The 29-year-old made headlines on Thursday night after being blamed for both of Lyon’s goals in a 2-2 draw with Manchester United during the first leg of their Europa League quarter-final in France. ..Continue Reading
Lyon took the lead 25 minutes in through Thiago Almada, but United equalised just before the break thanks to Leny Yoro’s first goal for the club.
Joshua Zirkzee looked to have secured a win for United late on, but another mistake from Onana—who pushed a shot straight to Rayan Cherki—allowed the French side to snatch a draw heading into the return leg at Old Trafford.
Although it’s not confirmed whether Onana applied anything to his gloves during Thursday’s game, he has previously been seen using a substance before matches.
However, according to The Athletic, Onana doesn’t actually use Vaseline. Instead, he opts for a grip-enhancing product made specifically for goalkeepers.
That said, other pros do use Vaseline, a well-known petroleum jelly brand.
The topic was even discussed on former United goalkeeper Ben Foster’s podcast, Fozcast, where Coventry City’s Ben Wilson shed light on the practice.
“A lot of the goalkeepers these days are wearing Vaseline on their gloves and I won’t let myself do it,” said Wilson in 2024.
“Explain the Vaseline thing,” Foster replied. “Because I remember the first player I saw do that was Joe Hart in Brazil at the 2014 World Cup.
“He put Vaseline on his gloves and he said ‘Fozzy, honestly, it is a game changer!’”
“It is,” Wilson added. “But I won’t allow myself to do it, no matter how wet and how damaged my gloves are I won’t do it. The difference is unbelievable.
“I worked with Martyn Margetson at Cardiff and he told me to put Vaseline on. It was chucking it down and one of the guys did it and I could feel it then, it was unbelievable.”
“It’s hard to explain, but if we were in a training session, I could tell which one had Vaseline on their gloves, because as soon as you caught the ball, it does feel grippier,” Foster explained.
