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Specs appeal: The top 14 coolest glasses in sport

It’s OK, kids who wear glasses. You can still be cool, just look at these sporting demigods.

THIS MAY SURPRISE some of you out there, but there was a time when wearing glasses was not the most cool thing you could do during daylight hours.

Back in the bad old days trailblazing glass-wearers (ahem) were castigated from society. Called four eyes, geek nerd, told we’d have to take off our eye-wear to play sport… they even assumed we were smart. It was truly a dark part of our history.

Oh, it’s all changed now of course. So here are best of the best examples of fine face framework in the wonderful world of sport. Sure, most of them are managers, but some did manage to live the dream and cross that white line, specs on. Here are the heroes.

Jurgen Klopp, Borussia Dortmund

Marks out of 20:20? 17:17… the daddy of modern hipster football wears suitable hipsterish thick round frames. Top notch.

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Reggie Jackson, Oakland As

Marks out of 20:20? 17:12… you know what’s wrong with baseball nowadays? No, not the drugs. It’s the lack of 1970s spectacles. It’s thanks to pioneers like Reggie Jackson made those massive yokes we wore between years eight and 10 almost bearable.

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Ger ‘Sparrow’ O’Loughlin, Clare

Marks out of 20:20? 2:20… Now these are a proper man’s pair of glasses. Wear them anywhere, fling them anywhere, sit on them, sleep on them,  and when they’re crooked as football agent’s car key, wear them anyway.

Man specs!

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Seemingly every player in the NBA…

Here, Cliff Paul cut-outs attempts to put Kevin Durant off his free-throw.

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… especially the number one

Marks out of 20:20? 19:12… is there even any glass in them frames, LBJ?

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John Allen, Cork

Marks out of 20:20? 10:10… Faultless frames. Narrow, understated, unspectacular, but they get the job done.

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Edgar Davids, Champions League (and Barnet) hero

Marks out of 20:20? 20:20… The king of bespectacled sportsmen. When the world first saw Davids and his dashing wrap-around prescription lenses the visually challenged among us finally had an icon to model all further life deeds on.

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Tom Court, Ulster

Marks out of 20:20? 18:18… Ulster, Ireland, Lions and, even more surprisingly, an accomplished glass-wearer. Tom Court rocks the thick frames when he’s not shoving his head under a tight-head’s shoulder. Even with a comically large sombrero they look the business.

imageCredit: Tom Court/Twitter

Jose Mourinho, Chelsea

Marks out of 20:20? 17:18… Some say he’s aged since being hounded out of Madrid, but damn if those solid black frames don’t make him look better than ever. If only he’d wear them when he’s not in Belgium.

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Billie Jean King

Marks out of 20:20? 20:20… None of your specially designed Davids-style specs here. Oh no, King had a job to do in which she constantly had to stop, start, twist, spin and sprint. And even while wearing that massive piece of scaffolding on her face she did it all better than anyone else.

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Marcelo Lippi, Italy

Marks out of 20:20? 17:17… So refined, so dignified. When TheScore.ie is an old Italian man, we wanna look just like Marcelo.

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Bob Griese

Marks out of 20:20? 20:19… To be honest, we didn’t have a clue who this chap was until the NFL nerds in the office shouted his name for the 11th time.

Griese quarter-backed the Miami Dolphins to SuperBowl successes in 1973 and 1974, but it was his nerd next door look during college which earns him a place in our Hall of Fame. I mean, just look at him there, wearing those big old glasses. Griese would keep them on underneath his helmet during live plays too. No wonder he was big man on campus.

imageKathy Willens/AP/Press Association Images

Martin O’Neill, Keano’s boss

Marks out of 20:20? 12:12… Marty may bring the party to international football, but his glasses are certainly down to basics. Perhaps reflective of his football at times?

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Cristiano Ronaldo, Real Madrid

Marks out of 20:20? 12:20… we appreciate the effort, CR7, but we just can’t see you really needing this big wood-panelled number.

Now that’s partly because we don’t see them on you often enough, so keep practicing, kid, and someday, you could be great.

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Roddy Collins, football (and fashion) icon

Marks out of 20:20? 20:20… When I was a kid, I’d have to take my glasses off for special occasions. Fair play to Roddy for putting them just to celebrate a league title.

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Ron Burgundy co-hosted the actual Canadian Olympic curling trials

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