#12 SC Verl (Away, 2011/2012)
11:51 football shirt collection , regionalliga , sc verl , sc verl porto , verl shirt 0 Comments

This one's probably one of the rarest shirts I own. SC Verl is a small club from Germany, currently playing in Regionalliga West, the 4th tier in german football, composed mostly by semi-pro or amateur squads.

I obviously got this one in Verl, of course, after a match between the local minnows and FC Porto, during Porto's training camp in Germany. I was lucky enough to be the reporter following Porto those days, it surely meant a lot of work but it was also a great experience.

So, Porto faced Verl in a friendly match, and I couldn't miss that chance. To buy their shirt anywhere else would be probably an impossible mission, so I knew this would be a great addition to my collection. The best part is that I actually got it for free.

After the match, I still had some work to do, mostly post-match interviews. And then I had to drive all the way back to the hotel (20 minutes away) to send the match highlights and stuff to Portugal. That meant I didn't have much time to look around for a shirt. A portuguese emigrant living in Germany helped me out. I've met him when I first arrived in Germany, as he was waiting for the Porto squad in the hotel, to get some pictures and autographs. He knew some portuguese journalists from previous seasons, and he was really helpful, giving some informations about the city inviting us to some events with the portuguese community in Gütersloh.

So, when I was getting ready for the post-match interviews, I saw this guy again, and went there to say hello. And to ask him a big favor. "Hey mate, how's it going? Any chance you can check where they're selling Verl's shirts?", I asked. "No problem, I know the president, let me see what I can do.". 10 minutes later he showed up with this black shirt on his hands. "I told the president it was for a portuguese journalist, so keine probleme!". Obviously I met the president after that to thank him, and also to show how much I knew about his club. I didn't know much, actually, apart from naming some notable players. Arne Friedrich, now in Wolfsburg, started his carreer there, and then moved to local giants Arminia Bielefeld, and then to Hertha Berlin. He managed to play 82 times for the national team, so he's by far the best player ever playing for Verl. He was impressed I knew about Friedrich and some obscure african players that played there a few seasons ago.

Here's the guy playing for Germany.

I must say I was really impressed with Verl. They're from a really small town, with no more than 24.000 inhabitants, but still they've managed to play in Regionalliga for quite a longe time now. Their squad wasn't brilliant against Porto, as expected, but they managed to open the score from a long-range effort by Afiri. They eventually lost 1-3. But their structure and match-day organization was impressive. They had a lot of people helping out, they had some great communication staff, and they were actually broadcasting some pre-match interviews online. It looked more like a professional club, to be honest. Their facilities weren't great, but the stadium was ok and the fans seemed pretty enthusiastic. Check the goals: