#17 Armenia (Away, 2008/2010)

12:17 armenia away shirt , armenia football , armenia football shirt , edgar manchuryan , football shirt collection , hummel 4 Comments

I never thought I'd own an Armenia shirt, and I actually didn't know much about their team. But when I was ordering my North Korea shirt from Subside Sports, back in late 2009 or early 2010, I decided to pick up another shirt, so the shipping costs would seem a little bit cheaper (8£ for two shirts, instead of 8£ just for one shirt). They had this really interesting Armenia shirt for quite a bargain (maybe 30£ or something), so it was an instant decision.

The shirt itself looks pretty cool (Hummel again!), with a nice unsymmetrical design. Despite having a nice shirt, Armenia don't usually do really well in official matches - and I'm talking about Euro or World Cup Qualifiers, of course. They used to be part of the Soviet Union, so another shirt from a former CCCP country.

They seem to be improving, though. It's not really easy to beat them in Yerevan, and in the Euro 2012 Qualifying Stage, they finished 3rd, just behind Ireland and local rivals Russia. They actually were the top-scoring team in their group, specially thanks to surprising 3-1 (home) and 0-4 (away) wins against Slovakia. They also managed to draw against Russia.


One of their first decent results was actually a goalless draw against Portugal in 1996. Looking back, that poor result made the portuguese fail to qualify to the World Cup 98. In 2007, they did it again, drawing 1-1 against us in Yerevan, but that time we recovered later and qualified to Euro 2008.

Ever heard of an Armenian football player? Not really, probably. I remember Edgar Manchuryan, that used to play for Ajax, but he didn't have much impact in the Eredivisie. Their best players usually don't make it to the top-leagues, but some are good enough to play in East-European giants, such as Shakthar Donetsk, and some mid-table russian clubs.


They actually have both a nice flag and a nice FA badge. Check them out:



Really nice!