In times of doubt, it can be nice to check with authority. “Who is the best goalkeeper in the world?” Well, ask WikiAnswers and you get a definitive and unequivocal answer: “The best goalkeeper in the world is Italy’s and Juventus’ Gianluigi Buffon.” Done and dusted.

Sadly, guessing at the level of criticism and angry complaints we will generate with a definitive list like this, (“but you left out Yeovil’s Josh Wagenaar!”), we can only wish it was so simple…

Nonetheless, risking our necks – and leaving out Josh W - here we go with our choice of the top 10 goalkeepers currently playing in Europe…

10. David James, England, age 38. HO SOCCER goalkeeper gloves.

DJ has shown some moments of weakness this season, but we like to look beyond the worn out adage that “you’re only as good as your last game”. James has been outstanding over recent seasons, with game after game of match winning performances for Portsmouth. Such as at Old Trafford in last season’s 1-0 FA Cup win, giving Portsmouth a clear run for their first piece of decent silverware in eons. Overall interesting bloke, writes for the Guardian. HO Soccer keeper. His car allegedly runs on rapeseed oil.

9. Andres Palop, Spain, age 35. Adidas goalkeeper gloves.

Spain is a hotbed of goalkeeping talent at the moment, and, not sure whether to choose between Barcelona’s Victor Valdez and Sevilla’s Palop for inclusion on this list, to be truthful it came down to a nice stat we found about the latter. Apparently after Spain’s winning final in Euro 2008, Palop, who was 3rd choice keeper in the squad, wore Luis Arconada’s actual Euro 84 final shirt when collecting his medal. Palop picked up his medal from Michel Platini, who won Euro 84 after an error from Arconada on a free kick. Palop has never actually been capped for Spain yet though.

8. Julio Cesar, Brazil, age 29. Reusch goalkeeper gloves.

The first of two Brazilian keepers in our list, for anybody that still believes the myth that Brazil can only produce strikers – and this list doesn’t include Helton or Doni. Julio Cesar won the Inter #1 spot from the Italian great Toldo, not long after signing from Flamengo in 2005. A consistently good keeper, has set the Brazil international clean sheet record with over 10 hours of football without conceding a goal.

7. Huerelho Gomes, Brazil, age 27. Uhlsport goalkeeper gloves.

OK, look, so not exactly the man of the moment. A tricky start at Spurs and a bit of pillorying in the press. But Gomes will bounce back. Check out his record breaking feats in the Dutch league: apparently had streaks of 971 minutes, 817 minutes and 956 minutes of consecutive football without conceding a goal in each of his first seasons with PSV – coming close each time to the Dutch league record of 1082 minutes set in 1971.

6. Pepe Reina, Spain, age 26. Adidas goalkeeper gloves.

Loved on Merseyside, and winner of the Barclays Premier League Golden Gloves awards over the last 3 consecutive seasons (given to the goalkeeper keeping the most clean sheets in a season). It’s difficult to argue with those kinds of stats. He would also be Spain’s number 1, but for Iker Casillas. Son of well known former Atlético Madrid keeper Miguel Reina Santos, who lost a European Cup Final to Sepp Maier’s Bayern Munich in the 1970s.

5. Brad Friedel, USA, age 37. Adidas goalkeeper gloves.

Not always stylish, not always a flair player, but unquestionably an outstanding goalkeeper. An absolutely pivotal figure in Blackburn’s success over recent seasons, and his departure has coincided with their sudden demise. Has recently earned huge praise from new boss Martin O’Neill as his heroics and consistency have seen Aston Villa move up to new heights in the Premier League.

4. Edwin Van Der Sar, Holland, age 38. Adidas goalkeeper gloves.

“VDS”, as fans lovingly call him, just makes it look so easy. An elegant and graceful goalkeeper, especially for his age and height, whose brilliant positioning leaves him so often in the right place to make the great saves look straight forward. Van Der Sar is still enjoying great form in the twilight of his career, after spells at Ajax and Juventus, and a whole career at the highest level since 1990. Now also Holland’s most capped player of all-time, with 130 caps.

3. Petr Cech, Czech Republic, age 26. Adidas goalkeeper gloves.

Look at it this way: if Roman Abramovich thought there was a better keeper out there, he would have already bought him. Outstanding keeper - brilliant reactions, size and presence. A pioneer and ambassador of goalkeeping technology with the new all orange kit. His £7m transfer to Chelsea in 2004 reportedly meant that Chelsea paid more for him than every other goalkeeper to have played for them in history (and that includes Peter Bonetti, Carlo Cudicini, Dmitri Kharine, Ed de Goey and Kevin Hitchcock).

2. Iker Casillas, Spain, age 27. Reebok goalkeeper gloves.

They say victory at the highest level is a key criterion of true greatness. Casillas captained the first Spanish team to win the Euros since… well, can anybody even remember? And moreover he made it happen with some key penalty saves and overall solidness. “Superstar” doesn’t adequately sum up his status in Spain. A Real Madrid keeper since his teens, Iker was born in Madrid and will probably die there. But not before he chalks up another 10 years or so of major silverware.

1. Gianluigi Buffon, Italy, age 30. Puma goalkeeper gloves.

Gigi is close to the top of everybody’s list – and after all, who can argue with WikiAnswers? Record breaking 4 times IFHHS World Goalkeeper of the Year winner, with more points accumulated in this award than anybody else, ever, including Peter Schmeichel and Oliver Kahn. World Cup winner 2006. Juventus hero. World’s most expensive goalkeeper (€52 million). Married to Czech model Alena Šeredova. What else do you want?

Great quote from his agent, after Buffon was relegated with Juventus in 2006 over the Juve match fixing scandal and linked with a move away: “Serie B is a division he has never won and he wants to try to do this.”

So, how do you rate our list? Add your own top ten or suggest changes to ours by using the comments section below.

