#29 Timor-Leste (Away, 2012/2014)

21:08 asia football shirts , east timor football , east-timor away shirt , east-timor shirt , rare football shirt , timor away shirt , timor futebol , timor-leste futebol , timor-leste shirt 6 Comments

The East-Timor (or Timor-Leste in local language) fits in the "amazing and rare" category. A few months ago, I believe Timorese shirts would top some of the "toughest to get" shirt-list, but that changed when a seller from Thailand launched a few on the market. Unsurprisingly, most collectors got it for actually a reasonable price. I was afraid there was no shirts left, but I'm quite glad I was wrong. I'd kill myself if I missed this one. Seriously, I would. Someone from the UK is selling this one right now (probably he got two and he's making a quick profit), and with still 2 days left for the auction to end, it's costing £41 + shipping already. I got mine for £28 + shipping.

A few of the buyers are actually not sure if this is an official Timor shirt. It's definitly original Nike, but it's hard to be 100% sure that the shirt is not some kind of fake. My bet is that the guy got it directly from some Nike factory in Thailand (where he's based). At least I hope so. My guess would go for "good one", as it definitly looks exactly the same used by East-Timor on a World Cup 2014 qualifier against Nepal.

They lost 7-1.

It's pretty obvious this is a Nike template with just a badge and Timor's flag printed on it. No hard-work from Nike for sure. But according to Wikipedia, Nike is providing the kits right now, so let's believe the shirt isn't fake. I don't think someone would actually spend time trying to fake a East-Timor shirt, specially using original Nike shirts. That'd be expensive and stupid, as I'm sure there's not more than 150 people around the world wanting to put their hands on a Timor shirt.

The material is definitly good, but the printing is quite poor. I'm not wearing it that much, because I'm afraid the flag can just vanish, and the FA's logo, even though it is a beauty, is far from perfect quality printing.

It look ok here, though.

As you probably know, Timor-Leste used to be a portuguese colony, until 1975, when they became an independent country. Just to be invaded by Indonesian troops three day after. The Indonesian occupation of Timor went largely unnoticed for many years, but in the 90's, footage of a massacre changed it all.

In Portugal there were some pro-independence demonstrations, and a huge solidarity wave put Timor in everyone's mind. If you talk about Timor, I'm pretty sure everyone in Portugal would mention those days. Things went specially emotional after the 1999 referendum, when the people massively decided they wanted to free themselves from Indonesia. Pro-Indonesian militias then started a campaign of violence in Timor, killing hundreds (or thousands) and destroying important infrastructures. I suppose they weren't even thinking of playing football back then. In Portugal, Timor was a really big deal, and there's actually an iconic song that still echoes in everyone's mind when you think about the country.



Things calmed down after a UN force entered Timor and restored order. After very tough years, East-Timor was finally able to start a new life. And so did their football national team!

In 2002, Timor joined AFC, and they took part in the 2010 World Cup qualifiers. No success yet for the minnows: they are currently ranked 205 in FIFA rankings, just ahead of San Marino, Montserrat and Andorra. Things seem bright for them, though. According to Wikipedia, they do have two training camps - one in Brazil and one in Australia - and they are trying to get some foreigners with Timorese roots to play for the national side. Let's see how it goes.


Alfredo Esteves seems to be their most talented player ever. Now 35, he represented some clubs in Portugal, and then headed to the United States. Now he's playing in Australia. His star-status might be in danger, though, as now there are some Timorese playing in Brazil and neighbour Australia. I hope they are any good, as it sucks to see a portuguese-speaking-country so low in FIFA Rankings.


A quick look at the Superliga shows that, unsurprisingly, most Timorese clubs have strong connections with portuguese football. You find FC Porto Taibesi, Académica, Firma Sporting, SLB Laulara and Sporting Clube de Timor. There are no references to Boavista, but I know we're big in Timor. After we won the league for the first (and only) time, a portuguese television actually interviewed some Boavista supporters in Timor. They were quite happy with it, and some of them actually owned Boavista shirts. No idea how the jerseys got there, but it was great to see.

And talking about jerseys, here is the design of the very first East-Timor football shirt (1967):


I'm really not sure about the story behind the shirt, but it really looks a lot like Boavista's:

They all had facial hair. Good old times.

Timor loves Boavista so much that they actually used chequered shirts. Beat this.