YING ☯ YANGS: March 2009

23/03/2009

04/03/2009

TOP 6 FOOTBALL JERSEYS

This is my response to Noodles And Broth's TOP 5 FOOTBALL JERSEYS post, although mine isn't in any particular order and I've chosen 6, it's my post so I can do what I like.
FRANCE '84

Although I think Michel Platini is a cunt, he was an unbelievable footballer once upon a time and in Euro '84 he scored about 50 goals (might be wrong) and the kit Les Bleus wore was beautiful, what I always loved about Adidas' French kits was the way they had one red stripe in between the 3 white stripes, no other country had anything similar, little things like that made Adidas the masters of football kit designs, it was also the first French kit to have the red and white pattern on the chest which Adidas repeated for the French '98 kit.

BARCELONA '96

Not necessarily one of the best designs ever, but at the time I was obsessed with Kappa (which took over from my previous obsession with Mizuno) and Barca also had the best player in the world at the time, Fat Ronaldo. But what made this so special to me was that it was the first long sleeved kit I ever owned, believe it or not, back in the 90's long sleeved football shirts were virtually impossible to get, I was probably the coolest kid in Bournemouth for the first few days I had this.

DENMARK '92

As well as my obsessions with Kappa and Mizuno, my greatest love was of Peter Schmeichel, I used to play in goal when I was a kid and Schmeichel was insane, I even entered a competition to spend a day with him but I never won it. He was the only keeper who could throw the ball past the half way line and he sort of looked like Ivan Drago, and this was by far my favourite top he ever wore. I think it was some kind of invincibility top, he saved the decisive penalty from Van Basten in the Euro '92 semi and then single handedly won the final against Germany, I managed to buy this top and it helped me win the Hampshire Cup with Charminster Saints (the greatest sporting achievement of my life). As well as this top I always wanted Bodo Illgner's TOP from Italia '90.

MANCHESTER UNITED '91

Novelty/one off football kits usually annoy me, they're only made to make abit of extra money, and I guess this top was no different, but I just fucking love it. When I watched this match round my Dad's I think I got freaked out when I first noticed there was no Sharp logo on the shirt, the only club team who didn't have a sponsor were Barca, I still don't know to this day why we didn't have the sponsor on our shirts and I'm sure Sharp would have been pretty pissed but it was a beautiful kit.

GERMANY '90

The most beautiful football kit of all time, it may have been worn by a bunch of cunts but this was such a stunning piece of art that even with Rudi Voller wearing it with spit dangling from his perm it looked unbelievable. It was perfection, the round neck, the Adidas 3 stripes, the strange German flag isometric pattern and the all black Mike Tyson style shorts, I sort of forgive Germany for knocking us out of Italia '90 for having such a beautiful kit, well done Adidas.

EN-GER-LAND '90

I'm pretty sure every kid in the whole of England wanted this shirt back in 1990 but their parents couldn't afford it so they ended up getting that rubbish fake England shirt with the really bad fake Umbro pattern on the end of the sleeves, the early 90's were probably the end of the golden age of football shirts and in a way I think Umbro and inparticular this shirt was the catalyst for the style of shirts that were around afterwards, collars and patterns on the shirts that you could only really see close up were starting to come in fashion and when Tottenham played the 1991 F.A. Cup final with those Stanley Matthews style shorts I think I nearly had a heart attack (I'm sure Stuart Pearce did). Does anyone have the England Italia '90 shirt with 19 on the back for sale? Here's a clip of David Platt's wonder goal against Belgium to make you proud to be English (if you are).