Not many people have heard of the Gulf Cup of Nations. Well, not in the English speaking world it seems anyway. A quick Google search doesn’t help much, and for an event that has been described as “the World Cup of the Middle East with huge crowds”, it’s quite an amazing thing that it has pretty much stayed off the radar of English speaking football fans.

But the Gulf Cup is a big deal. January 2009 will see Oman host the 19th Gulf Cup, as (ahem, according to Wikipedia) 8 of the Arab countries from around the Persian Gulf compete for the trophy currently held by the United Arab Emirates.

After struggling a little bit with the official tournament website in Arabic (OK, for about 3 seconds), we resigned ourselves to the fact that for the meantime at least this great event in the pantheon of world football will remain slightly obscure and mysterious for us. A few quick facts? Well, we don’t have many, so here are what we’ve got (thank you again Wikipedia).

Nations competing: Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, U.A.E., Yemen. Nation to have won the cup the most times: Kuwait (9 times). Current holders: United Arab Emirates (after a 1-0 win over Oman in 2007). Er, we can string a few more out but that’s about the best of them…

So why are we bothering you with this under-informed introduction? Well, in spite of our and the generally widespread ignorance about the Gulf Cup, it seems that Sells Goalkeeper Products may have caught others napping, with Sells now gaining so much popularity in the region that 4 goalkeepers of the 8 competing nations will be turning out in January’s tournament in Sells goalkeeper gloves.

Here’s the Sells goalkeeper line up – with goalkeeper glove choice:

Ali Al Habsi / Oman & Bolton Wanderers / Sells Wrap Aqua (size 10.5)*
Mabrouk Zaid / Saudi Arabia / Sells Wrap Aqua Guard (size 10)
Majid Nasser / United Arab Emirates / Sells Wrap Aqua (size 10)
Mohammed S / Qatar / Sells Wrap Aqua (size 9.5)

*Al Habsi currently wears Sells only in International matches

Sells Wrap Aqua Guard goalkeeper gloves: as worn in Saudi Arabia

Some people will be surprised to see Bolton’s Ali Al Habsi on that list. Al Habsi has worn Sells gloves in his last 4 internationals, but does not wear them in the English Premier League. It is reported that Sells hope to have him on board in future, alongside their other top keepers wearing Sells in the EPL.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, each of the Sells keepers has opted for the “classic” Sells Adhesion Ultra Aqua glove, with the exception of Saudi Arabia’s Mabrouk Zaid, who wears the Sells Wrap Aqua Guard. Zaid has big gloves to fill - Saudi Arabia already has considerable goalkeeping pedigree, in addition to the newfound esteem of having its keeper in Sells gloves. Mohamed Al-Deayea, who played for Saudi Arabia until 2006 (and who was reportedly almost signed by Manchester United to replace Fabien Barthez in 2001), holds the record for the most capped international player ever – at 181 caps to date.

So in this January’s 2009 tournament, this time we’ll be watching closely. Well, as closely as we can without any media coverage. Nonetheless, this year’s tournament may well end with the image of a goalkeeper lifting the Gulf Cup in Sells goalkeeper gloves – you’ll hear it here first…

Competition logo courtesy of gulfcup19.com

The Czech Republic and Chelsea No 1 Petr Cech has surprisingly become one of the most popular faces for marketing brands worldwide.

There was a time when only the most creative, or high profile footballers were able to cash in by adding their name or face to a product. Think George Best, Kevin Keegan, David Beckham, Cristiano Ronaldo etc.

But goalkeeper Petr Cech has thrown out the old rule book and is raising the profile of the men between the sticks. He’s fast becoming one of the most sought after and richest faces in the game.

Let’s take a look at who’s shooting the cash at Petr Cech.

Petr Cech Goalkeeper

Cech signed for Chelsea from French club Rennes in 2004 for a fee of £7 million. He started out as backup to Carlo Cudicini, but it didn’t take him long to claim the first team shirt. Often considered the best goalkeeper on the planet, Cech signed a new contract with the club earlier this year which will see him in the Chelsea shirt, sponsored by Samsung and made by Adidas, until 2013.

Chelsea Salary £5.2 million a year

Petr Cech Football Boots

You’d expect one of the world’s top goalkeepers in today’s game to have a boot contract. Petr Cech is one of the main faces of Adidas and wears the PredatorPower Swerve football boot.

 Adidas Sponsorship Deal £3.5 million a year

Petr Cech Goalkeepers Gloves

Another given for modern day goalkeepers. Again Cech is in Adidas product, which he has been since his switch from Lotto gloves at the beginning of the 2007-08 season. Cech wears the Adidas Response Pro goalkeeper glove.

Part of the Adidas Sponsorship Deal £3.5 million a year

Petr Cech Head Gear

Cech needed emergency surgery after a collision with Stephen Hunt back in 2006, following which he was advised to wear a protective helmet, something which is now synonymous with the player. When playing for Chelsea, Cech is seen in an Adidas branded helmet, whilst playing for his country Cech’s head gear is unbranded due to contractual reasons.

Part of the Adidas Sponsorship Deal £3.5 million a year

Petr Cech Samsung

Earlier this year Cech extended a personal contract with Chelsea sponsors Samsung. Samsung have recently partnered with Cech’s other sponsor Adidas on a new mobile phone which Cech has been seen plugging.

 Samsung Sponsorship Deal £1.5 million a year

Petr Cech Coty Fragrance

Just this week Cech signed a new commercial deal with fragrance company Coty to promote Adidas men’s active skincare products. Expect 26 year old Cech to smell sweet, maintain his youth and of course maintain the bulging bank balance.

Estimated Coty Sponsorship Deal £0.5 million a year

 Petr Cech Estimated Annual Income - £10.7 million

Not bad for a player who at the age of 10, had to move from a centre forward role to goalkeeper, after breaking his spinal chord!

It’s Wednesday night, Blackburn Rovers are lining up against Manchester United on a cold December night at Old Trafford, and the anticipation of a closely fought Carling Cup quarter final gathers around the ground.

