#24 Bahrain (Home, 2010/2011)


My recent trip to London was pretty much disappointing in terms of football-shirts-purchasing. Sportshops in the city center didn't have have many shirts available (apart from big clubs and national teams). Besides, the ones that got my interest were way too expensive, and that kept me away from them. That means this Bahrain one was a nice finding: it fits perfectly in my collection, and it cost only around 25£, definitly a nice price. It's a shame I didn't manage to add some more english club shirts to my collection, but a trip to Dagenham to get a Dag & Red shirt was out of hand. What a shame.


As usual, Puma did a great job here. The shirt is mainly red, but some little details make it a little more interesting: the golden stuff on the sleeves and on the neck, and the Bahrain flag on the collar.

Original, but unnoticable unless you're Cantona. 
Poor Bahrain. They're obviously not a great team, but recently they've been quite sucsessful - having in mind the Kingdom has a population of only around 1,2 Million. A small talent pool indeed, but that didn't stop them from improving in the last few years.

They were quite close to qualify for both World Cup 2006 and 2010, but somehow managed to lose against Trinidad and Tobago and New Zealand by small margins. I bet the King was not happy at all.

I don't expect a great World Cup 2014 Campaign, as they banned and arrested some of their best players after some Arab Spring Protests in Manama. They were also forced to leave the country, and are now playing in Oman and Australia. Wicked.

I actually read both in FourFourTwo and World Soccer Magazine that football clubs and football fans actually had a major role in some of the recent Arab Uprisings, will talk about that later.


Their Asian Cup record is also not brilliant at all. And if they keep arresting their best players for political reasons, I can't see that changing soon. Their league is probably still far from neighbouring countries ones, as you won't find many big names playing in Bahrain. I guess the Oil Lords prefer to invest their money elsewhere.



 Some arabic, that's nice.

Francisco Ferreira

Journalist and football enthusiast. Born and raised in Porto, but ended up cheering the local minnows: Boavista FC. Football shirt collector, because it's a great to waste my money.

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