I recently had an email asking how professional football players choose their kit sizes. This is not an exact science and although we are a spoiled breed, we certainly do not take a trip to Saville Row to get our chest, leg and ankle sizes measured up.Most players would fit a general size of shirt or shorts, which if you have a good kit man will be pre-determined for you. Life as a professional footballer can be very luxurious at times. A kit mans job is to ensure that all your kit is laid out before you when you arrive at the stadium for a game. This would include Shirt, Shorts, Socks, underwear and boots. All spotlessly clean and ready for action. The only thing you bring in your kit bag is shin pads, little snacks, and any special drinks you personally prefer. For example, a high carbohydrate drink.
Shirt sizes were generally always quite accurate. I am sure the occasional player will need a specially made shirt, or some players might request a specific size. But I rarely witnessed this.
Socks of course are very easy to determine. So no problems figuring out these sizes.
Pre-season (before the professional games started) was the opportunity to get the right Football Boots. As happened at my other clubs a boot man would come into the training ground with a large bag of boots of all types, brand and sizes. This was the time to get your Football Boots for the upcoming season. We were all given the chance to choose 2 pairs of studs and 2 pairs of moulded boots for the drier/harder pitches.
Football player contracts
Some players would have contracts with Adidas, Nike, Puma or whoever and would receive their boots directly from the manufacturer. However when I was at Charlton Athletic Football Club only a very few players had these contracts. In fact I knew very few players who had contracts with large sports manufacturers. These deals are usually reserved for the superstars such as Beckham, Owen, Ronaldhino etc who receive very large sums of money for wearing a brand of boot.At Newcastle United Football Club we were given the opportunity to raid the Nike factory. For 2 years my friends and family were walking around in Nike sportswear as I was allowed to visit their store and buy boots, kit, bags and other sportswear for about 75% of the retail price.
Training Kit was pre-determined for us. Everything is numbered based on your squad number. T-shirts, jumpers, shorts, rain jackets, woolly hats and long pants.
The gross side of football.
Unfortunately sharing underwear was a part of being a professional footballer. Of course it was boil washed and cleaned but when I look back at my time as a professional footballer I find the thought of wearing pants that belonged to the sweaty centre half in the previous game rather disgusting. As was the lovely job of picking used plasters out of tumble dried training kit socks.
