The Goalie With The “Mickey Mouse” Glove

What do Fred Flintstone, Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny all have in common? Right, they all have four fingers on each hand. In fact, unless you’re God on the Simpsons or a character on South Park (well, sometimes), almost every cartoon character features only four fingers.

If you’ve been watching the Copa America — the kits of which Jamie covered here and here — you may have seen Mexico and noticed their goaltender, Julio González, has been sporting a rather odd-looking glove on his left hand.

Yes, the glove on González’s left hand — like many cartoon characters — features only four “fingers.” Now, González wasn’t born with a missing digit, nor did he lose it due to some accident. He has five fingers on both hands. So why does he have a four-fingered glove?

Turns out that a few months ago, González injured his finger. At first, it was believed to be just a sprain, but the pain he felt wouldn’t go away.

“He broke his finger, few people know, at first it was not known. Now it is public, first it was discovered that it was a dislocation, I got to see the x-ray and it was separated,” said Alejandro Reséndiz, general director of Elite Sport, the company that manufactures the gloves for the Mexican goalkeeper.

When he discovered the finger was actually broken, he could have played with it in a splint, but that would have created its own problems. He will eventually need surgery to repair the finger, but for now, he’s playing through the pain. And with a specially designed four-fingered glove. He might have had the surgery already, but Mexico’s first choice for goaltender in the Copa, Luis Malagon, had to pull out due to an abdominal injury. That injury opened the door for González to play in the Copa.

So González approached Elite Sport, the manufacturer of his gloves, and asked if they could create a special glove for him. He wanted to be able to bind his middle and ring fingers together, rather than use a splint, but glove makers don’t traditionally make four-fingered gloves, let alone one that would be wide enough to fit two fingers.

“We have some gloves, not top of the range, but with ribs. He asked me for gloves like that, to tie his fingers and have support, because it hurt him a lot. He didn’t want to stop, he was in a good moment and there is competition, and he held on. There we made him the offer to design a four-finger glove, for three reasons: one, so that he would stop using the mid-range ones, two, so that you don’t use rods, and three, so that you are more comfortable,” explained the director of the company that manufactures González’s gloves.

After discussing his needs, Elite Sport created the special glove that González wears on his left hand for competition. In fact, they’ve created special gloves in a variety of colors, so he can better match his keeper’s kit.

Even though it still pains him every time he touches a ball, he feels it’s better than any of the alternatives. His wife was even lighthearted about it: she says he “looks like Mickey Mouse.”

I’m sure he’d rather look like Mickey Mouse and take whatever good-natured ribbing that comes along with wearing the special four-fingered glove than to not be representing his country at the Copa.

And how has González performed at the Copa? Heading into Sunday’s “do or die” match against Ecuador, he was 1-1 (a 1-0 victory and a 0-1 loss). So clearly he’s been up to the challenge. And last night, in a win-or-go-home match, he was unscored upon. Unfortunately both he and Mexico are out of the Copa, as the nil-nil draw with Ecuador last night wasn’t enough to advance the team.

[Thanks to Paul for pointing me towards this story!]