Noni Madueke. Image may contain Braid Hair Person Adult and Cornrows
Jumper by Dior Men. Jeans by Eckhaus Latta. Shoes by Dior Men.
In Match Fits, GQ links up with the most fashion-forward stars in the Premier League.
Every six months or so, Noni Madueke undergoes a bit of a change. Nothing major. It’s not a rebrand. It’s not planned, either, but a little update is always imminent, simmering on the horizon.
Three months ago, he woke up and the streetwear and logo-loud pieces he’d been rocking were no longer the vibe. He wanted to mellow out into something simpler, more minimalist. You know, the quiet luxury thing.
“I definitely wake up some days, and I think, OK, cool. I'm gonna tweak my fashion a little bit’,” says Madueke, shielding his eyes from the sun. We’re sitting in the well-manicured garden of his apartment complex, and have inadvertently picked the only spot in all of Surrey not shaded by the verdant trees that line every street. He’s in all black (a Central Cee tee and cargo shorts), I’m in knitwear. The sun, it feels like, has taken that as a personal affront.
Sunglasses by Gucci. Vest & gloves by Mains. Joggers by Alis. Shoes by Dior Men. Underwear by Adidas. Jewellery, talent’s own.
“Everyone goes through that phase where they just want brands. Really loud pieces,” says Madueke, giving me a sense of his last metamorphosis. “I don't disregard brands, of course, I like certain things. But now it's more like how it fits, how everything fits together. Now I have more understated pieces.”
But that was three months ago. Which, if the internal Madueke clock is on track, means he’s due another switch up soon. “I'd probably say in the next three months, we'll have a new U-turn,” says the 23-year-old. It’ll be quick, too. “I can wake up one day and just be like –” Madueke clicks his fingers, the snap breaking the silence of the quiet garden “– All right. The next six months, I want to look like this.”
Sunglasses, jacket and jeans by Balenciaga. Shoes by Louboutin.
Change and growth is something Madueke is comfortable with – in fact, he likes it. A winger with a bullet of a kick from his left foot, he graduated from the streets of Barnet, north London to junior leagues at Crystal Palace and Tottenham Hotspur as a teen. He was just 16 when he got the call up to PSV Eindhoven in the Netherlands.
Moving from London, where nine million people teem for space, to Eindhoven, population: 235,000, could have been daunting. Not for Madueke. He picked up Dutch quickly (“I didn't want anyone talking shit about me on the field,” he says with a sly smile. “Like, ‘I know exactly what you're saying!’”) and is still fluent. “I always say to everybody… I didn't have an adaptation period. I didn't need to adjust,” says Madueke, shrugging.
In sleepy Eindhoven, Madueke had what was described as a “breakout” season, stacking up both goals and assists. It’s where he built the reputation that is his today: sniper-quick, creative and wily, dangerous in attack and skilled in defence.
It surprised no one, then, when Chelsea came knocking, seven-year deal in hand.
So: this is where we find him now, glaring into the sun, a game or two away from wrapping up his second Chelsea season, seven caps for his country, a Premier League hat-trick (against Wolves) on the highlights reel, and another vibe shift creeping ever closer.
T-shirt and shorts by Billionaire Boys Club. Shoes by Timberland. Socks by Adidas.
Madueke has a lot of what he’s choosing to call “healthy delusion.” Which, in his eyes, is a brand of turbo-charged self-assurance. Call it personal faith on steroids. It’s this healthy delusion that powers him in the face of a packed schedule and mounting pressure.
“Confidence is cool,” says Madueke, in the same way you might say a Honda Civic is cool, while roaring down a motorway in a Lamborghini. “You can be confident in your ability. But it doesn't mean you're going to be a world-beater.”
That’s the dividing line to Madueke. Confidence is one thing, but spearing your third goal over the shoulder of the keeper on the sprint, while an entire stadium boos you… that requires something a little different.
Sunglasses by Gucci. Vest & gloves by Mains. Joggers by Alis. Shoes by Dior Men. Underwear by Adidas. Jewellery, talent’s own.
Sunglasses by Gucci. Vest & gloves by Mains. Joggers by Alis. Shoes by Dior Men. Underwear by Adidas. Jewellery, talent’s own.
Delusion, healthy or otherwise, is the secret sauce that separates the good from the great in his eyes. It’s the extra push, the locked-in mentality that lets you go toe-to-toe with your idols without succumbing to the headfuck. “You're not gonna go on the pitch and play Messi, and in your head be like, ‘Oh, this guy's so much better than me.’ You have to have a little bit of healthy delusion.
“When that delusion comes in – we're calling it healthy delusion, but it's probably extreme faith in your ability – I feel like that's when you can really reach new heights,” says Madueke. “You need it as a football player. You need it.”
