Football fans were left puzzled when Manchester United goalkeeper Andre Onana was pictured applying Vaseline to his gloves in their Premier League clash against Liverpool.
After Onana pushed a curling Mo Salah effort around the post, when it looked like the Cameroon international could have caught it instead, he got up and applied some Vaseline to his gloves.
Fans were left baffled on social media as to why he was using a product more commonly known to improve skin care to seemingly improve his grip on his gloves.
One fan tweeted: “Am I the only one who noticed Onana rubbing Vaseline on his gloves? No wonder he can’t catch a ball,” while another added: “Onana 100% just put Vaseline on his gloves after parrying two catchable shots.”
But there is some method behind the madness, with a number of professional goalkeepers suggesting the application of Vaseline actually improves their handling.
When discussing how slippery modern footballs are, former Manchester United goalkeeper Ben Foster and current Coventry City goalkeeper Ben Wilson explained the thinking behind it.
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Speaking on the FozCast, Wilson said: “Honestly, you can practise all you like being a goalkeeper and catching a ball but you’re going into games now thinking, ‘I’m not catching anything today.’ And now a lot of goalkeepers are wearing Vaseline on their gloves, but I’ll not let myself do it.”
Foster replied: “This is goalkeeper geekery. I’m sorry, but explain the Vaseline thing. I remember the first person I saw do that was Joe Hart in the Brazil 2014 World Cup and he said: ‘Honestly Fozzy, it’s a game changer.’ And I said: ‘there’s no way on this earth mate, it can’t be.”
Wilson continued: “There’s no way I will allow myself to put it on my gloves, no matter how wet or damaged they are. Luckily Simon (Moore) puts it on his, so there’s always a little bit on the ball, and the difference…
“I worked with Martyn Margetson at Cardiff and he used to tell me to put Vaseline on my gloves. It was chucking it down and I thought there’s no way, if the rain gets on that it will just slip through. But I think one of the lads did it then and I was thinking ‘this is incredible’. I don’t know how it works because I don’t know science.”
Foster insisted: “I could tell you in a training session who has Vaseline on their gloves and who doesn’t because as soon as I grab it, it does make it grippier.”
