Stop drinking. Don’t wash the shirt. Tattoo the name of the team or players. Do “spiritual work”. Sit in the same place (at home, in the bar, at the stadium) to watch the match. Throw coarse salt or holy water on the field. Walk to Aparecida do Norte (SP).
Football is rich in promises, beliefs, superstitions and fan rituals, made so that their favorite team wins from a game to a championship.
In Europe, there is a promise that is underway and has made a fan of Manchester United, one of the main clubs in England and the world, globally famous.
Unsatisfied with the prolonged bad phase of the Manchester team that wears red, especially in comparison with the good results of the local rival that wears blue (City), Englishman Frank Ilett, 29, announced on October 5, 2024 that he would only cut his hair again when the Red Devils won five consecutive matches.
A sequence that, as much as the titles, has become rare since coach Alex Ferguson left the club in 2013.
As frustrated as he was with Man United, Ilett, who has lived in Castellón de la Plana (Spain) since 2023 and works in the area of information technology, would hardly have imagined that he would be without going to the barber to this day.
This Thursday, February 5th, marked exactly one year and four months since the beginning of the promise of the boy born in Oxford. The hair has grown in such a way that, when you see it, it is another person, associable with an old cartoon character, Captain Caveman.
The more the days away from the scissors progressed, the more followers Ilett gained. Upon making the promise, he opened an Instagram account titled theunitedstrand (United’s hair). That turned United’s hair around. At the time of writing this text, there were 958 thousand followers.
The closest that Man United, which currently has Brazilian internationals Matheus Cunha and Casemiro in its ranks, came to the mark set by Ilett were three consecutive victories, twice, last year.
Let’s see! I hope people manage to give him [Frank Ilett] a haircut. We have to take it one game at a time
The same three consecutive victories that he now has, giving new hope to the long-haired Ilett of returning to his old look before the promise completes 500 days – 488 have passed. For this to happen, victories against Tottenham, this Saturday (7), and West Ham, on Tuesday (10) are necessary.
This week, Ilett, who must be spending a few bucks on shampoo, reiterated his intention not to give up: “Day 486. I won’t cut my hair until Man United win five games in a row.”
In Brazil, there was a similar recent case. In March 2025, a Vasco fan, Eduardo da Silva, went 219 days without cutting his hair, until the Cruz-Maltino team won four matches in a row. His nickname was Vascabelo and they called him Sansão Vasco.
As for the patient and good-natured Ilett, he already knows what he will do when his turn comes (it will come): he will donate his mane to an institution that provides wigs to children and young people who have gone bald due to some pathology or illness, such as alopecia or cancer.
And the perfect ending, according to him, would be for a Man United player to make the cut – at Old Trafford, the club’s mythical stadium.
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