You've got to have something about you if you're going to point a stiff middle finger to the idea of conformity and wear your socks half-way up your leg.
To come to that conclusion, that even the most basic idea such as wearing a pair of socks correctly is too boring and does not allow you to express yourself adequately, you need to have a special type of arrogance and belief that you can back up your desire to stand out when it comes to business time.
You'll also need a comically tiny pair of shinguards, the kind you would have received as part of a shitty little set with a ball, cones, and a pump as a child, to truly complete the look.
The likes of Francesco Totti, Paulo Dybala at Juve must come into the discussion too, Rui Costa, Juan Sebastian Veron, from young Tom Davies at Everton (we'll forget Jack Grealish because we're choosing to) back to Michel Platini, players who opt for the socks half-way up the calf seem to always stand out and play the game in an attractive manner.
The main illustrator of that point in modern football is Napoli winger Lorenzo Insigne.
Any Irish fans who had not been keeping up with his continued improvement at club level were given a fright by a little pest who looked like the only Italian capable of winning the game in Lille last summer, but this year he has kicked it up another level.
Dries Mertens is justifiably getting a lot of love for his sensational form this season, but the voting for Napoli's player of the year will be a close run race. The folks over at Scout Nation put together a compilation of his highlights from this season alone and they are a piss-take.
There are not many players in Europe who can claim to have as impressive a package of goals and assists as Insigne this season.
Serie A is becoming a much more entertaining league to follow these days, and traditionally is the spiritual home of this brand of artiste as a place where low-sock footballers find their true calling. Dybala, Totti, Rui Costa, Veron, Insigne, Platini, Laurent Blanc all rocked the look while playing in Italy's top league, surely a move for Tom Davies to AC Milan is on the cards.
It's good to see younger players, Insigne is just 25 by the way, keeping the tradition alive. And yes, you may call the opponent who does it in a Sunday League match a bellend, but there's no doubting when it's done right it's a beautiful thing. The antithesis of the midfield 'hard-man'.
