Jack Grealish and his low socks has become an iconic image in both the Premier League and in fixtures for England, but why does the Aston Villa captain wear them so low?
His bouldering calves make it difficult to pull his socks any higher, though Grealish claims that he first started wearing his socks so low out of superstition.
While playing in Aston Villa’s academy one year, his socks shrunk in the wash. Unable to pull them any higher up his leg - undoubtedly due to his humongous calves - Grealish played the whole season with his socks barely above his ankles. Performing well at this stage of his fledgling career, low socks became something of a superstition for Grealish, who has carried this trait through to his time for England.
That and the fact that his legs are tree trunks, his calves ballooning at the back of his leg. It is no wonder that he can't pull his socks past them.
The Villa man does also wear shin pads, as hard as that is to believe. He chooses to wear tiny, junior-sized shin pads that allow him to move more freely. Large shin pads and socks too high, he claims, restrict him.
Under the laws of the game, shin pads are compulsory equipment required to provide reasonable protection. Referees have pulled the England no.7 up on his lack of protection, though Grealish isn’t technically breaking any rules.
When Grealish first broke into the Aston Villa team in 2014, he was wearing his socks barely halfway up his leg. Now 25-years-old, he is still doing the exact same thing.
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