But irrespective of the final result, the team at Sells Goalkeeper Products are watching with a great sense of pride. In the Red corner, Ben Foster – long time Sells endorsee and widely touted potential long-term replacement for Edwin Van Der Sar, as well as potential England #1 – turns out for United in the famous Sells Aqua Wrap goalkeeper gloves. In the blue (and white) corner, Blackburn Rovers’ Paul Robinson, recently converted to Sells, rejuvenated, wearing his new custom Sells goalkeeper gloves, which have been developed according to his exact specifications.

Previous Robinson–Foster duels have been noteworthy for other reasons. In an infamous incident at White Hart Lane in March 2007, Robinson became only the 3rd goalkeeper to score in the Premiership, beating the unfortunate Foster from a free kick off the ground just outside his own box. But this time the attention of the goalkeeping community has been on Robbo’s custom made Sells gloves, and so – you always hear it here first – we bring you a closer look at exactly what the England man is likely to be wearing for the rest of the 2008-09 season.

Paul Robinson’s new Sells custom made goalkeeper gloves… Not the best image but hot off the press! And another Footy-Boots world exclusive…

So what’s going on here? Well, the Sells Robinson glove started out as the Sells Super 4 Contour d30 goalkeeper glove, as worn in the past by Dudek and Bywater, among others. The d30 glove remains one of the top gloves in the Sells range, and has been a unique and innovative glove in its own right, thanks to its pioneering use of d30 material in the backhand of the glove. The d30 backhand technology essentially means that the gloves incorporate a material designed to harden immediately on impact, providing improved punching abilities without sacrificing the flexibility of the gloves under normal conditions. The Contoured Roll Cut of the glove is also specially designed to better follow the contours of the hand and give an increased latex-to-ball contact area.

Standard Sells Super4 Contour d30 goalkeeper gloves

Robinson, so Sells tell us, is a man who knows his goalkeeper gloves. And so, naturally, he is not a man easy to please in that department. The Robinson SMU gloves were painstakingly developed by Sells after repeated testing by Robinson, and gradually tailored, eventually finishing with the unique white and blue visual appearance of the backhand and the highly customised “ROVERS” tab on the outer edge of the gloves.

Most distinctive about the Robinson SMU gloves is the use of two technologies normally found only elsewhere in the Sells range. The latex foam palms, rather than using the Sells Super 4 All Round latex foam, are Sells’ new H2O Ultimate latex – reputedly the best performing latex in wet conditions currently available in the Sells range, and normally found on the (“£100.00”) Sells Total Contact Exosphere Guard goalkeeper gloves. Furthermore, the Robinson gloves also include the exclusive Sells Outlast material (a.k.a. “the NASA space material”) in the body of the gloves. The Outlast material was originally developed by NASA to help regulate body temperature and keep it at optimal levels, by adjusting to the temperature to retain excess heat when the hands are warmer, and to release it as the hands cool.

As already one of the most capped goalkeepers ever, Robinson could pretty much take his pick from the top goalkeeping brands. In fact, he attracted comment this season by spending his time at Blackburn auditioning a range of different goalkeeper glove brands, starting the season wearing adidas, for example. But it now seems that it is Sells who have won the day, and secured the commitment of Robinson until at least the end of the season – and quite possibly beyond. Draw your own conclusions…

Enter – a living legend… Enter - one of the finest and most popular goalkeeper gloves ever created or even conceived of… A glove that should be in an art gallery…. Enter, ladies and gentlemen - the Selsport Wrappa Classic.

OK, a slightly exaggerated intro, maybe. But actually not out of place with the common standard of goalkeeper brand jargon and outrageous claims. This week we noticed one of our favourites in Selsport’s description of the Wrappa Classic: “Index finger branding – provides peace of mind in your gloves, allowing you to concentrate and maximise your individual goalkeeping performance”…

But even if the use of the word Selsport on the index finger isn’t quite that good an invention, in the case of the Wrappa Classic thousands upon thousands of keepers will attest to the fact that it really is an outstanding glove that all dedicated goalkeepers should wake each day and thank the heavens for. So, a quick look at one of the longest running goalkeeper gloves in recent history – 10 years and still going strong…

History: just reminding ourselves from Selsport’s (excellent) new website, the Selsport Wrappa was launched in 1998, at the inception of the Selsport brand. Obviously not then yet a “Classic”, the Wrappa won quick praise and attention, and has since become a genuinely iconic goalkeeper glove model, thanks to a few essential pioneering features. Maybe the most visually distinctive of them, the “exclusive 2mm ‘impact’ low profile grooved latex” used for the backhand exterior of the glove, in natural white, provided the distinctive appearance of the Wrappa Classic gloves. In fact, the design as a whole could claim to be one of the most copied goalkeeper glove designs of all time, with noticeably similar designs later emerging from a variety of other brands. Selsport’s response to this was good-spirited: “When you innovate, you get copied – we’re flattered”.

The other revolutionary feature of the glove was the use of the roll finger cut. While not the first instance of the roll finger cut used on a pair of goalkeeper gloves, the Selsport Wrappa was arguably one of the key gloves to popularise it – with a huge number of keepers in the UK subsequently converting to the roll finger cut, from the previously default flat cut design.

Paul Robinson while at Leeds in one of the first versions of the Selsport Wrappa. 1st choice keeper at the time, Nigel Martyn, was also a long standing Selsport keeper.

The Wrappa Classic glove has obviously evolved since launch, incorporating new technological developments. For instance, the 2008 version saw the addition of ‘Storm Guard’ fabric - “a dynamic ‘smart fabric’ which has been created to defeat the world’s harshest conditions”.

The ‘Tri Lock’ latex wrist strap too – which Selsport believes is the most technically advanced wrist strap in today’s market, with Selsport’s 3-point wrist closure support system – has been a clear improvement on the model since 1998. Yet in many ways the Wrappa Classic remains faithful to the same features that created its success and that have made it such a popular glove.

