Masked players: from Pazzini and De Rossi to Osimhen and Abraham, the protections from «Zorro» or from «Pulcinella»

Dressing up is a classic Carnival tradition: we are in the final week of the period of the year dedicated to masks. There have been and there are particular situations in which even the players needed to take the field wearing and showing off a mask and certainly not to celebrate Shrove Tuesday. The function of these masks is to protect the players after they have suffered a bruise to the face, they have gone under the knife to almost always fix a fracture. Protective masks have existed for at least twenty years, before they were heavy and even invasive, today they are made of carbon fiber, very light, small and custom made and printed for the player’s face. Many football players are forced to wear masks which are often also personalized.