#8 India (Away, 2008/2010)

20:28 baichung bhutia , football shirt collection , i-league , india , india football shirt , india shirt , sunil chhetri 1 Comments

I was actually very surprised to find this shirt in an european sports shop, but I also was tremendously happy to manage to buy it. As far as I remember, it was the last one there, and it wasn't exactly cheap. Now you can find it for quite a reasonable prize in eBay and other sites, as they have a new kit (still by Nike).

I purchased this India shirt in the same place where I bought the Borussia Mönchengladbach one. I really can't remember if it was in Berlin or Hamburg, but I'm sure it was in Germany. I think it was in Berlin, though, because in Hamburg I was specially looking for a St. Pauli one (of course I got it, will post it later).

The shop was pretty good, with plenty of german clubs shirts, but I actually wasn't expecting to find an Indian one there. Their national team is really really weak, but it seems there's some improvement in the local championship. As a former brittish colony, it'd be predictable that they'd be at least a little bit better than they actually are. I suppose they prefer cricket or something.


Every player in their national squad still plays for Indian clubs, mostly Dempo, East Bengal and Churchill Brothers. And that's also surprising: I believe there's a pretty big Indian community in London and England in general, so it'd be predictable that some players would appear. A bit like Zesh Rehman, former QPR defender, now playing for Pakistan, and Anwar Uddin, former Dag & Red defender, playing for Bangladesh. There was actually an Indian player playing for Bury, a small english team. His name's Baichung Bhutia, and he's probably a fan favourite.

Bhutia playing for Bury. He didn't play too often, so they didn't have any shirts for his size anyway.

Sunil Chhetri was actually close to join QPR in 2009. He's a big deal in India, I think, and QPR signed him, but he never managed to get a work permit to play in England, as India is too low in the rankings. Too bad for him indeed.

One of the unluckiest guys in the world.

It's not that surprising that Nike is working close with India: they have a huge economical potential, their economy is growing really well (and faster than Marc Wilmots running by the sideline), so there's a lot of Indians willing to pay to get some merchandise. I think.

Specially with nice shirts like the one I own. It's really simple, but the colours are just great. The orange looks awesome, a bit darker than the Netherlands shirt's, and there's this light blue detail in the neck that makes it quite classy. It's also pretty comfortable, and the material is top-class. Maybe that's why it was so bloody expensive.



Also some great details inside.

I've made this one bigger so you could see the details better.

Portugal and India had a very close relationship in the past. In 1498, Vasco da Gama, a portuguese, found how to get from Lisbon to India by sea.That was specially important to bring some Indian spices to Europe. Until late 1940's, Portugal still had some Indian enclaves, Goa, Damao and Diu. So nowadays it's still possible to find some portuguese names in their national team, like Rebello, Rodrigues, Miranda, Carvalho, Oliveira, Fernandes, Silva, Barbosa or Joaquim. Those are really typical portuguese names. No Ronaldo though. And there's still Sporting Clube de Goa, clearly inspired by Sporting Clube de Portugal. If Sporting Lisbon fans are upset with their team's results, hey, take a look at your Indian friend: last season they were playing in I-League 2nd Division, so cheer up.

Even weaker than Sporting.

By the way, I'm currently trying to get 2 more shirts. One of those is specially rare and I'm sure I'll have it. Not sure if for 15£ or 20£, so wish me luck.