Sports stars love dressing up as superheroes

Just a few of our favourite heroes in sport

It's National Super Hero Day. We'll be praising the key workers keeping things afloat. And, secondly, perhaps, our favourite sportspeople - who are heroes to us at least.

A lot of sportspeople across different sports have a bit of a thing about superhero cosplay - whether it's because they personify certain, famous heroic attributes, or because they've never had to grow up. Or, maybe, because it's helpful in terms of personal brand to attach oneself to a well-known character and make it a thing that your audience attributes. Dunno...

Some examples!

The 'Batsman' is just a joke that writes itself really. A pleasing piece of nominative determinism. And it's one that's been force-fed us throughout the Belgian striker's spells with Chelsea, Borussia Dortmund and Valencia, with a team of clever graphic designers helping to reinforce the message.

Another former Dortmund man - Aubameyang loves a comic-book hero. In 2014, he celebrated scoring against Bayern Munich to ensure victory in the German Super Cup by pulling on this Spider-Man mask, before being replaced – presumably so he could attend to some vigilante duties. This wasn't the first time he'd dressed up though...

Continuing the theme, Borussia Dortmund’s dynamic duo celebrated goals against rivals Schalke in 2015 by donning Batman and Robin masks. We can only imagine the arguments as to who got to be Batman and who had to settle for his sidekick.

Lakers player Dwight Howard started coming up through the ranks around the same time that Shaq's career was coming to it's Autumn phase, but the two have both battled against one another since to lay claim to one real American hero in the cannon.

The beef started in 2008, when Dwight wore a superman cape for the NBA Slam Dunk Contest. Shaq, who also self-identified as Superman, felt like this was infringing on his nickname.

The beef has since been squashed, you'll be glad to hear.

But this is no small-time obsession for Shaq. In 2018, pictures emerged of the Hall of Famer's Florida mansion, which reportedly, external features tributes to Superman, including a life size sculpture and 'S' logos all over the bedroom, mattress, gym and home theatre.

Too. Much. Money.

Free agent quarterback Cam Newton is not a man short of confidence, which is perhaps why he’s embraced the Superman moniker he’s been given in the NFL. At the Bank of America Stadium, where the Carolina Panthers play, they sometimes pump the Superman theme out of the tannoy and he’s got his own Man of Steel celebration. Just don’t try to interrupt him while he’s in character.

In 2017, then Shakhtar Donetsk manager Paulo Fonseca celebrated his team’s 2-1 win over Manchester City in the Champions League by attending the post-match press-conference dressed as Zorro.

He was apparently fulfilling a promise he had made which depended on Shakhtar qualifying for the last 16 of the competition. They did just that with a win over Pep Guardiola’s Premier League table-toppers Manchester City, ending a 29 match unbeaten run for the team in the process.

Fonseca called the post-match press conference the "most joyful" of his career.

Top banter.

In 2015, Tyson Fury, a man whose name already sounds like a comic-book character, turned up to a press conference dressed as Batman, claiming he’d been called by Gotham City, and proceeded to wrestle 'The Joker', before flinging insults at a fairly bemused looking Wladimir Klitschko.

They’ll forever be remembered as sporting heroes now for that famous 2016 Premier League-title win, and perhaps it helped that the team got into character during a night off from their title charge. The season was still in full swing at this point (December 2015), so, as you can see here, rather sensibly, they shared a bottle of lager between them.

Like a lot of classic characters, Kylian Mbappe’s superhero status is a role that has been thrust upon him. During his initiation at Paris Saint-Germain, team-mates noticed an apparent resemblance between the teenage wonder-kid and Donatello from The Turtles, which is what inspired this prank.

Deontay Wilder likes to make an effort with his walk-on outfits. Back in February, he turned up to his WBC heavyweight world championship rematch with Tyson Fury in this rather eye-catching rig-out. It doesn't appear to be based on any one character in particular, but seems to be kind of somewhere between White Walker, meets Wakanda, meets Doctor Doom. 

Wilder says that it was a tribute to Black History Month and represented black excellence. He also, however, blamed his loss that night on the outfit. 

"Fury didn't hurt me at all, but the simple fact is that my uniform was way too heavy for me," Wilder told Yahoo.

It also reportedly, external cost around $40,000 to have made.

Super powers can weigh heavy on the wearer.

There you have it. Not all heroes wear capes. Some of them wear obscenely over-priced designer gear and custom-made that neither you or I will ever be able to afford in our wildest dreams.

This article was originally published on 7 December 2017.

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