Is this annoying anyone else? I mean I kno it is a little thing but it looks ridiculous, is completely pointless and is starting to bug me. Players I have seen do this: Wayne Rooney, Carlos Tevez, Patrice Evra, Harry Kewell, Andrei Voronin, Sol Campbell, Benjani and Anderson to name a few.

For those who don't know what I am talking about then there are three players with it in this pic
http://www.manutd.com/default.sps?pagegid=...p;newsid=514127

I'm with you, I see loads of players doing this and my mate has started doing it. It's stupid, especially as they could just wear long sleeves and it would look less idiotic and probably be more comfortable.

I disagree for 2 reasons.
1 - it is extremely comfortable with the base layer especially in the winter months
2. because the base layer is tight the sleeves are not baggy and long whereas most long sleeve shirts are baggy or long on players especially with the nike shirts or the adidas shirts have stupid big thick knitted cuffs
I really don't see why it looks stupid. Might look stupid if they have a red shirt and white undershirt but the same colours are fine

I dont see the problem

To be completly honest I don't think there is one, it is just a little thing that bugs me as stated in the OP.

I think it's warmer to wear something like an underarmor cold gear longsleeve rather than a ls jersey, mostly because underarmor doesn't move much at all in comparison. Plus those adidas longsleeve jerseys are not warm at all in the winter.

everyone on my club team does it (so cal, us)

it keeps you nice and warm but i do have to say the underarmor constricts your heavy breathing sometimes

Doesn't look that bad to me, but as for Rooney and the United players it makes perfect sense as their LS shirts are as treble said, ridiculously baggy.

nah i know, i just dont see why it bugs you lol.

I think theres two reasons for doing it, the most obvious is that they simply want the benefits of a long sleeve compression top whilst not having to wear a long sleeve shirt, which can be annoying. The real reason is, I think, to make it more obvious that they're wearing compression gear, making it a fashion statement (or lack of fashion statement) leading more people to buy and wear compression shirts themselves. Cricketers have been doing it for a couple seasons now, the amount of kids wearing ankle to wrist compression stuff here atm is scary, especially when you consider how much it costs.

I'm proud to say, this trend started in Southen California. It is usually hott and humid out here all year long so most club teams only carry short sleeve unis. But it can get pretty cold for about 2 to 3 months out of the year...thats why SoCali players started wearing american-football L/S compression shirts under short sleeve unis. Would be rediculous to buy L/S unis for only 8 weeks of play.

the end.thank you, and good night.

To live and die in LA.....

for me, i prefer base layer than long sleeve. base layers are incredibly comfortable and keep you very warm.

no arsenal players do it though lol.

Touch wood.

The base layer also wicks sweat MUCH better than any Sphere, Code 7, Formotion or whatever jersey techology.

say what? :S

whether you think it looks idiotic is a matter of opinion.

but as noted above, it's probably for various reasons.

I believe that's more commonly phrased "knock on wood."

Meaning, "Liverpool haven't ever blown a 3-0 lead to Marseille."

"You knock on wood!"

U serious mate? Premiership footballers get to choose their shirt whether short or long sleeve before every game. They dont have to "buy" anything.

Yeah but after teams from all over started seeing us @ Dallas Cup, K- Cup, Nationals, etc. wearing Under Armor, more and more people started copying. Hence turning it into a fashion statement, more than a necessity.

Eventually it caught on over-seas..........and on to the pro-level.

TO LiVE and DiE in LA...

ya im gonna ignore that, I live in Northern california and have been seeing this since 1998, and I saw the dallas texans wearing that when we played it so im sure you didnt start it.
didnt adidas make a long sleeve top that looks like its two shirts? i thought the chelsea long sleeve does that

yeah it looks like that but it still baggy.

okay then. i still dont quite understand it lol.

it's just a superstitious thing that people do.

you don't want to jinx yourself so people knock on wood.

and at the trend starting in socal...riiiiight....

Rooney seems to be doing it again against Roma in CL. This time with the 3rd shirt. Doesn't look half as good as with the home shirt or the black away shirt though.

I think you can expect Rooney to wear it almost every match this winter

You all are missing another point of this new fashion and that's marketing. Last night after the Chelsea game you see Joe Cole & Peter Cech talking on cam in their Adidas under-armour which made the obvious point imo that it's all for marketing purposes. Whether it's Nike, Adidas, Puma, etc.....

they are pros this is ridiculous if they want them tight tell them to make it tight i hate the undershirts because we have short sleeve jerseys and the long sleeve looks so much better

i understand the marketing point of view.

but i don't think joe cole or peter cech would be purposely marketing adidas apparel since neither of them endorse adidas.

regardless....can't believe the uproar over an undershirt...

