How North Texas barbers came to cut hair for Lamine Yamal, other FIFA World Cup stars
Mario Martinez started cutting hair when he was 15. He did not plan on it becoming a career until a few years later, when he was in college.
"Whenever I found out that I was already making more cutting hair than what I was going to college for, I was just like, yeah, I'm just going to stick to it," he said.
In that time, Martinez has certainly seen his clientele evolve.
The first athletes in his chair were a Cowboys practice squad player and a pro boxer. Since then, his Legends Barbershop and Co. in Richardson serves players from the NBA, NFL, UFL and other sports.
Among his customers is former Dallas Cowboy Dez Bryant. He said he's even given CeeDee Lamb a trim. In fact, Martinez said it was Lamb, as well as the son of former NBA player Robert Horry, who called him in 2023 about cutting hair for members of Real Madrid.
Martinez said he was on vacation, but he passed the opportunity off to Bryan Guardado, another barber at his business.
"He's the one that's a big soccer fan. I like football more than anything, but he's the soccer guy," Martinez said.
Guardado kept the cuts with soccer players going. Martinez said the barber travels with Spanish soccer phenom Lamine Yamal, and was in Los Angeles for Friday's match between Spain and Belgium.
Martinez got in on the action, too. He had just moved into a new home with his wife and children last month when a call came to him.
"The national team of Sweden actually was asking around for a barber, and my name came up," Martinez said.
He dropped everything and started cutting the hair of players he didn't know. What he does know, however, is how to cut hair.
"It is mainly just professionalism. I feel like that's one of the most important things, and just professionalism, consistency," he said. "Some people overthink it. But in my opinion, it's just, stay consistent, just do the job. That's it."
