The humble captain’s armband has largely been overlooked as a platform for artistic expression, but over the past couple of seasons, SD Huesca have found a way to change all that.
We were sad to see Los Azulgranas lose their La Liga status after a goalless draw at home to Valencia ended their one-year stay in Spain’s top-flight on Saturday afternoon.
Over the past couple of seasons, the boys from the Aragon region of north-eastern Spain have won friends and drawn many admiring glances from across the world for their special brazaletes worn by captain Jorge Pulido on their travels across the country for away fixtures.
The armbands are devoted to their hosts’ individual customs, landmarks and people, teaching us little stories of Spain along the way.
Across a period of time when travel restrictions meant most of us we couldn’t physically travel to Spain, SD Huesca’s wonderful gestures of respect stirred a real feeling of wanderlust in our bellies.
Huesca had been promoted back to La Liga as Segunda División champions at the end of the 2019-20 season, a campaign that saw Pulido wear a series of one-off armbands that continued as they travelled to meet the likes of Barcelona, Valencia and Real Madrid.
After each game, the club present a framed copy of their artistic armband to their hosts as a lasting sign of goodwill.
It was Huesca’s visit to Barcelona and the design honouring the city’s unique architecture and Catalan heroes from Gaudi to Cruyff, Guardiola to Messi that really captured football supporters’ imagination across the globe.
This thread shows the full series of armbands from last year’s promotion season and the story of their fight for La Liga survival:
The captain’s armband has long been a symbol of high esteem, but we’ve never seen any club go to such lengths to communicate that respect to their opponents through a series of sporting gestures like these.
We especially enjoyed the design of the first of the brazaletes to be worn after the Covid-19 break against Mirandés, which paid special tribute to Spain’s heroes of the pandemic.
Football can teach us a vast amount about the world we live in and we love the classy, respectful gestures seen across Pulido’s collection of captain’s armbands.
We look forward to seeing more of these next season as Huesca hopefully mount a successful bid for promotion back to La Liga!
The full collection of armbands is available to buy from SD Huesca’s official online store.
Sartorial Soccer 