Aresenal have a tradition that the whole team have to wear the same jersey as the captain (ie if he wears short sleeves on a freezing January evening, they all have to) thus currently they have to wear whatever William Gallas (I think) chooses (usually long-sleeve). I don't know if this applies to under-shirts or what happens when the goalkeeper (Seaman back in the day) has the armband.

I would agree that the increase in seeing long-sleeve under short-sleeve is marketing related and it does look good with the long under short although I'd wonder if the referees would have an issue with any variation in colour (eg It may be difficult to get a luminous yellow undershirt for Chelsea away- would black be acceptable?)

As far as I recall the first EPL player I saw doing it was Papa Bouba Diop whilst playing for Fulham in their Puma kit with the black sleeve and he wore a black undershirt.

i dont see a problem with it at all. i wear an underlayer under my shirt, admitidly not one of the skin tight base layers but a a long sleeve 'nike dri-fit' shirt.
its comfortable, keeps you warm and looks good at the same time, what more do you want?

dont look good. look fabulous. lol

Now the Newcastle players who wore royal blue undershirts with their sky blue kits looked absolutely horrible.

Just brought a nike pro base layer to wear under my football shirt. just thought i would let you know.
This is one of the best football fashions.

omg alan smith looks horrible! (with the underlayer thing lol)

indeed seems to be the trendy thing OR they are sick of having their nipps shaved off with the material...
I always wore a cotton tshirt (alltought shortsleeved) below the footie shirts for exactly that reason.

anyway I guess from some manufacterers only the "standard/common" colors are available (in Newcastle's case for example)

damn i was so tempted to buy one of these under garments today. they had some for $30! nike pro black ones.

is it me or are they really short. i normally wear medium sized clothes and i tried the medium and it was incredibly short, so i tried the XL and it was a perfect fit! lol very strange

They are meant to be short as well as tight, theres no point in them going past your waist.
I guess we can chalk up another victory for the marketing chaps. Heaven help us all.

lol i found the Medium size to be tooo short, like a bit over my belly button, but the XL was a good fit. just right and shorter than my Arsenal shirt. might have to go get one

Were can i buy one?

Evra is the father of this trend.

Nike Inc. and Adidas Inc. are the father(s) of this trend...

its a bit saddening how effective its been, but hey, thats business. I spose they hand these players lucrative endorsement deals for a reason.

ummmmm are you guys for real? seriously? fashion? its exactly the same as wearing tights or skins on your legs, its just compression keeps the muscles tight and warm, its not for the runway on a milan fashion show lads.....and the reason why alot of the players wear the same dominant colour of their jersey is cause its regulations...some sad law fifa or some other wank organisation brought in.....

you can say that all you want but if that was the case, show the players doing it in 99 or in La Liga six years ago, because we didnt see it three years ago, two or last its showing now. because becks and so forth would wear a long sleeve. and you had the plahyer wear only a short sleeve top and gloves, R99 is an example,hes from Brazil and he cant tolerate the cold so he wears long tights, or Lucarelli, he wears a neck warmer, and they dont wear the ls tops, and Lucarellit plays in Ukraine, and I gurantee its colder then England
verdict: fashion

I can't see Nike or Adidas forcing them to wear it like that.... obviously there must be some advantages if more and more players are doing it.

Were base layers even created in 99? I can't remember, i started noticing them in around 02 or 03, when i saw the ad in the EPL matches that said "Nike Pro - An Athlete's Secret Weapon".

The fact is that these garments wick sweat and keep you drier than ANY shirt technology. If they were available 50 years ago i'm sure players would wear them then, rather than running around in a drenched kit that sticks to your body.

I know under armor has been around since the 90's. It's only recently that Nike, Adidas etc have started bringing out their own ranges. I don't see what the big deal is about them. If i were to wear a compression shirt im sure i'd end up getting too hot and having to take it off. I remember when i used to play football in the winter months i never needed extra layers on, as soon as i got running about i warmed up naturally.

Really? I have a sleeveless Under Armour and it makes me feel cold. It's top of the line though, i believe the Metal line. I have yet to wear it in really hot weather but it feels great.

It's true that Nike and Adidas made it more popular though, I've hardly noticed any Under Armour ads outside the US. I've really only known about the brand by word of mouth.

This is quite old.



Adebayor this time last year...

^ lol never realised any of our players wore the under garments.

They wouldn't force them, it'd be: "Hey, could you do us a favour and wear L/S <insert product here> under a short sleeve jersey? We do pay you loads of cash after all.....? And besides, it's cool!" After all, if players were 'forced' then many more would do it.


Hmm, seems like thats not up to fifa reglulations...


Yeh, i'd be suprised if all of them hadn't at one stage or another. Watch after the game when they go to swap shirts and stuff. All the arsenal players wear nike too, i guess its considered kit and the clubs get to dictate that.

As previously stated: http://soccernet.espn.go.com/archive/image...oubaDiop_PC.jpg