When the match broadcast lower to Andre Onana shortly after he had made a save in opposition to Liverpool’s Dominik Szoboszlai this month, the digicam caught the Manchester United goalkeeper with a bathtub of Vaseline in his fingers. It zoomed in tight on him as he smeared the contents of the container on his gloves, the commentators laughing and questioning why he can be utilizing the product.
Earlier than the digicam panned away, I grabbed my telephone, took a photograph of Onana holding the bathtub of Vaseline, and despatched a textual content to Robin Streifert, goalkeeper for my membership Angelholms FF within the Swedish third division, with the caption, “Appears to be like like Onana is in on the key.”
“Yeah, I had a chat with him about it final week!” he joked.
I vividly keep in mind when Robin began utilizing Vaseline on his gloves prefer it was yesterday. It was our first coaching session after our summer season break final yr when he introduced a jar of Vaseline out with him to the coaching pitch. I initially thought he would possibly smear some on his elbows and knees to assist soften the autumn when he dived, however when he opened the jar and began smearing it on the goalpost, then his gloves, I couldn’t assist however snicker.
“What the hell are you doing? You need to catch the ball, don’t you?” I requested him as I smiled.
He checked out me with a bit of grin and replied, “You snicker, however belief me, it really works! My grip has by no means been higher.”
He informed me how Bordeaux’s Swedish goalkeeper Karl-Johan Johnsson (or “Kalle” for brief) launched him to it throughout a coaching session they’d collectively over the vacation.
Robin stated he was initially skeptical like I used to be and “anticipated the ball to slide out of my fingers like a bar of cleaning soap”. However after getting a few of the Vaseline transferred onto his gloves through the ball throughout their session, he observed the impact it had on his grip and knew he wanted to attempt it out for himself. After smearing a few of it on his gloves, he was hooked.
“I couldn’t consider how significantly better my grip was,” he remembers. “I’m positive a part of it was psychological, particularly if you attempt one thing new, nevertheless it actually felt like there was a profit.”
When the ball began smacking into his gloves just a bit bit tighter than I keep in mind it doing earlier than our summer season break, I turned intrigued and knew on the finish of coaching I must attempt it for myself.
After the session completed, I bumped into the dressing room, grabbed a pair of gloves I had sitting in my locker and went again out to the pitch. I took a dab of Vaseline, smeared it on my gloves, and hopped in objective. As Robin and our second goalkeeper, Lukas Bornandersson, began to pepper me with pictures, I instantly observed the distinction and the affect the Vaseline had on my grip.
My gloves had some age to them and it had been some time since they’d been used, however the Vaseline immediately gave them new life. The one draw back I might discover was that I wanted to sometimes reapply a brand new coating on my gloves when the impact wore off. That’s the place the Vaseline on the posts got here in helpful. If I wanted to reapply shortly, I simply needed to go over to the submit, swipe off a bit, and wipe it on my gloves.
Onana rises excessive to say a cross (Andrew Kearns – CameraSport through Getty Pictures)
However I couldn’t wrap my head round why it labored. Vaseline was a lubricant, why didn’t it make the ball slip via my fingers?
Within the months since, I’ve achieved some analysis and discovered the intricacies of why it’s efficient. My understanding is that latex is a porous materials, so over time, when the palm of the glove breaks down, it permits dust and water to flood the latex and you find yourself shedding grip. What Vaseline does is moisturise the latex of the gloves whereas additionally performing as a repellent to water and dirt from protecting the glove, permitting the latex to do the job it’s designed to do: grip the ball.
After seeing Onana use it and having time to mirror alone experiences with it, I knew I wanted to go additional up the chain and speak to Kalle immediately. I despatched him a message on Instagram to ask if he had a while to speak about Vaseline. He replied virtually instantly.
After we hopped on a name just a few hours later, there was an excited tone in his voice, virtually like that of a small baby who had been aware of a secret and couldn’t wait to inform somebody about it. Earlier than I might even get my first query in, he enthusiastically requested me, “So have you ever tried it?”
I started to snicker.
Although Kalle and I’ve casually identified one another for over a decade via our enjoying careers, we’ve solely ever talked just a few occasions — however this time once we talked, it felt like two previous pals catching up.
“It’s so good, isn’t it?” he requested. His pleasure and curiosity about what I assumed was real.
“I do know that it may not be for everybody, however for me, it’s made an enormous distinction,” he defined.
After I requested him how he first got here throughout Vaseline, he couldn’t keep in mind precisely who launched it to him, however one factor he knew for sure is that it was at a Sweden nationwide staff camp within the 2015-16 season.