On the back of the popularity of the early Selsport Wrappa models, a wider Wrappa range evolved, and this season the Wrappa “family” includes the Wrappa Aqua (first released with blue latex foam in 2002), the Wrappa Negative Surround, the all-white Wrappa Phantom and the Wrappa Protect finger protection goalkeeper glove models. 10 years and still counting, and now part of a family – here’s to the next 10…!

When Mexico’s Luis Ernesto Michel arrived at Mexican Primera Division outfit Chivas Guadalajara in 2003, as a young inexperienced keeper understudying the great Oswaldo Sanchez, by all accounts it wasn’t exactly viewed as the biggest event in goalkeeping history.

But with the departure of his great mentor in 2006, all this changed, and after being given the chance to step into the limelight, Michel took it with both (safe) hands.
The goalkeeper did so well that he allegedly now even has a wax figure in Madame Tussauds! In the spirit of keen and impartial reporting, we haven’t actually verified this with a visit to the museum itself, and we don’t know if Michel appears in his goalkeeper gloves, but it does leave the exciting prospect that Rinat could have the illustrious distinction of being the first goalkeeping brand to have won a place in one of London’s top tourists attractions!

Michel initially had a tough job filling the shoes (or gloves) of the great departed keeper Oswaldo Sanchez, who was a huge fans’ favourite at the Chivas, and had remained first choice keeper under 10 different coaches during his time with the club, while notching up close to 100 international caps for Mexico.

But Michel’s performances won acclaim and he has over the last couple of seasons become a Chivas hero in his own right, apparently nicknamed ‘Fray Michel’ (i.e. ‘Friar Michel’), after Oswaldo Sanchez, who had been known as ‘San Oswaldo’ (‘Saint Oswaldo’).

Admittedly, many people in the UK and Europe still don’t know about Michel’s heroics between the goalposts, but the success of the Rinat ‘Michel Professional’ range in Europe might be something to change that…

Designed and developed in conjunction with Michel himself, the gloves very much reflect the key priorities of a top flight keeper in the Mexican Primera Division. First on the list - must be impossible to ignore. The gloves must look great. But in addition to this, a very lightweight, breathable, flexible construction is one clearly appropriate to the warmer conditions of Mexican football, with a design also focused on comfort, movement, and natural feel.

In our opinion, the latex foam of the Michel Professional goalkeeper gloves is slightly less soft than some European foams – but this is by no means a bad thing. It creates a foam that is slightly longer wearing, yet Rinat have managed to produce a foam palm whose gripping performance is still outstanding. The gloves also feature internal latex, which fixes the gloves much more closely to the palm of the hand, reducing glove movement and giving a very secure fit.

Michel himself, on colour choice is for once a slight disappointment, opting for the black and white glove model in professional games. But in Mexico he is well known for this choice of colour scheme in his attire, and has been labelled ‘El Caballero Negro’ (‘The Dark Knight’) in acknowledgement of his dark kit. So perhaps it wouldn’t do to turn out in orange and green…

Rinat ‘Michel Professional’ goalkeeper gloves - technical specification

Palm:

Dual Grip Latex Technology
3mm latest generation Mega Grip Latex foam. Flat cut.
2mm PU high density backing foam, reducing shock on impact.
1mm Super Soft internal latex foam. Adheres to skin, moulds to shape of hand. More comfortable fit. More secure feeling.

Backhand:

3mm Super Soft latex foam backhand with 5mm fused PU foam lining.

Glove Body:

100% Polyester mesh weave fabric body panels. Breaths. Absorbs humidity. Dries quickly. Keeps palm interior cooler and dryer.

Wrist Strap:

18cm Nylon/Polyester elasticated wrist band. 5cm x 12cm latex exterior adjustment strap. Velcro closure. Comfortable and secure fit.

Change We Can Believe In

Never ones to dip our toes too deep into the dark and murky waters of global politics, at a time when so many people are looking to the future and wondering what change Barack Obama’s election as US president will bring, we thought it important for us to turn our own attention to the future of an area of even greater global importance: the world of goalkeeping products.

This week, focusing on uhlsport’s revolutionary – really – Akkurat goalkeeper glove design, we gaze off towards the horizon and consider for a moment one major recent development that may well alter the future of goalkeeping equipment …

OK, so we are probably as guilty as anybody else of proclaiming every week’s latest release as “the next revolution”, or “a turning point in goalkeeping product design”. But with the Akkurat we feel a bit like the Boy Who Cried Wolf – this time we mean it!

Let’s start with the uhlsport spiel:

“The Akkurat. A revolutionary, very tight-fitting goalkeeper glove with half-negative seams. For a direct ball contact and advanced ball control… Tight-fitting and ergonomically adjusted palm: newly developed two-colour palm made of Absolutgrip latex with an additional pulse cushioning backhand… Newly developed hook and loop fastener-closure with long flap and pulse protection…”

Almost lost in this outstanding example of goalkeeping product jargon is the very uniqueness of the Akkurat innovation.

Essentially, what is really important about the Akkurat design is the focus uhlsport have placed on stripping away all unnecessary bulk from the glove – not merely taking weight out of the backhand, but removing excess latex foam from the palm side of the glove, in areas where glove-to-ball contact is minimal. The desired effect of this is to take the glove design right back to basics – an extremely comfortable, close fitting glove, with the addition of latex foam palm and backhand material precisely where it is needed, not elsewhere.

The body of the glove, from a tight-fitting but stretchy fabric, is constructed with half negative seams in the fingers – meaning part of the stitching is inside of the glove - giving the gloves an even tighter and closer fit. The development follows clearly the recent popularity of negative cut gloves – with the likes of Van Der Saar, Cech, James and Casillas now all  choosing negative cut gloves (for adidas, adidas, HO SOCCER and Reebok respectively) – and uhlsport looks to build on the essence of the design that has made the negative cut model so popular with top players.

