Usmnt Legend Alexi Lalas Critiques Iconic Footballer Hairstyles | Gq Sports

Greetings GQ. I am Alexi Lawless and today, let's take a look back in history at some of the most iconic hairstyles in soccer, I think soccer lends itself to an aesthetic. There are no pads, obviously there's no helmets, you go out there in front of people, and they are looking at you and you know they want to be. Wowed show your personality out there. It'S not just about kicking a ball. Let'S take a look now at some of the hairstyles that we have seen over the years that have made these players almost as famous for what they are doing on their head and their face as what they're doing with their feet the great David Beckham, it's almost As if every few months he changed it up and he kept us guessing, you never knew what it was going to be very good looking man, so it really doesn't matter what he does. When David Beckham first came out, it was much more of a 90s boy band type, and then you started to Branch out started to get into fashion. There were times where he would go big, huge ponytail up top that type of stuff we've seen the cornrow David Beckham, I think, has two mean: eras, the Mohawk and anytime. You do a mohawk you're, just giving off the vibe that you don't want to be messed with right and then the other one was completely shaved. He understood that he was a performer, that this was entertainment. It made him not just an incredibly popular soccer player, but one of the most popular people in famous people on the Earth. Neymar is one of the great players in history. He is known for his Flair, his creativity, but he's also known for ever changing hairstyles. You can't even keep track. He surprises us. He uses color as well as cut to make them unique. I think that players, whether it's Neymar or anybody else, recognize that they are in the entertainment industry and that's not a pejorative they're aesthetic. Their costume is very, very important. The great Marwan Fellaini, the Belgium six foot, something and then he must have been six foot, seven ish, probably with uh. The hair hair can be used for intimidation. A player like Fellaini would come on the field and he was large. Just in general, but then he became Larger than Life. He could harness the power of the hair. If you will - and I think he became very, very comfortable with it and almost needed it to a certain extent to survive. It looks like he just rolled out of bed, don't be fooled. There was plenty of Maintenance that went into making it look like that in order to get on the stage with that glorious do of his Gareth Bale, a wonderful player, incredible career will be in the World Cup captain in Wales, this November and December in Qatar. The hair do that I associate with him the most is the ponytail Bob. I tell you what Gareth has leaned into it. It is his go-to, that's how you recognize him running around the field and look if you find something that works for you, you keep with it. You got to be careful with the man. It can get knocked out of whack very easily on the field. So you have to make sure that it is done correctly before the game begins. You don't want a happy Hazard type of man, bun on the soccer field or off the soccer field. For that matter, it may look like it's just an easy thing up on the top of the head, but there's a whole lot more to it. Mario Balotelli. What do we say about this guy blessed with Incredible Talent? He can go a lot of different ways. I think that that's partly reflected in the way that he looks - and this is a guy who has incredible mood - swings it's part of what makes him a good soccer player, but it also can get him into trouble. We'Re constantly wondering what is he going to do? Both on and off the field we've seen many different takes on the Mohawk, a much more strict and traditional type of Mohawk we've seen a much more low-cut type of Mohawk strip and we've seen multiple strips, so it'll be kind of multiple mohawki. I don't even know, if that's a word, I think he recognizes that, even though, at times the Mohawk gives you a limited space to work, you can still use it to great effect, Olivier Giroux, no matter what he does. His hair does not move, and even after 90 minutes of playing and running around and falling and kicking and heading and doing all that kind of stuff, there is still not a hair out of place. It'S probably a well-kept and well-guarded secret from, and, let's be honest, the entire country of France is probably keeping it from us. Giroud at times has complained that people are focusing in on his looks Cry Me, a River look, he is a wonderful player and I think that it comes with the territory. All right blame your parents. Not only does he have good hair, but he also puts the ball on the back of the net so jealous all right, Paul Pogba, one of the greats when it comes to France, a World Cup winner as well known for his soccer playing. He is as just as well known for the incredible hairstyles that he has. I bet you. He spends a ridiculous amount of money on the styling of his hair. It shows an appreciation. It shows an understanding of the performer that he is he's a star and the things that he does with his hair are real works of art, whether it's textures, whether it's letters, whether it's words, it's really incredible and intricate and oftentimes very, very interesting. The Brazilian Ronaldo one of the great players in history, one of the worst haircuts I have ever seen the now Infamous, I guess, legendary front triangle. I have no clue what he was doing, what he was thinking if he lost a bet. The only thing that saved him, he was arguably the best player in the world. So recently, Ronaldo has said that this haircut that he had was a distraction to keep people from looking at a injury that he had all right. Fine well, first off by the way, great distraction, because nobody looked at anything okay, you could have had protruding bone so well done. If that was really the case that people have tried to and successfully imitated it has irritated him evidently well, you know what you created. The monster, so, if anybody's at fault, it's urinal, though Carlos Valderrama, a Colombian Legend and a legend when it comes to soccer hair, this Sideshow Bob type of plume that just emerges out of this head. Not only do you have to get past this crazy hair, but then you have to get past this player. Who is so good? I think, ultimately, when you are choosing a style, a hairstyle as a player, the one that you settle on should be the one that most represents you and I think Carlos Valderrama. His hairstyle was perfect for him. He was a man of the world, a Kinder man. You will never meet Roberto Baggio Italian Legend and a legendary ponytail Divine ponytail. This is a man who is revered by Italian soccer fans, this rat tail type of dew that he has became iconic, and it was just a continuation of the mullet that he had. He was comfortable in the way that he looked, they didn't care what anybody else thought or said this was who bajio was in that moment in his life jabriel sise? He has that rare combination of both hair and facial hair. I don't know if he does it himself, but the results were spectacular, whether it's the color of a close-cropped mohawk, a facial hair, the handlebars. You know the chin missing. All of those different things. The blonde half beard is a work of art and he used the entire canvas that takes an artist alright, Giovanni Simeone. What the hell Simeone is a son of a legendary coach and player. We all know the kids Rebel you're going to do things at times to tweak your parents to tweak your dad, but this. If this is not you paying off a debt okay, then something is really really wrong. He went with it and he owned it and he went out there on the field with it so way back in the 1900s in the previous century, when I was running around before many of you were even born, I had a whole lot more hair. I grew up idolizing musicians in particular 80s musicians. The aesthetic in the 80s was everything I knew from a very young age that I was in the entertainment business that I was a performer that I was wearing a costume. The reality is that this was simply an extension of who I was. I was incredibly comfortable in this character that I was playing and any good character needs a good costume. So, two years before the World Cup in 1994, we had a coach named Bora miltonovic. He was famous for testing his players, I came into camp and I had real long red hair one night his assistant or his assistant came up to me and said: Alexi Borah wants you to cut your hair and I was so pissed off. The reality is, he was testing me and he wanted to see how badly I wanted to be on that team, and I cut my hair really really short. I kept the hair in a bag. I put it in my room. I went down to the meeting. Laura came walking in, he looked at me, didn't say a word just nodded his head. Borah. Never for the next two years said a single word about my hair and I grew it all back even longer passed the hair test. I kept my hair in a bag for years and years. I still have it, maybe I'll, send it to the hall of fame one day, they'll take it. One of the things that I love about the game of soccer is that it enables you to express yourself. There are kids that grow up watching and saying. Not only do I want to play like that player, but I want to look like that player. Hair has been, is, and will continue to be, a huge part of the game of soccer