Hair, we go
Some athletes take pride in their full head of hair that it becomes their trademark. We had gotten used to it but somehow surprisingly, they had their heads acquainted with the clippers.
The most recent star to cut his famously long locks is Norway and Manchester City striker Erling Haaland. Sporting a buzz cut in their EPL opening game, he went scoreless despite having five shots, with only two on target. Before last Sunday’s match, he scored in the last four EPL opening games (7 goals), yes, with the flowing blond hair.
Haaland said he considered cutting his hair after the WC and was nervous when he did it as retired Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic warned him not to as it is his source of power. Some kind of a Samson effect when Delilah cut his hair? The EPL season has just started and perhaps it’s just a one game hair jinx for Haaland.
Indeed, elite sports people have had interesting results after their visits to the barbers. League and individual titles followed those haircuts but not all as some had losing seasons and off-form performances.
Perhaps the most famous haircut in football was the one Ronaldo the Brazilian had during Brazil’s 2002 WC title run. Battling serious knee injuries two years prior and his fitness questioned, he shaved his head but left a patch of hair above his forehead to distract reporters. Doubts about his injury were replaced by questions about his hairstyle.
Widely known as “R9”, Ronaldo scored both goals in their 2-0 finals victory over Germany, ending the 2002 WC with 8 goals and the Golden Boot award and his second WC winner’s medal, the previous won during the 1994 WC.
Also known for his long locks was Andre Agassi, who in 1995 came into the Australian Open with a cropped hairdo. He disclosed later that he wore a hairpiece during matches because of his receding hairline and was always worried about it getting loose, which greatly distracted his game.
With new hairdo, Agassi reached the final without dropping a set and beat Pete Sampras in the title game. Three months later, he became world number one and finished 1995 as the most successful season of his career, without the wig.
In December 2010, Serbia won the Davis Cup for the first time and in celebration, Novak Djokovic and his teammates shaved their heads. He started 2011 by winning 41 consecutive matches and finished the year with 3 Grand Slams, 5 Masters 1000 titles and rose to world number one for the first time.
At the US Open last year, because his brother made a mistake with the clippers, Carlos Alcaraz appeared semi-opaw. He later joked that the new look made him faster. Alcaraz reached the final and beat Jannik Sinner, winning his 6th Grand Slam. The world #3 will defend his US Open title this year without Sinner, who has pulled out of the tournament because of a knee injury.
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