Jack Grealish’s calves probably endured a hell of a strain during his wild celebrations after winning the European Treble with Manchester City. If the Englishman had felt that winning the Premier League title in his debut campaign with the Cityzens felt great, he’s on cloud nine this time around.
To his credit, Grealish did work hard to adapt himself to a rather interesting role in Pep Guardiola’s side last season. He featured heavily, featuring in 50 matches for the Premier League giants, and contributed to 16 goals in a sort of a wing-back role where he had to work just as hard defensively to win back the ball as he did to create chances for Erling Haaland & co.
So one can’t really blame Grealish for going absolutely gaga in the post-treble-winning celebrations. In footage of the Man City players’ celebrations, the England international looks clearly drunk and in a full-blown party mood – to the point that he didn’t even get out of his kit when the City players were celebrating with their fans at 6 AM after the win over Inter Milan.
All of this will actually only end up increasing the popularity of England’s golden boy, who is often compared to David Beckham – not just because of his crossing style, but also due to his attractive looks and physical attributes. Grealish started to gain a huge surge in fans ahead of the Euro 2020, to the point when his partner was abused on social media for being with him.
There also seems to be a bizarre fascination that a lot of England football fans have with one part of Grealish in particular, which are….his fantastic calves. Indeed, the 27-year-old has some near-perfect calves which he really doesn’t shy away from showing off either.
3 times Jack Grealish’s calves became national news
Grealish wasn’t exactly a darling of the masses when he initially made his debut for Aston Villa and even played for them in the 2015 FA Cup final against Arsenal – which they lost pretty badly. That probably acted as fuel for him to get even better and become one of the best players in England.
The 27-year-old really started to see his popularity soar after he helped Villa avoid relegation in the 2019/20 Premier League season. He gained the reputation for being the Premier League’s most fouled player and attracted attention from major clubs from around the world.
In 2021, Grealish made the tough decision to leave his childhood club and join Manchester City for a whopping £100m – breaking the record for the highest transfer fee paid for a British player in history. Just before that, however, the Englishman was one of England’s most exciting players in the Euro 2020 and played a major role to help them make the finals.
An underrated Euro 2020 highlight
The Three Lions did, however, play out a dull 0-0 draw against rivals Scotland in the group stages – in which Grealish was totally neutralized by Scottish defender Stephen O’Donnell. It was O’Donnell that announced the weird tactic he used to frustrate Grealish in the game, something that involved his calves.
He said: “Thankfully, John McGinn had been giving me some tips. He said, if he comes on, get nibbling in his ear, but don’t be critical, be complimentary. So the full-time he was on I was telling him how good-looking he was, and I loved his calves.”
While it’s not certain that O’Donnell’s comments started the obsession some fans have with Grealish’s calves, it could’ve definitely acted as a starting point for his fandom. The Englishman is known for having exceptional calf muscles, which are probably needed to help him from all the fouls that he sustains during games.
The infamous calendar
The 27-year-old’s popularity in England is probably close to rivalling that of many boy bands and popular artists, with Grealish having his own genuine fan groups who worship him. These fans also have an infatuation with his perfect calves and this actually prompted a British granddad, Kevin Beresford to actually create custom calendars based on Grealish’s calves.
Indeed, Beresford created a 2022 calendar with different pictures of the Man City winger’s calves called ‘The Wonderful World of Jack Grealish’s Calves’ – which proved to be a big hit among his fans. He revealed: “It was my best-selling calendar last year and that’s what pushed me to do a sequel. The pictures are better this year, his calves have got better and bigger and they look more beautiful.
“I’ve said before Grealish has the calves of a Greek god and now they even look less hairy. Whether he shaves them I don’t know but I think they’re luscious this year.
“I think the guys are buying the calendars for their girlfriends because he is so dishy. I can just see their girlfriends gushing over Jacky boy. I don’t just get orders from Manchester, people buy the calendar from all over Britain and people from the Midlands still want one too even though he left Aston Villa.
“I think that’s because the girls still love him even though he’s gone to Manchester City and obviously everyone will be supporting him playing for England too.”
Beresford, an Aston Villa fan, has also created a 2024 A3 size wall calendar of Grealish’s calves which is available for around £12.50. Not just that, but the upraise in popularity of Grealish’s calves saw it make the mainstream news channels in the UK too.
Primetime GB News content
Great Britain News broadcaster and former UK politician Nigel Farage was asked a peculiar question recently about whether his calves are as big as Grealish’s and if he could replace him at Manchester City.
The UK presenter sarcastically replied that one of his calves is bigger than the other (due to a car accident he suffered) and that if both calves were as equally big – and had he been younger – he could’ve actually replaced Grealish!
Not just the fans, but even female footballers appear to be fascinated with the City winger’s legs.
Janine Beckie, the star forward for the Canada national women’s soccer team, recently discussed Jack Grealish’s calves in a Men in Blazers podcast. She used to play as part of Manchester City’s Women’s side until 2022 and got to interact with Grealish.
Beckie recalled an incident where her calves were 8th of what Grealish was and that the Man City winger had real problems fitting socks into his calves because of just how big they were too!
The secret behind Grealish’s Herculean calves?
Jack Grealish’s calves have become so popular that his way of wearing socks – known as the ‘half sock’ style – has been adopted by a number of players and fans too. The Englishman has revealed in the past that he had started wearing his socks like that from a very young age because he struggled to get them around his massive calves.
When it comes to being asked how one can get glorious calves like him, Grealish revealed: “I actually do nothing! It’s just something that runs in the family (pardon the pun); my grandad always had big calves when he used to play football.
“But no, I don’t do any calf exercises or calf routines in the gym or anything. Honestly, it’s just something that I’ve had since I was young.” Well, in Grealish’s case, it appears that his perfect calves are thanks to really strong genetics that date back to his granddad.