Young footballer banned from copying Jack Grealish as worrying trend emerges
Manchester City star Jack Grealish has sparked a trend among young footballers – but it might not continue for much longer the way things are looking
Jack Grealish has started a trend among young footballers
Young footballers are being banned from wearing Jack Grealish-style mini shin pads.
Parents have been told that junior players can’t wear the tiny guards as “they do not offer sufficient protection”. Despite being made trendy by players such as Manchester City’s Grealish, 28, Whitley Bay FC Junior in Tyne-side said the kit bag staples would not be accepted on match days.
Team bosses wrote: “Please be advised that the club does not accept these as sufficient protection and requires all players to wear full-size shin pads.” Andy Clarke, coach of Colchester Villa Youth FC in Essex, has also kicked out the shin guards as they add “very little protection”.
FA guidelines state all shin pads must “provide reasonable protection” – but do not specify a minimum size. Grealish’s shinpads have been a source of constant interest since his first broke into the team at Aston Villa.
Now at Manchester City, the £100million man previously explained just why his shinpads are so small. He said: “Obviously your socks are supposed to go above your calves.
Grealish’s shinpads are notoriously small
“But one year when I was here [Aston Villa], the socks once shrunk in the wash. So they wouldn’t go higher. “That season, I ended up playing really well. So it became a superstitious thing for me. I thought ‘I’m going to keep doing this because I’ve done well’.”
That helped to dispel an earlier theory that Grealish had watched footage of George Best going past defenders with his socks round his ankles and wanted to copy the Manchester United legend.
The midfielder has kept the trend at Manchester City
“A lot of people say that it’s because of George Best,” Grealish said. “While I love him and admire so much what he did, that isn’t the reason.”
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