Common sense says buy something cheap and cheerful; hedging your bets just in case your little one doesn’t want to play in goal in the future. But DON’T buy the cheapest pair of gloves, because it can really put off young goalkeepers.

Coaching tips: If you’re coaching a mini-soccer team and rotating goalkeepers, it is well worth having a decent pair of goalkeeper gloves and a nice goalkeeping top in your kitbag - preferably only for matchday not training. It will help to show that the goalkeeper is as important as the other players. If possible, make sure the gloves and top are cleaned after every game.

A good pair of gloves will provide a better grip and cushioning, which will boost the confidence of the wearer. Here are some basic points for choosing gloves:

Size: gloves should be a size larger than your hands; if your hands are size 6.5 then you buy size 7.5 gloves. While most manufacturer have a handy glove size guide on the back of their packaging, you can also do this at home. Wrap a tape-measure (or a piece of string) around the widest part of palm, not including the thumb - usually just above where the thumb joins the palm. Taking the measurement in inches to the nearest half an inch will give you your palm size. Add one to your palm size to get glove size. Gloves which are too small will have a lot of stress on the stitching and the seams. Particularly, when hit by a hard shot, landing and getting up.

Palm: palms are made latex, and as a general rule the softer the palm the better the grip. The trade-off is the softer the latex, the quicker it’ll wear down. For marketing purposes, manufacturers tend to grade them as soft, super-soft and ultra-soft, with some additional brand specific grading. One point of note, even if the latex is worn, the grip will continue until there’s no latex remaining.

Price range: There are rarely new innovation in goalkeeping gloves. I personally believe that you can get a decent pair of gloves for around GBP £20, and an excellent pair for less than GBP £50. Especially in an online sale events. Using the three pair of gloves in the picture as an example, the Sondico (GBP £18) were used in several charity tournament. The Reusch (GBP £19) and the Uhlsport (GBP £20) were bought from an online retailer during an end of the season sale, full prices were GBP £50 and GBP £40 respectively.

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