Football and advertising, featuring Manchester United stars Ryan Giggs, Lee Sharpe and David May, Newcastle legend Kevin Keegan and the unique Stanley Matthews

Advertisers will stoop to any level necessary to sell their product, be it sex, violence, a fat man dressed up in an orange jumpsuit with a tendency to slap people in Tango adverts, or even the lowest common denominator of them all - footballers.

All modern top-flight players will complement their comparatively colossal income with a boot deal or something similar, with the larger £multi-million deals are hogged by the superstars of the game.

Football wasn’t always so cash rich though and players who were lucky enough to be given an invitation to supplement their income by grinning gormlessly into a camera usually obliged in an attempt to build a nest egg ahead of retirement.

Seemingly a number of footballers from days of old were more desperate than Krusty the Klown to put their name to a variety of products and none more so than Kevin Keegan, as featured below in Shoot! and Match magazines between 1980 and ‘84.

He was by no means the first player to recognise the value of snuggling up to the money men though, as good old Stanley Matthews happily promoted the era’s equivalent of an isotonic drink by smiling with a carton of smokes in 1952.

An advert from 1980 in Shoot! showcasing the fantastically minimal looking Trevor Francis’ Electronic Striker, showed that an endorsement from a footballer could elevate the status of a product and also that stylists had yet to be introduced. This was still the case in a 1994 edition of Match, in which one time starlet Lee Sharpe was snapped in an advert for United’s shirt hotline, whilst trying to camouflage himself against his tasteful sofa in his favourite chunky knit sweater. Very flattering. Presumably he was on the phone to his agent trying to stop the publication of the snap.

By a 1992 edition of Shoot! advertisers weren’t happy with merely plonking the stars face next to whatever tat they were selling and instead satisfied their need to sell by creating an image for the brand and player. For Sondico gloves, it was Chris Woods who was their safe pairs of hands, although he clearly wasn’t wearing the gloves in the below Danny Baker video. Two years later in a 1994 copy of Match the adverts had become strangely prophetic towards women and menace Ryan Giggs poses. Spooky.

Such was advertisers zeal to add a professional face to their product that some would stoop far beyond the obvious, and evidence of this can found in a 1997 edition of Shoot!. I’m not sure any kids in a playground ever confessed to wanting to be David May, but Diadora clearly thought they could change this. However, Obi-Wan’s quote that “The Force is what gives a Jedi his power. It’s an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us. It binds the galaxy together” does collectively remind me of May and Diadora.

Not all footballers were afforded the luxury of posing next to their new favourite product and so come retirement they had to fall back on what they know best, by imparting their knowledge of the game on cash rich youngsters. Alan Ball and co opted to teach soccer schools, but Bobby Charlton thought he’d just put his expertise on tape and charge a whopping £39.95. Although, you did get a free ball and holdall as compensation for the whole in your wallet, so it wasn’t a complete rip-off.

Some companies though didn’t need celebrity endorsements. Instead they simply relied on the quality of their product to shine through the scepticism of punters and below are two prime examples of this. Fantastic knitwear son, but unfortunately I was deprived such a lovely sweater and I also had to make to do with playing football with my feet.

I wonder if they still make either of them. A stamped addressed envelope is winging its way to them as we speak to find out.

Tags: Advertising, David May, Kevin Keegan, Lee Sharpe, Manchester United, Newcastle United, Premier League, Stanley Matthews