Prostate Cancer UK is the official charity partner of The Football League this season. It is also one of the main beneficiaries of Movember, during which men are encouraged to grow a moustache to raise funds for, and awareness of, men’s health initiatives.

In recognition of the fact one in nine men in the UK will be affected by prostate cancer, football writer Rob Smyth, of the Guardian, has picked nine men with Mos who have made a lasting impact on the beautiful game.

Register to take part at Movember.com, and join the Football League network.

Read on for Rob’s nine moustachioed maestros…

Mo Bros: The Preston Invincibles sported mighty moustaches – and were unbeatable. Coincidence?

 

Graeme Souness
Depending on your allegiance, Graeme Souness was either a super furry animal or simply an animal. He was certainly the most important player in Liverpool's greatest and most hirsute team: an uncontrollable fusion of skill, will, gristle and bristle. He may have inadvertently inspired the Francis Begbie look, but nobody's perfect.

Antonin Panenka
Antonin Panenka may not have exposed the flesh above his top lip, but he developed an entirely new way to skin a goalkeeper from the penalty spot. His gently chipped penalty, which won the 1976 European Championship for Czechoslovakia, instantly made Panenka part of football’s lexicon. Just ask Joe Hart, who was beaten by Andrea Pirlo’s ‘Panenka’ for Italy in the quarter-finals of Euro 2008.

Claudio Gentile
The Mafioso of Italy's 1982 world champions, Gentile took man-marking to another level, with marking being the operative word. Few of his subjects left the field without tattooed legs. He did a famous job on Diego Maradona at the World Cup, fouling him more than 20 times in the match and introducing him to the ‘Boot of Satan’. With Gentile, pain was always in the post – and usually by special delivery. He was the celebrity stalker of his era.

Ruud Gullit
With his almost unprecedented combination of outrageous skill and formidable athleticism, Ruud Gullit could have been a footballer from the future. He was one of three Dutchmen who inspired AC Milan, the only iconic club side of their generation and the last team to retain the European Cup. And he did it all while sporting the roughest shag this side of a Grimsby back alley.

Vicente del Bosque
Few people talk about Vicente del Bosque when the great modern managers are discussed. It's hard to fathom why, because his record is staggering: in three and a half years at Real Madrid he won two Champions Leagues, an Intercontinental Cup and two La Ligas, and as Spain manager he won the World Cup and the European Championship. In an age of managers with faces like a baby's bottom – and, some would say, like a smacked arse – Del Bosque is palpably a victim of Mo’ism.

Roger Milla
The point of a substitute is to bring on fresh legs. At 38, Roger Milla's legs weren't particularly fresh at Italia 90, but rarely has there been a greater influence from the bench. He scored four goals, gave the whole of England a collective coronary in the quarter-final and became the face – and wiggling hips – of Africa's most significant football breakthrough.

Paul Breitner
Paul Breitner, a key member of the great West German side of the 1970s, was one of the first right-footed left-backs, a position from which he scored an amazing goal against Chile in the 1974 World Cup. He was also one of the first effortlessly cool footballers, with the look of a man who had rolled on to the field straight from a München discotheque. And he is almost certainly the only footballer to be photographed with Chairman Mao.

Des Lynam
Suave, erudite and with a chat-up line growing above his top lip, it's no wonder that imaginary research showed the trembling of housewives' knees increased by 4,719 per cent when Des Lynam was on the screen. His big-game one-liners were semi-legendary and he found the perfect mix of professionalism and human charm. For a time in the 1990s, Des became almost as big a draw as the matches.

The Preston Invincibles
OK, so it's a team rather than an individual, but how can you single out one player from this collection of soup strainers? The Preston Invincibles went the entire 1888-89 season unbeaten, winning the double in the process, and as such were commemorated with umpteen cigarette cards. With all that bristle, it's a minor miracle those cards didn't set all 20 fags alight when they were whipped from the box.

For more Movember-related musings, check out our Moustachioed Legends XI, our Top nine father-and-son duos and our Nine amazing facts about goalkeepers.

How you can get involved

Prostate cancer affects one in nine men in the UK – that means a man is diagnosed every 15 minutes.  Each year the Movember Foundation encourages men to grow moustaches during November and, in the process, raises considerable amounts of money for charity.

As Prostate Cancer UK is the official charity partner of The Football League, we want to make this football’s most successful contribution to Movember ever.

We’ve created a team for each of the 72 Football League clubs on the Movember website, so when you register you can start to grow a Mo on behalf of the team you support. Here’s how:

1.      Register at movember.com
2.      Join your club’s team using the search bar on the site
3.      Ask your friends and family to take part too
4.      Get growing your moustache from 1 November
5.      Encourage your friends and family to support your efforts by donating money.

Best of luck!