 1986.
Kind of puts Charlton’s effort to shame, doesn’t it?
Mario Balotelli
4 of 10
More Wembley and FA Cup hat-based shenanigans now, and, of course, the entrance of the one and only Mario Balotelli, who opted to celebrate Manchester City’s 2011 victory over Stoke City by wearing...well, whatever this is.
There seems to be a ball, a goal, a trophy and, bizarrely, a rubber duck, and whilst Balotelli is surely more famous for this rooster homage of a hat from elsewhere in his City career, that one seemed to fit in with his unique style, whereas this is...just weird.
Cristiano Ronaldo
5 of 10
Cristiano Ronaldo has just won the Premier League with Manchester United at Wigan, so he wants to hug his mum and wear a silly hat. It’s the right thing to do, basically.
CR7 might be a global fashion icon these days, but it’s difficult to see these taking off on the catwalks of Madrid, where he would move to not long after this picture was taken.
Whether or not he took the hat isn’t really up for debate.
Edwin Van Der Sar
6 of 10
Manchester United found themselves in Houston, Texas, for the MLS All-Star Game in the summer of 2010, and what do you do when you’re in Houston, Texas? You go and look at some space stuff, obviously.
For some reason, United decided to send a delegation of goalkeepers to play around with all the astronaut-based material they could get their hands on, and whilst Tomasz Kuszczak and Ben Amos somewhat jealously looked on, Edwin van der Sar got to pretend to be Neil Armstrong for a few minutes.
Houston, we have a photo opportunity.
Borislav Mihaylov
7 of 10
To another goalkeeper, and a very different type of headgear.
The second-most capped player in Bulgaria’s history, Borislav Mihaylov starred in the side that reached the semi-finals of the 1994 World Cup in the USA—but he did so without a cap.
Mihaylov—who had an unhappy spell at Reading between 1995 and 1997—instead sported a wig in the searing heat of the U.S., but in fairness to him, it never once looked like slipping off, unlike Bulgaria did when they slipped up in the semi-finals—losing 2-1 to Italy.
Abel Hernandez
8 of 10
But what about the wig we saw in the Premier League last season?
It went a little bit under the radar at the time, but Hull City’s Abel Hernandez demonstrated that what he lacked in goalscoring prowess he made up for in the ability to change his appearance, with the Uruguayan growing dreadlocks in a remarkable eight days.
The Daily Mail take up the story here, with Hernandez’s hair length drastically altering between a fixture against Swansea on December 20 last year and then one against Leicester on December 28.
Did he get hair extensions for Christmas?
Zinedine Zidane
9 of 10
Aside from the wigs, the other headgear featured on this list was often worn either in celebration or just for the simple fun of it, but the remarkable thing about this Zinedine Zidane image is that he actually CHOSE to wear this hat.
The brightly coloured ensemble successfully manages to reduce the best footballer of his generation to a humble fisherman, and although it might have given him some valuable family time away from the autograph-hunters, surely looking like this much of a fool wasn’t really worth it?
Dimitar Berbatov
10 of 10
You’d think that Dimitar Berbatov would look cool doing absolutely anything, but thankfully someone was on hand to prove otherwise in South Africa on Tottenham’s pre-season tour in the summer of 2007.
It was there that the Bulgarian was handed this remarkable piece of headgear, which seems to feature just about anything and everything that figured on that tour—the opposition, the television channels broadcasting the matches and the newspapers reporting on them—and what better way to signify all of that than by jamming it all on a hat that would be sported by the club’s star striker?
He’s dying a little inside, isn’t he?
