The new dress code in the bench

In the last Champions League final between Bayern Munchen and PSG, Hansi Flick chose a style between elegance and comfort, with pants and total blue polo shirt of the club. Likewise did Thomas Tuchel with the PSG leaders produced un partnership with Jordan. Also in the Champions League Nagelsmann’s Leipzig arrived in the semifinal, a prodigy manager of 33 years that has always been evident in fashion tastes. The German coach, for the outfits chosen, in Germany it's a sports icon, so much so that Bild called him "the hipster of the Bundesliga": from the red cardigan chosen for the Champions League match against Manchester City (when he was coaching Hoffenheim) to the checkered shirts Ralph Lauren (also Classic Fit Plaid Poplin model) in German matches.

The exploit of fashion in football is no longer just a phenomenon of football players: in front of thousands of spectators and perpetually in front of the cameras, even coaches want to offer their perfect image, the one they feel can best represent them. And everyone has their own style.

Flick

Thomas Tuchel

Pep Guardiola was also an innovator in the world of outfits for coaches, able to go beyond the traditional combination of suits. The Catalan coach knows how to be very elegant but also casual, with the display of different (and colorful) knitted jumpers Stone Island and, above all, always of the Italian brand, an iconic Soft Shell-R Hooded. By the way, some time worn without a badge. The reason for the exclusion of the Stone Island brand from the left arm sleeve is probably due to sponsorship reasons, since the City, since January 2019, also has as a partner Dsquared2, which recently supplied the Citizen with interesting material off the pitch. Yet Guardiola has lost a bit of its elegance. Stone Island jumper have been replaced by oversize sweats. 

"I, the coaches who show up on the sidelines with the suit I would fine them: you are representing the company, you can’t wear the suit!" said Max Allegri at GQ in 2013. But it’s not strange. The former coach of Milan and Juventus has always been an icon of style on the bench, always dressed with jacket, tie and coats up to the knee. But now on the bench the trend has changed. The suit and ties are outdated concepts. The rigid separation between casual and elegance, starting from the 2000s, is becoming increasingly absorbed: a revolution in the dress code started (and progressed) by staff from tech companies, of which Mark Zuckerberg is the most famous example. The shirt can go very well without jacket, the t-shirt (even low-cut) can be worn underneath. The inflexible elegance of Suits lawyers or Devils brokers it is a passed over principle, because new generations, particularly Millennials that work in digital or tech companies, have introduced new way of dressing in the job place, and the nightfall of the lawyer or broker suits it's a current phenomenon.  

Julian Nagelsmann

Luis Enrique

Mauricio Pochettino

Daniel Farke

Other fashion on the bench are the classic style of Zidane at Real Madrid, who when he does not have the full club, dresses with blazers and long coats signed Mango; sober and elegant even Luis Enrique, who never miss a pair of sneakers on his feet - he has tended to be seen with black or white Achilles Common Projects -, while Pochettino is another that wants to look stylish, as also demonstrated by the words of President Levy in the new docuserie on Tottenham - in this sense, his blazers and sweaters Aquascutum, London brand, have become iconic. By the way, since we are talking about Tottenham, we should also mention Mourinho, who always on the documentary Amazon All or Nothing: Tottenham Hotspur presents himself in the field with waterproof coats in perfect british style: in the last years, Mou appeared with many elegant examples of Made in Italy, such as a Burno Cucinelli coat from the Inter Milan years and sometimes appeared in Manchester. For the portuguese manager, a really remarkable and austere outfit after the Inter Milan or Porto times. But overall, in Premier League every manager has his own style and it's through this that we can see managers as icons.   

Loco Bielsa will bring the new social uniform of the Leeds (branded adidas) on all fields of the Premier League; Sarri - apostle of the corporate suit in modern football - surrendered to a polo (club) long-sleeved, practically the closest thing to his style of sweatpants h24. For these coaches, obviously, such is the style that best identifies them. Bielsa and Sarri are two examples of nerd coaches, all home and field professionals who live hours spent in training and video rooms to analyze the opponent. The suit, for these characters, is an identification with their own professional style, in which there is no room for glamour: there is only the field, and the suit is the element that can make them closer to their players, which can bring them even more into the rectangle. Because this is the main thing for them. 

Marcelo Bielsa

Maurizio Sarri

In all this, brands also play a role in the choice of outfits. In the Premier League, for example, this year there were a lot of suits - Klopp docet -, and the technical sponsors had a lot of visibility thanks to the outfits chosen by the managers - such as the adidas social suit by Nuno Espirito Santo. Klopp, in fact, was dressed entirely in New Balance: the suit he used was a remarkable garment even off the pitch, so that the uniforms and k-ways of the German coach had become iconic models of the American brand. New Balance had designed a signature shoes for Klopp, the NB1 x Jurgen Klopp 990W3, available in the stores of the American brand and always worn by the German coach on the sidelines. On one hand, therefore, with the social uniforms managers can be more comfortable, on the other, technical sponsor earns in visibility.