Madueke will need it in the next two years, he reckons. With the season over, he can turn his eye to the England team and the Club World Cup in the US. There’s the World Cup, too, next year. The cycle spins on.
Top by Stamm. Trousers by Martine Rose. Shoes by Gucci.
Top by Stamm. Trousers by Martine Rose. Shoes by Gucci.
“For the next two years, summer holidays… I can't think about it,” Madueke says with a shake of his head. “After the season, I gotta go and play for England, most likely –” it’s more than likely, in fact; Madueke was Man of the Match against Andorra in June, before coming off the bench in the team’s lacklustre defeat against Senegal “– and then the Club World Cup, and then after that, if we get really far, it's like two-three-four weeks till the start of the season, so you're probably gonna get two weeks off. If that.”
It doesn’t sound like a complaint. Going with the flow is sort of his thing, remember? But there is a sense of the zen he’s conjuring, the hyperfocus needed to sustain his run.
“There's not really much time to zone out, man,” he says. “You gotta stay locked in.”
Jumper by Dior Men. JEans by Eckhaus Latta. Shoes by Dior Men.
Over the next year or so, Madueke is due to spend quite a bit of time in America. First, for the Club World Cup right now, and then hopefully with the World Cup next year. And while he can’t jump the gun with making Thomas Tuchel's squad just yet, he has been thinking about something in particular: tunnel fits.
The NBA and NFL have made an art out of the street style-esque photos taken of stars as they arrive in the underground stadium tunnels before games. At first, athletes were just putting on their Sunday best and mean-mugging. Nowadays, it’s normal to loan a runway look or get a custom fit just for the snaps.
Jacket and trousers by Ferragamo. Sunglasses by Loewe from Mr Porter. Shoes by Kicker’s. Vest by CDLP.
Jacket and trousers by Ferragamo. Sunglasses by Loewe from Mr Porter. Shoes by Kicker’s. Vest by CDLP.
Madueke is, understandably, excited. His own style has been steadily evolving over the years, in his six-month cycle, and he’s keen to show off a little. After all, Liverpool and Nottingham Forest both have their own arrivals shots – why isn’t it Premier League-wide?
“The Premier League is such a massive market. Why would you not introduce that stuff?” says Madueke, with a sense of incredulity. “It’s kind of mind-boggling. Chelsea should definitely have it. I know the public love our team and our vibe. It’s London, you know? It’s Chelsea. I feel like it just goes with us. But, you know, who am I, man?”
Top by Stamm. Trousers by Martine Rose. Shoes by Gucci.
He’s right, Chelsea do have a vibe. Madueke bigs up his teammates, several of whom he puts on his most stylish list of Prem players (he names his fellow Match Fits alums Morgan Gibbs-White and Curtis Jones, as well as Newcastle’s Joe Willock).
Teammate Jadon Sancho tops the list, though. “Jadon has some pieces stuffed in his wardrobe that if he brought them out, you'd be like, ‘Oh my God. Why don't you wear this stuff, man?’ Jadon will have all the best pieces, 100 per cent.”
(What about Cole Palmer, I nudge? “He's got a little bit… Cole’s got a little bit of something going on,” he says with a laugh.)
Madueke can’t relate to hiding big pieces in his wardrobe, though. For him, it’s now or never. “If I buy something, I normally buy it to wear it that day,” he says.
Jacket, t-shirt and shorts by Billionaire Boys Club. Shoes by Timberland. Socks by Adidas.
His shopping habits are similarly urgent: he’s an impulse shopper. He never buys anything online, he needs to “see it, feel it, put it on, see how it looks.” He’s a fan of bags (Louis Vuitton and Goyard are favourites) and jewellery (upstairs in his apartment, he gives me a tour of his wardrobe, including a travel tray of twinkling diamond chains). Most of all, Noni Madueke is creative. He wants to have fun.
“When I go shopping, on the pitch, around my friends and family, I'm that type of person. I’m very open. I try new things. That is just my personality. So it goes into everything. It goes into my career, my football, what I wear, things I do. That's just the aura that I have,” he says. “I can draw inspiration from everything. I have a very creative mind.”
Maybe that’s where the cycle of change comes from, I posit. Creative people rarely stand still, after all, and we’re due another evolution soon.
“Do you know what I’m liking now? The cropped hoodies,” says Madueke. Tailored loungewear from the likes of Balenciaga and Acne Studios currently top his wishlist.
So, in three months, the next evolution could be going back to loungewear? I ask.
“No, no, no,” he corrects me, gently. “We never go back. Always forward.”
Sunglasses by Gucci. Vest & gloves by Mains. Joggers by Alis. Shoes by Dior Men. Underwear by Adidas. Jewellery, talent’s own.
Styling by Itunu Oke
Grooming by Ephraim Onyebule
Fashion assistant: Miguel Urbina Tan