At the European Championship final, the Englishman Jude Bellingham wears cut-up socks. He is not the first football professional to prepare his equipment before the match. Why he does this – and why it is controversial.
New style, a secret trick or just bad material? Anyone who saw British footballer Jude Bellingham dashing across the pitch in the European Championship final against Spain on Sunday would have noticed that he had cut up the back of his socks. Three large holes adorned his socks on both legs, exposing his calf muscles. It is not the first time that the Englishman has reached for the scissors himself. And in fact, he is not the only one.
But what is the point?
Cutting up the socks is definitely not a miracle cure. The Brazilian Neymar relied on the power of holes at the 2018 World Cup in Russia. He and his team still didn’t make it past the quarter-finals.
Cut socks are said to help against cramps
The idea behind the cut socks is not superstitious, but rather medical. Football professionals hope that this will reduce pressure on the calf muscles and therefore lead to fewer cramps. Some players also find it more comfortable when their muscles can expand more than with tight socks.
The whole thing is quite contradictory: compression stockings, for example, which are supposed to reduce the likelihood of cramps, fit extra tightly so that they increase the pressure on the blood vessels.
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And so, according to experts, the medical benefit of the cut socks is questionable and, in addition to the placebo effect, is likely to only contribute to the comfort and coolness factor.
“In the end, it just looks cool for them. If you believe in it, it has an effect, which sometimes helps more than anything else,” says Veit Senner, sports scientist and professor at the Technical University of Munich, to the football portal fupa.net.
Jude Bellingham certainly didn’t win the European Championship. Apart from that, one can only guess where his cut-up socks will end up after the games: in the bin. That’s probably not sustainable.
Source: Stern
I am Pierce Boyd, a driven and ambitious professional working in the news industry. I have been writing for 24 Hours Worlds for over five years, specializing in sports section coverage. During my tenure at the publication, I have built an impressive portfolio of articles that has earned me a reputation as an experienced journalist and content creator.