The ‘Aquasoft’ version of the Akkurat glove, for wet weather conditions

The removal of inessential features of the glove, as well as giving it an exceptionally close fitting and natural feel on the hand, make the glove remarkably light weight. Not first choice, then, for keepers who prefer outsize bulky roll finger gloves, but a real alternative for keepers who prefer a much more natural fit.

So is the Akkurat here to stay? Many a goalkeeper is typically quite a conservative-minded fellow – it goes with the territory – and won’t necessarily be quick to embrace change like this. But you don’t have to have the risk appetite of Rene Higuita to see the obvious advantages an innovation like the Akkurat offers: we think it has a great chance of taking off in a big way.

We’re warming up a theme here on goalkeeper glove classics. This week - the uhlsport Cerberus Supersoft Rollfinger goalkeeper gloves. A bit of a mouthful to say, but that’s often the first condition of a classic goalkeeping product…

uhlsport of course – decades of goalkeeping heritage – has more than a few classics up its sleeve. The pink and white gloves worn by Shilton and Zenga in the 1990 World Cup, for example, must be one of the most requested gloves for a comeback ever.

But the glove in question this week, the Cerberus Supersoft Rollfinger model, was probably a bit of a surprise for those German gurus of goalkeeping products.

It’s one of those gloves that no doubt makes the guys who develop uhlsport’s latest and highly innovative technology shudder. Years spent on new innovations, cash ploughed into the latest developments and marketing budgets thrown at new releases in the manner of a Coleen Rooney shopping trip… And then a glove like this comes along without any of that really, and threatens to steal the show.

Finger protection technology? Nope. Uhlsport Absolutgrip foam? No. Contoured palm for improved hand flexion? Nooo. Fancy embossed backhand?? No! No, the Cerberus Supersoft Rollfinger goalkeeper gloves strip it down to the basics – but the essential basics. Really nice foam, a great fit, the ever popular rollfinger glove cut and – let’s be honest – a price that keepers at all levels of the game can afford.

Obviously, the Cerberus Supersoft Rollfinger goalkeeper gloves do include a huge amount of technological development that we tend to take for granted these days. The performance quality of the Supersoft latex foam palms, and the comfort of the uhslport rollfinger glove cut, that has been many seasons in development, for example. Similarly, the lightweight materials employed in the construction of the glove backhand.

The gloves were first released at RRP £29.99 (possibly going up a few quid in coming months thanks to inflation). But it’s clearly not all about price. A fine seal of approval came, we believe, when the Chelsea supremo and uhlsport endorsee Carlo Cudicini took to the gloves and wore a slightly customised version of them in last season’s Chelsea first team games. They’re flying off the shelves…

GLOVE SPEC: UHLSPORT CERBERUS SUPERSOFT ROLLFINGER GOALKEEPER GLOVES

GLOVE CUT: Rollfinger cut
PALM TYPE: Supersoft latex foam
FINGER SUPPORT: N/A
FASTENING: Bandage with comfortable hook and loop fastener-closure-system
CONDITIONS: Dry/damp, soft ground
PALM LENGTH: Wrist length

MANUFACTURER’S COMMENTS:   

uhlsport’s Supersoft latex produces excellent gripping characteristics in dry and damp conditions thanks to a unique, micro-porous foam construction.

Backhand: YCAP® TR is an exclusive uhlsport foam for glove backhands. Highly flexible due to soft foam construction and formed using 3D Thermo rubber foam, YCAP TR promotes excellent surround grip.

High competition glove: perfect fit and maximum flexibility.

Lego, bacon, Carlsberg (probably): the world would certainly be a worse place without the creations of Denmark.

That list of three slightly unglamorous exports – the first things we could think of as we asked ourselves what we knew about the Danes – sadly probably reveals more about our intellectual shortcomings than about the achievements of the Danes. Nonetheless, for all our ignorance, one thing we do know is that in the football world, alongside tidy passing football and the Laudrup brothers, Denmark is rightly associated with great goalkeeping.

The Danish national team, proudly lining up with SELECT footballs.

Probably, a lot of this is attributable to one goalkeeper in particular, the inimitable Peter Boleslaw Schmeichel - the original ‘Great Dane’ - who is one of a very small number of people impressive enough to be able to carry off that middle name. Not enough people today remember how good Schmeichel was: in one of the early seasons of his career in the Danish top flight, for example, Schmeichel helped his side to the 6th best defensive record in the league – only to see his side relegated from the division anyway!

But in Denmark, goalkeeping is by no means a subject on which Big Pete has had the last word. And with Denmark’s SELECT brand, hugely popular in Denmark and successful across continental Europe, particularly as a producer of goalkeeper gloves and footballs, the tradition of Danish goalkeeping continues in full force.

Danish international Stephan Andersen, wearing SELECT goalkeeper gloves in a Brondby game.

Content on their separated island, many people in the UK won’t have encountered SELECT before. So in this article, we take a summary look at SELECT, and see why it is one of Denmark’s biggest and most successful football brands.

As befits a great goalkeeping brand, SELECT was founded by a goalkeeper, and not only any goalkeeper. Eigil Nielsen, once the star goalkeeper for the Danish national football team, created the company way back in 1947. According to SELECT, under Nielsen’s guidance it pioneered many of the inventions in the football industry, including the first lace-free ball and 32-panel ball. And SELECT has grown hugely, now selling more than 2.0 million balls a year around the world and still growing.

The SELECT Brilliant Super flagship professional match ball.

SELECT is known for quality, and really seems to pride itself on a commitment to producing top performance high end products. See its public statements on its footballs, for example: “We offer the best warranties in the industry. A 3-year warranty for stitching and shape for our Pro series balls and a 2-year warranty for our Club series balls.”

In goalkeeping, SELECT’s goalkeeper glove range for the 2008-2009 season features five key adult models, and two junior models, and we’ll be looking at them in more detail in future weeks. SELECT has endorsements at the highest level, recently well profiled by Karim Zaza for AaB in their Champions League group game against Manchester United. Zaza wore the top of the range SELECT 88 goalkeeper gloves.

