Arsenal, managed by Mikel Arteta, finally celebrated winning the Premier League for the first time since 2004, after three seasons of consecutive second-place finishes
An Arsenal fan who vowed to never shave his beard until his club won the league has finally cut it off — 10 years later.
Rafal Goral, 45, finally got the clippers out to remove his 57cm beard on the weekend. The refinery worker said he felt “kinda lost [his] personality” by shaving his facial hair, which he had to continue growing since 2016.
Rafal made the vow in March of that year when Arsenal, then managed by Arsène Wenger, had gone nearly 12 years without winning the Premier League. Since then, Rafal saw four other eams lift the trophy, including Leicester City, as Arsenal’s long wait for the success continued.
But the football fanatic was overjoyed when Mikel Arteta’s side triumphed last month and so, he sprayed his beard red and shaved it off at Arsenal’s Premier League Title parade on Sunday.
Rafal, from Chelmsford, Essex, said: “I feel like I kinda lost my personality. 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. C’mon, you Gunners.
“I’m pretty sure it’ll take me some time to get used to it. 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.
“My girlfriend was gutted. She didn’t even want to look at the photo from after shaving. I’ll see her next weekend in person. I’m not her Viking anymore.”
The refinery worker stayed true to his word, impressing colleagues to whom he made the promise one decade ago. However, many of his Spurs-supporting colleagues didn’t think he would stick to it.
Rafal, who has supported The Gunners for nearly 20 years, added: “In my current job there’s lots of Spurs fans, so one day I said I’m going to stop shaving until we win the league.
“People said I was going to look like Gandalf! 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 2nd.
“The first year or two years 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.”
