The reason Sheffield United ace Oli McBurnie wears his socks so low and why Chris Wilder signed him

Some football fans make their mind up Sheffield United striker Oli McBurnie after just one look.
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The Scotland international admits to being skinny, he has a noticeable beard which belongs in Vikings and then there are his socks.

He has joined a list of football players who don’t so much wear their socks as let them exist on their shin, pulled low, almost pleading to be pulled up.

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Before him there was Steve Claridge and Juan Sebastian Veron.

Oli McBurnie is distinctive due to the way he wears socks. Picture: GettyOli McBurnie is distinctive due to the way he wears socks. Picture: Getty
Oli McBurnie is distinctive due to the way he wears socks. Picture: Getty

However, the 23-year-old has revealed that it is not about imitation, more a superstition or good luck charm.

The way he wears his socks dates back to when he was a Bradford City player in 2015 and had a loan spell in the Conference.

“I was at Chester when I was 17 on loan in the Conference,” he told popular Scottish football podcast Open Goal.

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“I was skinnier than I am now, the socks just kept falling down.

“In the second game I wore them down and scored my first ever goal and just kept them like that ever since.”

After returning to Bradford that summer, he made the switch to Swansea City where he spent four years before joining the Blades in the summer in a big-money deal.

He had admitted that he enjoys working under Chris Wilder and playing for a team with “25 lunatics” in the dressing room.

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Aside from the goals he scored against the Blades last season, it was a touchline bust-up with the Sheffield United boss that helped him earn a move to Bramall Lane which involved a gruelling medical.

He said: “The reason the gaffer said he signed me was because when we [Swansea] played Sheffield United, me and him were squaring up to each other in the game.

“He wouldn't give me the ball back so I pushed him and me and him squared up on the side of the pitch.”

McBurnie added: “The whole way through [the move] he was speaking to me.

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“I drove up to Sheffield, it was about five hours, and he had me doing 1200m runs on the inside astro. I was thinking 'what have I signed up to here'.

“1200m as quick as I can. It was in the summer so it took me about 25 minutes.”