‘Image is everything’: meet Sheldon Edwards, the England squad’s unofficial barber

The young stars trust just one man with their fades, tapers and curls. He discusses Raheem Sterling's lucky cut, Jadon Sancho's sideburns and Phil Foden's viral blond transformation

The south London barber Sheldon Edwards knows footballers who feel as if they haven't prepared for a game if they haven't had a haircut. [It's] like they left their boots at home; that's how important the haircut is." A good cut, he says, can lift a player's confidence, on and off the pitch.

Take Raheem Sterling. There was a time [a few months ago] when he changed his haircut," says Edwards. He was growing it a bit and he was having a bit of a sticky time at Manchester City". When Edwards gave him a new-wave look, a bit of a different fade", the goals started to roll in, like Samson in reverse. Edwards says his inbox was full of people pleading with him to please keep this lucky haircut" and while he concedes that Sterling creates his own luck, he likes to think the haircut is just like an enhancer".