SELECT also have Danish international and Brondby keeper Stephan Andersen as a proud endorsee of the goalkeeper gloves, as well as Rune Pedersen of Lyngby, Jesper Hansen of FC Nordsjælland and Steffen Rasmussen of AGF –all keepers playing in the Danish Superliga.

While perhaps not matching Nike, Adidas and co. on pure popularity stakes, SELECT continues to focus on the quality of its products, and keeps a large number of loyal followers for that very reason. Now available in the UK for the first time, SELECT goalkeeper gloves and equipment should attract the attention of keepers looking for performance and quality, and are produced with an obvious disregard for bling. We’ll look in more detail at the SELECT gloves over future weeks – you’ll hear it here first.

A few weeks back we looked at the brand new Kaliaaer Touch / Feel goalkeeper gloves, and speculated whether the future really is orange (and blue or pink and yellow).

Bury FC’s Wayne Brown is one goalkeeper who clearly thinks so, and the Gigg Lane press room has reportedly been inundated with confused questions about the bright gloves Brown has been wearing in recent games. Kaliaaer, the guilty party, is unrepentant, and believed to be continuing their development of pioneering goalkeeper glove designs on their mission to fundamentally alter the goalkeeping equipment world.

In any case, neither Wayne Brown nor Bury fans have anything complain about: at time of writing the club sits in 2nd place of the League 2 table, and Brown has been in fine form for the early part of the season.

But in spite of all the focus on the dazzling Touch / Feel goalkeeper gloves, we wanted to take a look at Kaliaaer’s milder side, and examine their top of the range flagship hand protecting Shok-Lock goalkeeper glove release.

With no luminous colours in sight, the Shok-Lock is clearly a glove that aspires to the ‘classic’ goalkeeper glove genre. The ‘wedding day white’ look of the glove aligns it in spirit with legendary gloves like the Selsport Wrappa Classic, the Sells Adhesion Ultra Aqua, and the Reusch Serie A goalkeeper gloves. But at the same time, Kaliaaer have done something commendable, and managed to stay far enough away from many of the all-too-imitated features of those gloves.

For a start, the Shok-Lock gloves seem to have been inspired by the idea of a bolt of lighting. The whole foam backhand of the glove is innovatively moulded with jagged zigzag patterning throughout, mirroring the look of the famous ‘Kaliaaer Bird’ logo in the centre of the backhand. In a really nice detail, the Shok Lock wrist strap is also cut into a jagged zigzag shape.

Kaliaaer have their own unique range of latex foams, and the Shok-Lock gloves incorporate the 4.2mm Kaliaaer aerGRIP Foam. A bit of the technology spiel on the foam palms:

“The “aerGRIP” micro fibre structure of the foam enables the glove to absorb and release sweat through the palm surface, giving superb gripping qualities in all weather conditions. It also incorporates “Reflex” foam retention technology, giving maximum shock absorption while retaining shape.”

Big claims perhaps, but on early form there may well be more to the Shok-Lock gloves than just hype – the gloves have already been extremely popular, with great reviews from the first batch of Kaliaaer keepers.

A word on the hand protecting features of the Shok-Lock gloves. Of course, they feature the mandatory flexible spines in the backhand of the gloves – four ‘Kaliaaer Carbon-Tec’ spines in the backs of the fingers in this case, removable too – but what will no doubt give keepers added comfort is the overall sturdiness of the Shok-Lock model. The gloves feel thoroughly strong and well constructed, with thick 4mm foam palms and padding throughout the glove, particularly in the backhand.

We’re waiting for the luminous lime green Christmas release, rather like the one’s above perhaps?

After last week’s profile of the new Reusch Pure Contact goalkeeper gloves, this week we take a look at some of the other highlights of the new Reusch range for 2009 - the ‘Raptor’ and ‘Core Line’ goalkeeper glove lines.

First, the Raptor. A clear follow on from the popular Reusch ‘Goaliator’ glove model, the Raptor range keeps many of the features that have made the Goaliator range so popular, and builds on them.

The Raptor is very similar to the Goaliator in the detail and construction of the backhand, with a complicated jagged cut of foam running diagonally over the backhand, and the backhand in general produced from numerous separate pieces of material with a fairly complicated stitching production.

As with the Goaliator range, the Raptor range includes the usual variety essential Reusch goalkeeper glove options, catering to a huge variety of glove cut and technology preferences, as well as to different weather conditions. For instance, the Raptor is available with or without Reusch removable Ortho-Tec protection, and comes in models with or without internal latex, and with any of Reusch’s specialist X1, G1, R1, Aqua Grip or Mega Grip latex foams.

There is also a comprehensive choice of glove cuts, including the unique Reusch Wide Cut, Bowl Cut, Negative Cut and Roll Finger cuts.

To their credit, Reusch again seem not to have opted for simplicity and lower cost production, but instead to have aimed at a superior looking, better produced and innovative goalkeeper glove design.

This must be a good thing: with a growing number of new brands coming into existence producing gloves mainly in the £20 - £40 price range, Reusch needs to continue to mark itself out with superior quality production and technology, in order to justify the £60 - £80 price of its top of the range gloves. But that’s exactly what it does, and in our view there are very few brands competing with Reusch in terms of quality of production and the level of detail in the Reusch gloves today.

In a strange way, the biggest change in the any of the visual styles of the goalkeeper gloves in the 2009 Reusch range, is at the same time possibly the least innovative change Reusch have made for a long time.

The new ‘Core Function’ line strips away the visual colour and complexity of the backhand design of the Reusch Raptor and Goaliator ranges, taking the design right down to a comparatively simple pure all white appearance. Really, the only colours in the Core Line range are some detail in silver on the logo, and a fine strip of blue, black or red running vertically down the back of the third finger.

At first sight, this brings the Core Function line much closer to the popular glove models run over recent seasons by other goalkeeping brands like Sells and Selsport, which have both frequently utilised predominantly white designs in some of their most popular glove models.

