Skill Tip: The silicone secret of Juan Pablo Angel’s success
“The design is so simple, it’s unreal. I can see it filtering into the professional ranks. It has worldwide potential.” So said automotive designer Vaughan Lovelock, proud pioneer of the Goalband – a hi-tech silicone device cunningly designed to look like a slightly embarrassing old-style towelling headband, while packing the promise to make missed headers a thing of the past.
Lovelock came up with the idea in 2006 after watching players consistently failing to hit the target with their head, a failure he puts down to the lack of friction between the player’s head and the smooth modern ball.
The hot question: could a large blob of silicone on his head stop Villa’s Juan Pablo Angel looking like a tit in front of goal? Almost incredibly, the Colombian agreed to wear a prototype to help find out…
Meanwhile, here’s a 1987 patent for a Head Guard For Soccer Player, filed by Lazarito Romero of Phoenix, Arizona. “This invention," it proclaims, "relates to apparatus for protecting the head of a player during the bunting of a soccer ball”.
They just don’t get it, do they?
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