Brad and Charlie Hart, father and son season-ticket holders at Tottenham Hotspur, experienced a unique memento when Spurs’ goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario wore a baseball cap during a match against West Ham United, a once-familiar piece of goalkeeper kit that has become rarer. Vicario’s coach gifted the cap to ten-year-old Charlie, who forgot his marker pen to collect autographs. This cap-wearing sparked memories of earlier times when goalkeepers, like Germany’s Oliver Kahn, would frequently don goalie caps during games.
The question arises, why have cap-wearing goalkeepers become unicorns? According to International Football Association Board (IFAB) rules for the 2024-25 season, goalkeepers can don caps, “sports spectacles,” and tracksuit bottoms, and the lack of the current prevalence of this trend is not due to any rule change. Chris Kirkland, former Liverpool goalkeeper known for wearing caps, stated that the cap blocked out distractions and enhanced concentration levels, also keeping the sun’s glare at bay.
Apart from blocking sunlight at certain angles, caps have also come to the aid of goalkeepers when supportive spectators throw in their caps for the squinting players. However, Richard Lee, former Watford and Brentford goalkeeper, pointed out the drawback with caps when he said that they were helpful only until the ball came from sudden glare, and he preferred to know where the sun was all the time. He also emphasized the aspect of style, with goalkeepers aiming to present themselves a certain way for branding, which younger players strive to emulate.
Rachel Brown-Finnis, former Everton and England goalkeeper, suggested the possibility of an alternative to caps in the form of “sunglasses-like soft contact lenses.” She stated that the lenses were the most effective and less obstructive than caps for vision during a game. She also highlighted the impact of sunshine and the importance of the pre-game coin toss hoping to avoid facing the sun’s rays in the first half of the game. Jacob Widell Zetterstrom of Derby County is one of the few current professional goalkeepers in England who wears protective headgear.
Matt Pyzdrowski, former professional goalkeeper and The Athletic’s goalkeeping analyst, explained his experience of having to wear a protective head guard during the latter part of his career due to multiple concussions in a short span. He stated that the headgear offered him a sense of security and became an intricate part of his outfit. He opined that the safety of goalkeepers should take precedence, considering the risks they subject themselves to during the game.
Charlie, who received the memorable memento, plans to get the cap signed by Vicario to have it enclosed in a display case. The whole incident involving the cap has not only been a unique experience for the Hart family but also initiated nostalgia within the football world.