But to suggest that Reusch is following other brands would be mistaken. Even this direction change to the more simplistic predominantly white visual design is done in the typical Reusch way, with a great amount of technical detail still retained in the glove.

Like the Raptor, the Reusch Core Function gloves are available with all the key Reusch technologies: removable Ortho-Tec protection, all the essential glove cuts, and a variety of foams. However, it’s interesting that of around 10 glove models in the Core Function range, there are 3 negative cut gloves and 4 roll finger gloves. That leaves only 3 in the more flat cut style, which has previously been by far Reusch’s glove cut of choice. Goalkeepers who may have wished Reusch would provide greater choice in their roll finger and negative cut glove selection will be very pleased by this interesting development.

The new Reusch range will be available from around February 2009, and is eagerly anticipated.

What do the following all have in common: Sepp Maier, Ubaldo Fillol, Toni Schumacher, Joel Bats, Jean Marie Pfaff, Chris Woods, Bodo Illgner, Peter Schmeichel, Jorge Campos, David Seaman, Claudio Taffarel, Andreas Kopke, Dida, Julio Cesar?

They were or are world beating, truly legendary goalkeepers, obviously, but what else?

Answer: they are all goalkeepers who have played at the highest level of football wearing Reusch goalkeeper gloves.

Many, many world and European champions, at club and international level, so many true goalkeeping greats – Reusch is a brand whose history has always been closely entwined with goalkeeping legend and folklore.

Present day Reusch stars, Rost, Abbiati, Cesar, Dida

Fortunately, the quality and reputation of Reusch’s goalkeeper gloves continues to live up to the company’s great name.

Arguably, where Reusch stands out most is in its attention to detail. Many brands today are capable of producing high quality goalkeeper gloves, with top performance latex foams, good construction and fit, and innovative technologies. But consistently across its ranges of gloves, Reusch manages to go beyond the general standard of quality, and is well known among goalkeepers for this.

With 2008’s Reusch Goaliator Pro goalkeeper gloves, for example, almost every inch of the glove seems to feature some different use of materials, colours or technology. The backhand of that glove is produced from many separate pieces of material, at greater difficulty of production and probably cost, but it is features like these that set the gloves apart.

At the very top end of the range, this is reflected in the prices – Reusch, along with a small number of other goalkeeping specialists such as uhlsport and Sells, is one of the few contemporary brands confident enough to produce a pair of goalkeeper gloves for sale at £80.

So the 2009 range, as every year, will be released with huge expectation. Here we give one of the first public profiles available anywhere of the new Reusch range of goalkeeper gloves, most of which will be available from early 2009.

Reusch has opted for an interesting split in the new 2009 range, dividing the range of goalkeeper gloves between the more conservative and the more progressive. On the progressive side, the Reusch “Raptor” range is added to the existing Reusch “Goaliator” range (which will still be available throughout 2009), and continues in very much the same spirit.

The colour schemes are maintained, and the visual design is very much in the same mould, although with some interesting cosmetic innovations. More on that coming soon! But this week we look at Reusch’s move to the more traditional and classic visual appearance, with the Reusch Pure Contact (aka ‘The Gentleman’) goalkeeper gloves.

The Gentleman introduces a brand new palm type from Reusch – the ‘C1 Cyberstretch’ palm material. Sounding a bit like a comic book robot hero, the Cyberstretch material has been developed to give even greater flexibility in the gloves. In Reusch’s words, “The palm material is exceptionally flexible compared to normal latex and can be stretched both horizontally and vertically in a unique way. This offers excellent wearing comfort and fit…”

This development from Reusch can be seen as part of a trend forming over recent seasons, with the increasing popularity of the negative cut goalkeeper glove. Many pro keepers like Van Der Saar and Cech are now wearing negative cut gloves, partly because of their ability to give a more natural ball feel. Although the Reusch Pure Contact goalkeeper glove is still in fact essentially a pre-curved flat cut glove, rather than a fully negative cut glove, the Cyberstretch fabric aims to continue and develop the ability to give a very close and natural ball feel, by enhancing the sense of contact between the hands and the ball via the gloves.

Also aiding this close and natural fit, the Reusch Gentleman features a unique “inserted thumb”, with negative stitching creating a very close fit to the hand, as with negative cut gloves. In fact, the backhand of the Pure Contact glove is also constructed from C1 Cyberstretch material, meaning that the whole glove shares the C1 material’s flexible properties.

Cosmetically, the Reusch Pure Contact goalkeeper gloves are a real step away from the Reusch ranges of recent seasons, and a really interesting new development from them, with a much more classic and simple colour scheme and plainer one piece glove backhand. The Pure Contact glove comes in black and gold or white and gold, with the options of a full latex wrist strap, or a neoprene strap for wet conditions.

In the coming weeks we look at the rest of the 2009 Reusch range, including the classic ‘Core Function’ line, and the excellent new ‘Raptor’ models.

Selsport has long been one of the UK’s most popular goalkeeping brands, since its foundation in 1998, with a reputation for “No Nonsense” goalkeeping products that have won and kept their popularity by the level of their performance.

The brand has a great heritage, and many top keepers down the years including Nigel Martyn, Paul Robinson, Mark Bosnich, Thomas Myhre and Shaka Hislop have all been Selsport goalkeepers. Today Selsport still has a strong following and is worn by a large number of professional keepers in the Premier League and Football League.

For a lot of this time, the famous Selsport Wrappa Classic goalkeeper glove, in many different versions, has been the iconic Selsport glove. Its use of 2mm “impact” grooved latex foam for the glove backhand has arguably been one of the most imitated features of any model of goalkeeper gloves, with many similar styles from other aspiring brands still following that appearance today.

Although the Wrappa Classic continues to be hugely popular – a bit like Adidas Copa Mundial or Asics Testimonial in the world of football boots - Selsport continue to innovate and update their ranges, releasing new designs to complement their popular classics. The Selsport Sympro range is the latest of these new Selsport releases, hitting the shelves in time for the 2008-09 season.

