Wanted: Boyaca Chico

21:58 besiktas , boavista , boyaca chico , boyaca chico shirt , croatia shirt , football shirt collection , lens shirt , psv shirt , schumacher football shirt , sturm graz , tecos 1 Comments

I really really want this one. For obvious reasons: not only it has a beautiful chequered design like my beloved Boavista, but also because Chico is my nickname (short version for Francisco in Portugal, something like Bill and William). A funny coincidence indeed, and that makes me want it even more.

I've first seen Boyaca's chequered shirts in some magazine, and before that I must confess I didn't even know they existed. This is actually their away shirt, the home shirt is also chequered, but green and white:

The black one looks a lot better, right?

It reminds me of Moreirense, a small team from a shitty village near Guimarães, that played for a couple of seasons in the portuguese main league. They obviously stole the design from Boavista.

This shirt looks awful. Seriously, it does.

I've first seen Chico's shirt for sale on Subside Sports. A bit expensive, I thought, but got definitly in my wanted list. I'm glad it's cheaper now, but still 35£ + shipping costs. That means around 50€ total. Not expensive, but not a bargain yet. It's also available on MLS Gear, a surprisingly impressive online shop with lots of stuff not only from MLS clubs, but also from some rare south american and mexican clubs. Also a bit expensive, but some of those south american shirts are pretty much impossible to get elsewhere, so definitly worth a close look.

I actually found a peruvian shirt collector that owns a Boyaca shirt, he was lucky enough to stumble upon the shirt in some Lima shop. He also posted a picture of the shirt being used in a league match.


That could definitly be a match between Boavista and Paços de Ferreira in Portugal.

It's always great to find another team wearing chequered shirts.
 Back in the 90's, Boavista faced Internazionale in a UEFA Cup round. Inter had a brilliant squad, with players like Klinsmann, Matthäus, Zenga, Bergomi, Dino Baggio or Brehme. A few days before the first-leg in Bessa, Zenga, Inter's legendary goalkeeper, stated that he didn't know much about Boavista and its players. "The only thing I know", he said, "is that they wear some weird shirts". The italian (and some international) press started calling Boavista the "weird-shirt-club". And even the portuguese press stills uses the term when talking about Boavista's glorious days in Europe.

The funny thing is that Boavista eliminated Inter and went through the next round. How ironic. We won 2-1 in Bessa, and drew 0-0 in Milano. Legendary.


A few years later, Inter played against Boavista again, and completely trashed Boavista (5-1). I wonder if in Colombia they also say Chico wears "weird shirts".


Boavista and Chico aren't the only teams wearing chequered designs. I'm not mentioning Moreirense because their new shirt design is horrible.

Look, here's F1 legend Michael Schumacher playing for Boavista in different seasons:


Well, just kidding, it's like the Schumacher & Friends team or something. I've seen some of these shirts for sale somewhere. Maybe Classic Football shirts, but I'm not sure.

Sturm Graz also played in chequered shirts back in 2002/2003. As their shirts were also manufactured by Puma, they were pretty similar to the Boavista one.


Boavista 2002/2003:



That was the only season when our home kit wasn't exactly "unique". Other teams regularly use chequered shirts as away or third shirts. Like Besiktas:


Leyton Orient also used a chequered shirt like 10 years ago. Red and white, though:


Obviously reminds me of Croatia:

One of my all-time favourites.

Lens also tried some chequered shirts:

And Siena, from Italy, too:



PSV used this blue and black design as their away shirt:

And mexican club Tecos:

And probably a few more clubs. Let me know if you know some. Not that I'm crazy about chequered kits, I just like them because it's pretty unusual to see those. And by the way, here's the new Boavista shirt, now sponsored by Kappa.