There are certain unwritten rules that footballers follow after a match is over. One of them includes showing respect to the opponent players – shaking the hands of their opposition stars.
Another includes not getting into the face of the referees or picking up a fight with them – something that can lead to serious bans.
Then there is also the case of swapping jerseys between players – which is a very usual sight in European games.
This is often done between players who know each other, or when one individual is very eager to collect the jersey of a famous footballer or someone they really admire.
Some even like to give away their jerseys to young fans as well.
Chelsea midfielder Mateo Kovacic seemingly forgot the memo about how to ideally behave after matches on Sunday. The Croatian midfielder was one of his side’s most hard-working players in the entertaining 1-1 draw against Manchester United.
Despite not starting the game, the midfielder came on as a substitute after just 36 minutes – when manager Graham Potter opted to take off Marc Cucurella to add more steel to his midfield.
Kovacic did just that, helping his side get more of the ball and keeping things tight in the middle.
But it was his actions after full-time that got more of the headlines – not exactly for the right reasons either. Kovacic did one extra over the normal procedure of footballers exchanging jerseys or giving them away to a supporter.
The cameras suddenly caught the Croatian midfielder stripped all the way down to just wearing his underwear right on the pitch – leaving fans stunned.
It’s likely that Kovacic ended up giving his jersey to a fan and decided to donate the full set by giving his shorts away too.
But it wasn’t just the supporters but those in the dugout that was left surprised too.
The cameras even caught one female official emerging from the tunnel when Kovacic (in his undies) passed her – only for her to give the funniest reaction of surprise to it.
Peter Schmeichel, behind her, seemed to find the entire situation to be really funny.
It initially looked like a streaker who love to disrupt matches, before it became clear that it was indeed the Chelsea star who had taken almost all his clothes off.
Nobody really knows why he did it, but fans found this to be both absurd as well as hilarious.
They loved his shamelessness and some even started wondering what it would’ve been had Chelsea actually won the game instead of dropping two points by conceding the added-time equalize.
One thing about Kovacic is that he doesn’t appear to be embarrassed or ruffled by his actions.
He just raced to the back after putting in an efficient performance and solidified his chances of starting more games for Potter’s side going forward.