We take a look at the Selsport Sympro models below, and start with Selsport’s own take on the new range: “‘Stop and pay attention’ was the concept behind the new Sympro family. Embracing the more dynamic thinking goalkeeper, Selsport has introduced four gloves which offer concentrated technology with a powerful degree of agility and performance.”

The Sympro models all share the same core common features, built around a great visual design incorporating the trademark Selsport “Winged S” logo, embossed on the lower backhand of the gloves. The range is also stamped with some nice commemorative ‘EST-98’ wrist strap designs, to mark Selsport’s 10 year anniversary in 2008.

Selsport have also worked a variety of the latest goalkeeper glove technology into the range, with “flex zones” embossed in the backhand of the fingers to enable the gloves to bend more freely and more naturally at crucial bending points. The Sympro gloves also all feature surround cut thumbs, removing thumb stitching to reduce damage and wear.

Selsport have opted for their Ultra Supasoft latex foam throughout the Sympro range – one of 8 types of latex foam in use in their current ranges – “a tried and tested latex foam still widely accepted as the pros’ choice”. As would be expected from Selsport, a pioneer of the roll finger cut, every model in the Sympro range also comes in roll finger cut.

In spite of the shared features of the gloves in the range, each of the four Sympro models has its own unique offering, as we explain below.

Selsport Sympro Tect ST

“The Tect-ST heads up the protection element for this exciting fresh family, engineered to provide ultimate protection by way of robust yet lightweight finger sticks.” Interestingly, the Sympro Tect glove also uses a Neo Max fabric in the backhand of the glove, which is designed to keep the hands warm. The theory is that warmer hands are less likely to suffer injury, and the Neo Max fabric works in conjunction with the flexible spines in the backhand of the fingers, aiming to reduce finger protection from several angles.

Selsport Sympro Interna

“Designed from the inside out”: the Sympro Interna uses double sided latex “for superior glove to hand fit”. Basically, by increasing the friction between the hands and the gloves on the inside of the gloves, the internal latex keeps the gloves better in place on the hands, giving them more of a “second skin” fit.

Selsport Sympro Fleece ST

The “extreme conditions” glove in the Sympro range. Uses Selsport’s PolarTec smart fleece fabric – very helpful when playing in severe cold weather.

Selsport Sympro Embossed ST

The all-rounder and classic model of the range, the Sympro Embossed glove is distinguished by the IP (Impression Palm) palm technology, which gives improved flexibility of the gloves by ergonomically embossing the palm and allowing the hand a greater degree of flexibility at key bending points.

Chelsea stopper Petr Cech hit the headlines in the weeks before the 2008 European Cup Final, with his choice of a bright orange coloured goalkeeper shirt for Chelsea.

The shirt was supposedly developed by a Russian scientist, after painstaking research that discovered that the colour was particularly distracting and imposing for opposition players. Perhaps that’s why Holland, a nation of only around 16 million people, has always done so well at football. But then again, it didn’t help Chelsea win anything last season.

Perhaps then we will have to wait to see Chelsea, and Cech’s, performances in the Premiership this season, but the craze might just take off.

The logical corollary of the insanely-brightly coloured goalkeeping shirt, is the insanely brightly coloured goalkeeper glove; and with the new ‘Touch / Feel’ goalkeeper gloves, specialist goalkeeping brand Kaliaaer have produced exactly that.

With the first release in what is to be a sequence of fluorescent goalkeeper glove designs in the Touch / Feel range, the pink and yellow Kaliaaer goalkeeper gloves come with the express job spec of making a glove that “not only looks unique, but also makes the hand seem larger and more distracting to oncoming players”. And distracting they certainly will be. It’s not impossible that goalkeepers may even employ new hand waving tactics in one-on-one situations in order to mesmerise oncoming strikers into tripping over their own feet. Well, perhaps that’s taking it too far, but you get the picture.

One thing that Cech didn’t do with his orange jersey was to vary the colours. He probably felt that bright orange was enough. But the Kaliaaer Touch / Feel goalkeeper gloves are highly unusual in that each hand of the gloves is actually a different colour. The right hand features a traditional white body with fluorescent pink stripe and wrist bandage, with the left hand identical but in fluorescent yellow instead. This is one of the features that sets out the Kaliaaer T/F goalkeeper gloves as one of the most interesting goalkeeping equipment releases of the season.

Importantly, the new Kaliaaer T/F goalkeeper gloves aren’t just about appearance. They are a very finely constructed model of goalkeeper gloves, well cut, incorporating a number of top technological features.

The palm is constructed from Kaliaaer’s own ‘aerGrip’ foam, which received very strong reviews from senior goalkeepers in trials and pre-release. The gloves also feature SSG grooved latex foam on the inside of the palm, aiming to increase friction between the hands and the gloves, thereby reducing movement and slippage.

One of our favourite features of the glove is the moulded “tyre track” backhand, which is a design feature contributing to the gloves’ unique appearance.

For full details on the glove specification, see below.

There’s no getting away from it, the Kaliaaer Touch / Feel gloves will fiercely divide opinion. For the shrinking violets among goalkeepers, the idea of stepping out onto the pitch in such bold and stark apparel may well be a bridge too far. Nevertheless, with goalkeepers, like Cech, more interested in technological development, innovation and – let’s be frank – just making a statement, the Kaliaaer Touch / Feel goalkeeper gloves will prove hugely popular.

Glove Spec:

BRAND - Kaliaaer
GLOVE CUT - Roll finger / Gunn cut
CONDITIONS - All weather, soft ground
PALM TYPE - 3.2 aerGrip latex
PALM INTERIOR - 3.0 inner SSG grooved latex
PALM LENGTH - Wrist length
CLOSURE - NeoSecure’ neoprene wrist bandage.Full latex “Vault.2″ wrist strap

KALIAAER TOUCH / FEEL GOALKEEPER GLOVES