Gabor Kiraly on wearing grey joggers and finding a home at Crystal Palace

On the pitch, footballers are rarely noted for their fashion choices. There are a few famous exceptions, but those are normally borne of necessity, such as Edgar Davids’ glasses or Petr Cech’s protective helmet. For Gabor Kiraly, grey jogging bottoms became his trademark.

The Hungarian goalkeeper started wearing them at his first club Haladas in 1996 and rarely played without them during the rest of a lengthy career that included more than 800 competitive appearances. It’s what many supporters instinctively remember him for.

“At that time in Hungary the pitches were very bad so in training and games I always wore bottoms just to protect my legs,” Kiraly says.

“I had two pairs of trousers – one black and one grey. The black ones hadn’t been washed by the club and we had a game the next day. I said I’d wear the grey ones just for one game and we won.

“It was a very important win so I kept playing in the grey bottoms and we didn’t lose for nine games. We went from a bad position to a good one. I thought they brought me luck so that’s why I always wore the grey bottoms. They made me feel more comfortable.

“I wasn’t interested in how I looked. For me, it was only important how I felt.”

The jogging bottoms went with Kiraly to Hertha Berlin a year later. The club had just been promoted to the Bundesliga and he made his debut in their first win of the season over FC Koln, having displaced first-choice goalkeeper Christian Fiedler.

Kiraly went on to play more than 200 games for Hertha, helping them to finish third and qualify for the Champions League in 1999. They beat AC Milan and Chelsea at home to reach the second group stage but couldn’t contend with Porto, Barcelona and Sparta Prague.

“It was a great opportunity and a great