World Cup Qatar 2022: who are the best-dressed soccer players? From Neymar to Paul Pogba, we run the rule over their closets
- Son Heung-min is a Burberry ambassador and, like Memphis Depay, has his own clothing line, while Hector Bellerin did a collection with H&M last year
- Dominic Calvert-Lewin is as likely to be seen front row at Versace as up front for Everton. Jack Grealish has signed for Gucci. For these players, style counts
Drip, sauce, swag. Call it what you will, but footballers’ ’fits do not get the same attention from fashion fans as those of their fellow athletes from the major US sports leagues.
Instagram is full of accounts that shine a light on the stars of the NBA and NFL, but with the Fifa World Cup Qatar 2022 about to dominate the global sporting landscape, maybe it is time that changed.
David Beckham has long been a style icon, with the former Manchester United and England star still setting the style agenda long after he hung up his Adidas Predators, but he was not always regarded as a well-dressed footballer. Far from it.
Beckham’s fashion sense was occasionally questioned when he was a player – he was pilloried by the British tabloids for wearing a sarong at the 1998 World Cup, while his constant reinvention through his hairstyles was as likely to as earn online opprobrium as it was to be replicated in schools around the world.
Beckham is not the only player whose style choices made headlines, with several of his peers, such as his effortlessly cool AC Milan teammate Andrea Pirlo of Italy and Japan’s Hidetoshi Nakata – sometimes referred to as the “David Beckham of Asia” – also singled out for their fashion sense.
Since then, stars such as Neymar Jnr, the Brazil and Paris St Germain player, have been as commended (and condemned) for their off-field sartorial sensibilities as their performances on it.
