Arsenal fan shaves off 57cm beard after nine-year Premier League title vow

Rafal Goral kept his word. The 45-year-old Arsenal supporter, who vowed in March 2016 never to shave his beard until his club won the Premier League, finally took the clippers to his 57cm growth at Arsenal’s title parade on Sunday — spraying it red before cutting it off.

Goral, a refinery worker from Chelmsford, Essex, made the pledge at a moment when Arsenal, then managed by Arsène Wenger, had gone nearly 12 years without a league title. He had no way of knowing he would wait another nine. Over that period, he watched four other clubs lift the trophy — including Leicester City in their extraordinary 2015-16 triumph — while Arsenal finished second in three consecutive seasons under Mikel Arteta before finally breaking through last month.

“I feel like I kinda lost my personality,” Goral said after the shave. “I look a bit like a stranger to myself, so I’m sure I’ll look like that for everyone else. It was really hard to do it, to be honest with you. I thought it would be easier. I was shaking inside, but I am a man of my word.”

The reaction at home was less celebratory. “My girlfriend was gutted,” he admitted. “She didn’t even want to look at the photo from after shaving. I’m not her Viking anymore.”

Goral said the early years of the vow were the most testing, both physically and in terms of belief. “The first year or two it was really irritating. I thought it was going to be quicker — if it had happened in the first three years that would have been awesome.”

The pledge had been made in front of colleagues at his refinery, many of whom support Tottenham and were sceptical it would ever be honoured. “People said I was going to look like Gandalf,” Goral recalled. “People didn’t believe I would do it, but the last three years I was always saying the clippers are on charge when we finished second.”

Having supported Arsenal for nearly 20 years, Goral said he was overjoyed by the title but admitted adjusting to life without the beard would take time. “I can’t wait to show my face physically to people, but at the same time I’m not really looking forward to it — if that makes any sense.”