The eroding of men’s hair follicles has been around for even longer than the beautiful game – but it certainly doesn’t seem to hinder footballing ability.
As unusual as it might sound, a player’s haircut can have a huge impact on their legacy. Everyone remembers Roberto Baggio for his trademark ponytail, for example, and the first two words that spring to mind when you mention Rodrigo Palacio are ‘rat tail’.
But there is possibly no greater sight in football than a player with no hair whatsoever doing their thing on the pitch. For no particular reason, here is our non-exhaustive list of some of our favourite bald footballers.
Brad Friedel
We have tried to restrict this list to players we immediately picture as being bald rather than those who only started losing their hair towards the end of their career.
With Friedel, we’re struggling to accept the fact he ever had hair – but he did and it just looks weird.
There were still remnants of it remaining when he joined Liverpool, but we’ll always remember that bald head of his flying through the air making saves – and even scoring for Blackburn in 2004.
He wouldn’t have been able to do that if he still had this hair.
Steve Stone
Maybe part of the reason we have a fondness for bald footballers is that it reminds us they aren’t perfect. Bald footballers are the everyman, giving hope to us all that we could definitely still make it if only we could be bothered to get fit enough.
Well Steve Stone was kind enough to go bald in his early 20s, being that everyman for virtually his entire career and so letting us all share in his achievement of turning out for England. Top man.
Lee Carsley & Thomas Gravesen
As Everton’s central midfield partnership for a few years in the early 2000s, these two simply had to be grouped together.
They were very different players – Carsley was the holding midfielder that protected the defence, Gravesen the energetic box-to-boxer – but their bald heads seemed to confuse Real Madrid in 2005 when they ended their search for a holding midfielder by signing…Thomas Gravesen.
Carsley was a hero at Everton, helping them to the Champions League and scoring the winner in the 200th Merseyside derby, while Gravesen will always be remembered for his tough-tackling, no-nonsense and, let’s face it, bat-shit crazy antics – including launching a firework at a physio just trying to rehabilitate injured players.
His nickname at Real Madrid was ‘mad…
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