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Florian Wirtz in the semi-final against Düsseldorf: Big game, small protectors

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Jerry Andre / Jan Huebner / IMAGO

»The shin guards must be made of a suitable material that offers adequate protection and be covered by the socks.«

This is what it says under rule 4, point 2 in the current football rules of the German Football Association (DFB). A formulation that leaves a lot of scope. One person who is very familiar with leeway is Leverkusen's young star Florian Wirtz. The 20-year-old is one of the best dribblers in the Bundesliga and he doesn't seem to be afraid of kicks to his shins: Wirtz is an extreme example of the trend of wearing increasingly smaller shin guards. With the Leverkusen player, you could almost think he wasn't wearing any pads - which wouldn't be allowed.

After the 4-0 cup win with his team Bayer Leverkusen against Fortuna Düsseldorf, the national player was asked by Sky expert Erik Meijer about his pads. "They're relatively small," Wirtz said with a laugh after Meijer invited him to present it by showing a supposedly normal schooner.

In the past, shin guards usually reached below the knee, but today many players wear significantly smaller models. “I always try to make sure that not too many of them catch me,” said Wirtz: “Maybe I’ll get bigger ones again soon. But as long as nothing worse happens, I’ll keep it for now.”

In the semi-final against second division team Düsseldorf, Wirtz was the outstanding player, in his 141st competitive game for Leverkusen he scored his first brace and also scored his first penalty in professional football.

Wirtz has a brother in spirit, among others, in Jack Grealish from Champions League defending champion Manchester City. Like Wirtz, Grealish wears tiny shin pads and very low socks.

The Englishman once cited his superstition as the reason: During his time at Aston Villa, the socks were washed with too much heat and therefore shrunk. He played really well with the mini socks and therefore also played in low socks, from which the shin pads often stick out. A few referees have already asked him about his look, but he's sticking with it, the 28-year-old once told the Birmingham Live website.

luk/dpa