History of goalkeeper gloves
The roots of football go back to ancient times. Ball games associated with religion were popular all over the world, especially in China or ancient Rome. The game we know today originated in England during the 16th century. Football is undoubtedly very progressive, but none of the players or elements of the game develop faster than the goalkeeper.
First steps
If we had the opportunity, and saw the then goalkeeper in action, we would hardly distinguish him from the other players. Such a goalkeeper wore the same jersey as his teammates. This element did not appear until 1909, when the Scottish League decided to enrich the rules and thereby improve the game. The reason was simple. Due to the increasing speed and aggressiveness of the game, there were more and more situations where it was not possible to see whether the ball was touched by the goalkeeper or an ordinary field player. But if we want to look at the most important goalkeeping element, i.e. gloves, we have to move half a century into the future.
From Argentina to Europe
Goalkeeper gloves, despite their undeniable importance, are a relatively young innovation.
The first mentions of the use of gloves appear already at the beginning of the 20th century, but at this time goalkeepers wore leather gloves due to the fact that their hands were quite often cold in bad weather.
The first man to wear gloves for better goalkeeping results was around 1940 Amadeo Carrizo, an Argentinian player who played for the well-known River Plate club. Thanks to him, gloves spread to the football world. In 1970, the legend of the English national team, Gordon Banks, wore the gloves for the first time at the World Cup in Mexico. It was after this big tournament that manufactories like Uhlsport or Reusch began to emerge, and since then the properties of the gloves have rapidly improved. They began to have more grip, fit better in the hand and became lighter and lighter. Since the 1980s, a material has also appeared, without which today's gloves could not exist - latex. It brought other new innovations, especially two different cuts. One of them was straight, known today as a flat, and the other was wrapped around the finger, known today as a roll finger.
Goalkeepers themselves
Today's goalkeepers can hardly imagine football without gloves. The game is historically the fastest and most power-based. Goalkeeper gloves thus perform both a game and a protective function.
The glove business is constantly growing, and thanks to the great soccer community and the constant influx of new ideas, they are being innovated with better features every year. In addition, the glove market is not limited to large companies, but also gave rise to brands such as BU 1 .
