At 40, Hungary's goalkeeper Gabor Kiraly has other identities than just being the oldest player to have played in European Championship. Kiraly has been much talked about this week after he was seen playing a Group stage game of Euro 2016 against Iceland in grey sweatpants.
Kiraly was neither trying to make a style statement nor did he want to look different. “I’m a goalie, not a top model! It’s essentially a question of comfort. I’ve played on clay or grass that’s been frozen in winter; it makes your legs hurt when you fall, jogging bottoms seemed obvious," he was quoted by Lo Journal de Budapest, a Hungarian publication. “I tried shorts during my spells in Germany and England but it didn’t suit me. I always take a size bigger."
For Kiraly, the end result is more important than how he looks. And he has proved that by saving big goals this Euro 2016, according to Washington post. It was not always grey sweatpants for Kiraly, who initially started playing in black.
Guardian reported that Kiraly had been wearing black sweatpants until one day he did not have any clean pair and had to wear grey ones instead. The team coincidentally won that match. But coincidence turned into luck when it won the next eight matches as well and the team stayed in the first division. Kiraly hence decided to stick with the colour. The original grey sweatpants, worn more than a hundred times by now and full of holes, is reportedly hanging in his wardrobe, as a reminder of hardwork and memory.
Hungary is at the top of the Group F table currently, after pulling a draw against Iceland by 1-1 on Saturday, thanks to an own goal. Kiraly managed to keep his records clean in Hungary's last game against Austria which they won by 2-0. Let us see if Kiraly's sweatpants can hold the same record in the next important match against Portugal on Wednesday.
