#36 Malawi (Home, 2010/2012?)

22:21 african football shirt , ifk norrkoping , malawi football , malawi football shirt , malawi jersey , malawi shirt , puma football shirt , rare football shirt , russel mwafulirwa 6 Comments

This interesting Malawi shirt was the latest addition to my collection, and I must thank Aberdeen-based collector Joe for helping me out. He was looking for a Malawi shirt and was able to track a dealer down in the country, and after a first order he was able to get a few more to Europe. He was nice enough to contact me to know if I'd be interested in one, and I sure was, so thanks mate! Great stuff.

It is probably one of my rarest shirts, and it is definitly a original one. You probably know this Puma template already, they've been using it with different african national teams, using a special design for each one. For example, the Cameroon shirt has a lion on the the shoulder, the Algeria one has a fox, the Ivory Coast has an elephant printed in it, and I bet if Nigeria were supplied by Puma they'd have an eagle. So, Malawi has... Flames.


The Malawi national team is nicknamed The Flames, something very original and a bit lame at the same time. The flames seem a bit badly drawn, the shirt would look definitly better with some quality flames in it, and not with this cheaper version. It kind of looks like a bad tatoo, but it's always funny when tatoos go wrong.

Overall, the shirt looks cool and original, so it's ok if the flames aren't exactly perfect. It's still a nice job from Puma, but something tells me their designers didn't spend that much time with the Malawi kit.

Anyway, Malawi isn't really a powerful football nation, but I guess that's probably the least thing they're worried about right now. Malawi is an extremely poor country, with the economy mostly based on agriculture. They have a low life-expectancy, and a really high infant mortality. Things look quite tough for this small african country, let's all hope things do get a bit better over the years.


Malawi's national team never had any impact in the international stage, but I remember them playing in the 2010 African Cup of Nations. It was only their second appearence in the competition, with the other one coming back in 1984. Their major achievements usually come in the CECAFA Cup, a local tournament with teams from East and Central Africa. Malawi lifted the trophy 3 times, but failed to make it to the final since 1989.

As expected, most of their players play in local clubs, and in some small clubs from other african countries, such as Mozambique and South Africa. I must say I don't know much about the team and the players, but I know Russell Mwafulirwa, a strong forward that used to play for IFK Norrköping, my favorite club in Sweden. He wasn't a superstar but he was a decent striker, and I remember him scoring a goal in CAN 2010.



He's one of the few Malawian football players to show their skills in Europe, I am curious to see if some other will follow him in the next few seasons.


Back to the flames, this is what I think about when I see the shirt:


It's like the shirt went to Pimp my Ride or something. But it still looks nice.



I think I mentioned before the good work Puma has been doing with African teams. Some small countries (like Burkina Faso or Gabon, for example) had their shirts sold all over Europe, and also had a lot of attention from collectors and shops in Europe, thanks to Puma marketing efforts. They announced the full range at the same time and provided pictures of every kit, definitly a nice thing. There was a lot of interest in Ghana and Ivory Coast, so I guess the rest of the teams benefited from that.



As you can see, the shirt also has a nice pattern on the back. I'm not sure if that is part of the template or something that also changed in each team, but it definitly adds some style to the kit.