All that Juventus had to do to keep out the cold in Bodø From the adidas x Moon Boot collection to balaclavas and double gloves
The Juventus away trip in the Champions League to face Bodø/Glimt allowed the club's social team to dig through the archives to retrieve vintage photos of the Bianconeri playing a match in the snow. The carousel cover was dedicated to Mario Mandzukic, who on February 25, 2018 — despite a snowfall at the Allianz Stadium so heavy that the referee had to call the match off — went out onto the pitch in short sleeves to warm up. A scene light years away from what we've seen in recent days, with Juventus forced to study emergency solutions together with adidas to fight the cold while having to play a football match inside the Arctic Circle.
The balaclava
The first clue arrived during the final training session held at Continassa. In that context Juventus players had worn a winterized tracksuit which, besides showing heavy padding in the chest area, was also equipped with a balaclava. A solution we had already seen on the pitch this season thanks to former coach Igor Tudor, but in this case it evolved because the material used for this face mask is much more robust — an inevitable choice when you must protect players from the wind of the Arctic Circle.
The adidas x Moon Boot collection
Functionality aside, Juventus did not compromise on style to protect themselves from Bodø's freezing wind. This point is proven by the adidas x Moon Boot collection, a line of reflective padded jackets presented in two versions, black and silver. A futuristic line, inspired by a space aesthetic, because of the soft shapes of the jacket and in particular the hood that recalled astronaut suits and turned Juventus players into a sort of explorers. After all, never before this season had anyone travelled so far north to play a Champions League match, and the occasion required a special garment.
And although coach Luciano Spalletti said at the pre-match press conference that he did not fear Norway's freezing cold thanks to his experience in Russia with Zenit St. Petersburg, the same cannot be said for his players, who appreciated the collection and wore it whenever they were outdoors to defend themselves from a perceived temperature that during the two days of the trip ranged from -7 to -16 degrees. Completing the look were a pair of adidas x MOON BOOT Ultraboost 1.0 in a silver version.
The winter coats and Yildiz's double gloves
But no matter how nice the adidas x Moon Boot collection is, it couldn't be worn on the pitch during the match. In that context the players had to fall back on more classic solutions, namely: thermal undershirts, tights and gloves. Regarding the latter, there were variations on the theme — in particular Kenan Yildiz wore two pairs of gloves. The first pair, visible in the photos, is a classic wool glove in black that very likely was worn on top of a second pair — as seen, for example, with Weston McKennie — a more technical glove characterized by a silicone pattern on the palm to provide grip for those taking throw-ins.
These solutions were obviously designed for those who would go onto the pitch, while on the bench adidas provided a long padded coat: for Luciano Spalletti rendered in total black while the players wore an off-white coat matching the same tone used in training. Another extreme solution for an extreme condition that even surprised UEFA, which had to bring out the winter ball in a fluorescent yellow version.
