Jerry Bengtson caught the eye. There had never been anything like it in the Champions League. The Honduran international, captain of Olimpia Deportivo, actually played with a black face mask. Voluntary. Over the entire season.
“It’s funny because he’s the only player in the squad and in the championship who plays with a mask,” said Olimpia coach Pedro Proglio after his team made it to the semi-finals of the Concaf premier class. The coach has no problem with his striker’s behavior, which is still extremely rare in professional sport, on the contrary. “It doesn’t bother him and he also scores goals,” said Proglio, referring to the games in the national league in which Bengtson has been causing a sensation for weeks with his mouth and nose covering.
Use very rarely
According to the American news channel CBS, Bengtson, who is a feared goalscorer in the Confederation for North and Central America and the Caribbean Concaf, is the first athlete to wear a face mask during a professional soccer game. He is doing this to protect himself and his family from the corona virus, local media report.
The use of masks in professional sports is very rare – and recently also caused trouble. In handball, for example, the obligation of Ademar Leon’s Spanish professional team to wear mouth and nose protection caused quite a stir in politics.
“It’s madness. At some point some players lost their breath, they got sick, they were on the verge of collapsing, “reported former Bundesliga professional Erwin Feuchtmann in October at Sport1, threatened with his team with a boycott – and was exempted from the mask requirement.
Bengtson wears the mouth and nose mask of his own free will. And has success with it. In the semifinals on Saturday in Orlando against the Mexicans from UANL Tigres, he wants to make headlines again. With a mask.
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