ONE OF US: CELEBRATING THE FOOTBALLERS WHO DRESS LIKE FANS

Football’s having a fashion “moment”. Every luxury brand you’ve ever heard of – and some you haven’t – has dropped a capsule collection inspired by the beautiful game. Vintage footy shirts (the more obscure the better) are the uniform of influencers who’ve never been near a match-day turnstile, and Louis Vuitton are bringing out trainers that look like the dusty astros in the back of your wardrobe – except they cost nearly £900.

Footballers are getting more fashionable too. But the results… hit and miss. You can’t knock people for expressing themselves, but how many of us would want to borrow a
‘fit from Dominic Calvert-Lewin? The less said about Erling Haaland’s obsession with designer silk pyjamas, the better. Plus, for every genuine fashion icon in tasteful tailoring like Hector Bellerin – named “soccer’s most stylish man” by the New York Times – plenty of players still look like they’ve got Gucci monogram wallpaper in their living room and get all their clothes in Dubai (sorry, Jack Grealish).

All this got us thinking about those rare players with a true sense of terrace style. The ones who, if they weren’t on the pitch, could blend right in with the lads behind the goal during a relegation six-pointer. They don’t get much hype from social media style pages, but these low-key clobber icons are our true fashion heroes. Let’s salute some of the best in the game.

LEIGHTON BAINES

Alright, he’s not a player anymore, but Leighton Baines is an inspiration for every lad who spends the weekend bouncing between football club and indie club.

Back in 2013, the guitar-toting Everton legend told the Independent that he and close mate Miles Kane both “buzz off the Mod look” and share the same tailor. In his prime, Baines was regularly curling in free-kicks in the Prem and then showing up at Glastonbury alongside Kane and Alex Turner, impeccably dressed in a lovely cagoule. You just know he’s got an encyclopedic knowledge of Beatles rarities. Plus, the hair. Baines’ variety of cuts through the years, including his classic Weller-inspired Mod barnet, made him a rock’n’roll one-off in a league of conformists.

The 40-year-old seems a bit more low-key now he’s graduated to assistant manager at Goodison, but we reckon he’s still blasting out tunes on his acoustic after training.

KIERAN TIERNEY

We haven’t seen much of Kieran Tierney lately, with the Arsenal left-back suffering a bad injury at last summer’s Euros and then seemingly falling out of favour with Mikel Arteta. He’s due to return to his boyhood club Celtic this summer. Off the pitch, however, the Scot’s reputation for style is assured. He brings a no-frills yet considered attitude to his clobber, combined with a fan’s appreciation of old-school terrace classics.

In 2022, Tierney told The Face that he developed his sense of style by religiously going to games, home and away, as a youngster. “We would wear our adidas trainers and Levi’s jeans. You’d have a rain jacket zipped up, and that was the culture we grew up in – the casual culture. I loved it.” He also admitted that turning up to training in C.P. Company, adidas Spezial and “an awful lot of Stone Island” led to him being jokingly dubbed “a hooligan” by his Gunners team-mates. Shortly afterwards, he named the Gallagher brothers as his style icons and gave cult classic casual film Awaydays a shoutout. Say no more, Kieran.

DAVID BECKHAM

The original footballer turned fashion star of the modern age, Beckham walked so that Bellerin could run and Calvert-Lewin could go to New York Fashion Week with Tom Davies. But somehow, you feel Becks is still connected to the terraces.

Granted, not all of his famous looks scream casual culture. We’ve seen this fella in durags, snakeskin jackets, sarongs, and lately, a lot of cosy knitted cardigans. But come on, this is David Beckham. A guy who’s probably worn almost everything you can think of over three decades as one of the world’s most photographed celebrities.

Becks can pull off a terrace-friendly look when he wants to. The Man United legend was an early supporter of Marshall Artist, sporting some of our jackets long before his Inter Miami and Netflix documentary era. His status as a global one-man-brand means he might struggle to blend into the crowd at your local football ground, but we reckon he’d still look right at home.

GERARD PIQUE

We couldn’t sign off without sending a quick shout to Pique, the Catalan king of high-performance fabrics. Known for his classy and commanding defensive displays on the pitch, the bequiffed former Man United man has always shown an equally firm grasp of style – and a lasting affinity for Stone Island in particular.

Pique’s been spotted in all kinds of terrace-friendly pieces from the Italian label over the years. Who else could turn up for date night with Shakira looking like he’d just come straight from Millwall (A)? The famous power couple’s relationship may be no more, but we’re pretty sure this former player’s love for the famous badge will never die.