“I used to be completely in opposition to it to start with and a bit naive,” he stated. “I had heard of it getting used earlier than however by no means actually believed in it. I assumed it was simply one other a kind of fads that may be out of the sport as shortly because it appeared — however after just a few coaching classes and seeing the opposite goalkeepers use it, I assumed, ‘OK, why not? I’ll give it a go’.”
He went on to inform me there have been just a few completely different manufacturers of petroleum jelly getting used throughout that camp and although he might see the advantages immediately, it wasn’t till he tried Vaseline with “the blue prime” that he was fully offered on the concept.
“Initially, I attempted one model for just a few coaching classes, however as soon as I acquired launched to the opposite one (the one with the blue prime), I switched instantly,” he stated.
“I nonetheless can’t keep in mind if it was Robin (Olsen) or Kristoffer (Nordfeldt) who launched me to that model, nevertheless it’s by far my favorite. I keep in mind shopping for 4 or 5 tubs of that stuff and taking it again with me to my membership on the time. I nonetheless use the identical one right this moment.”
On the skilled degree, the pitch is watered earlier than each coaching session and match, usually making the ball that goalkeepers are attempting to catch extremely slippery. When it’s pouring rain on prime of that, generally it might really feel virtually like an unattainable activity to catch the ball, even with the very best latex gloves in the marketplace.
Each goalkeeper is conversant in the sensation of your gloves being drenched and struggling to catch the ball cleanly as your fingers really feel like they weigh 100 kilos. The job of the Vaseline is to stop this from taking place.
The most important distinction for Kalle since he began utilizing Vaseline is its psychological affect on him, particularly when attempting to catch the ball in wet situations. Kalle admits that he usually had issues within the rain as a result of the ball was exhausting to grip, however after he began utilizing Vaseline on his gloves, he’s seen an enormous change in his confidence when catching the ball.
Kalle exhibits off his Vaseline-covered gloves (Romain Perrocheau/AFP through Getty Pictures)
“The psychological half is so essential to have a superb feeling if you’re enjoying,” he stated. “And being able to catch the ball is large and offers me, as a goalkeeper, a lot extra confidence.
“Throughout matches, it’s extra pure to be safer and push or punch the ball away, however now I catch the ball far more than I used to. Vaseline actually has made an enormous distinction for me.”
I used to be curious if something had modified in his routine since he began utilizing Vaseline and he stated with out hesitation, “I’ve discovered how you can use it correctly.”
“I used to make use of much more of it than I do now, however now I understand how a lot I want to make use of and once I want to make use of it,” he stated.
He admitted it took some time to get the precise mixture appropriate and learnt from trial and error, however stated that right this moment, he has his routine all the way down to virtually a science.
On matchdays, he first places water on his gloves, then wipes them off with a towel, earlier than smearing a small quantity of Vaseline on the palm of his gloves. He then places a small quantity of Vaseline on the tape of his shin pads, along with a bigger quantity on the goalposts. Nevertheless, he stresses the Vaseline on the posts is simply his backup in case he runs out in the course of the match, which he stated doesn’t occur so usually anymore.
Kalle stated that one of many funnier issues that has occurred is that at virtually each membership he’s performed for, he’s grow to be identified to team-mates and followers because the man who leaves Vaseline on all of the posts across the nation.
“I nonetheless obtain messages from former team-mates in Denmark on a regular basis joking that I left one thing behind once I moved to France,” he stated with amusing. “It’s fairly humorous truly.”
It was clear all through our dialog how strongly he believed in utilizing Vaseline, however I needed to know if he thought there have been any negatives to utilizing it.
“That it doesn’t work when the pitch is dry,” he stated. “However I at all times have a water bottle with me so I can add water on the gloves if wanted. Plus once we play or prepare there’s at all times water on the pitch.”
As fascinating as all of this was, I used to be nonetheless curious if he knew who launched Robin and Kristoffer to Vaseline.
“I believe Robin was launched to it whereas at Copenhagen by Danish goalkeeper Stephan Andersen after which he was the one who first introduced it to the Swedish nationwide staff. That’s, at the least, what Stephan informed me once I moved to Copenhagen in 2019,” he stated as he laughed. “Stephan takes loads of delight in that it was a Dane who launched Vaseline to the Swedes.”
Kalle concluded our dialog by saying that he’s launched Vaseline to the goalkeepers at each membership he’s been to — every time, the identical factor occurs.
“They’re at all times so sceptical, very like Robin was once we skilled collectively, however after they see the outcomes that I’ve in coaching and what number of balls I catch, they at all times ultimately find yourself taking some Vaseline off the submit and placing it on their gloves,” he stated. “They at all times find yourself loving it in the long run.”
(High picture: Andre Onana; by Robin Jones – AFC Bournemouth through Getty Pictures)