Mix and Match

Memory is a funny thing. You tend to remember only the things you want to remember, no matter how trivial it is.

Last year, Yours Truly talked about Thomas Kokkinis, a goalkeeper he simply couldn't forget because of the way the commentator pronounced his name, "to-MA COK-kini", some 20 years ago.

This time, it is about a picture of a guy, not particularly handsome, and not particularly famous either. In fact, he never knew his name until not so long ago.

Yours Truly has a soft spot for goalkeepers. He likes their ridiculous jerseys, and he loves their over-sized gloves. He used to bug his parents to buy him some expensive jerseys, particularly the Uhlsport goalkeeper jerseys, as he found them extremely cool.

Then, one day some 20 years ago, he claimed to have seen a picture on a magazine that would haunt him for a long time. He vividly remembered that it was a picture of a goalkeeper of the Turkish international team, jumping high and making a routine catch.

The catch itself was nothing extraordinary. What caught Yours Truly's eyes was the goalkeeper's apparel. He was sporting a very popular (and garish-looking) Uhlsport jersey at the time, but also a pair of Reusch gloves, a pair of Umbro shorts, as well as Adidas socks and Puma boots.

In short, five brands were used by him in that match, and Yours Truly has never seen something like that before. He may have seen some of them wearing Uhlsport jerseys and gloves, as well as shorts and socks of the brand used by the team, which means at most a total of two brands. But five? What the heck?

The picture deeply traumatised Yours Truly. How on earth can someone do this? Did he lose all his clothing and had to ask around for spares? What's worse, Yours Truly just couldn't find the picture again after his stash of old magazines had been trashed. And he started to wonder if he was delusional and, more importantly, does that picture ever exist?

Then one day, he stumbled upon the name of that goalkeeper, Engin İpekoğlu, and found this:

Even though the picture does not show his socks and boots, and even though it was not the very picture Yours Truly has been looking for, it was good enough for him.

And that is yet another piece of puzzle resolved.