Showing posts with label austria football. Show all posts

#6 Slavia Praha (Home Euro Shirt, 2008/2009)


Slavia's home shirt is definitly one of my favourites. I simply love the half-red-half-white design, with a golden neck and some golden details on the red sleeve. The big red star looks pretty awesome too.

This one was surprisingly hard to get. I first saw a Slavia shirt for sale on Subside Sports for a reasonable price, but as I was going to visit Prague in a few months, I though "eh, the hell with it, maybe in Prague I'll find loads of Slavia stuff". Big mistake.


I started walking around Prague looking for the shirt, but they were nowhere in sight. It was specially annoying because I really had that in mind: I wanted to bring a Slavia shirt to Porto. Buying a Sparta (Slavia's biggest rival) shirt wasn't much of a problem, as they were basicly everywhere. I'll post that one later.

A local salesman then told me it'd be pretty hard to get a Slavia shirt that week, as they had recently changed sponsors (from Adidas or something to Umbro), and they were out of stock everywhere. Besides, Slavia had crucial Champions League match against Ajax, so there was some excitement around the team after some poor seasons. Unlucky with Slavia, but at least I managed to purchase a magnificent Bohemians 1905 shirt, a really rare item. I'll post it later too.

This was the shirt I saw online and wanted to buy in Prague. I lost.
But actually, 2 years later, I found again a great Slavia shirt for sale on Classic Football Shirts, also for an awesome price (16£ I think). That time I didn't give it a second thought: called a few friends, made them buy some shirts so we could divide the shipping costs, and a few weeks later, I finally added the shirt to my collection.


This one is actually the Euro Shirt, it was used during Slavia's 2008/2009 Uefa Cup run. The good thing about the shirt design for european competitions is that usually the main sponsor logo is smaller than usual, which is definitly a good thing.




And I've just realised that I own the shirts of the 3 most important clubs in Prague. Funny.
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#3 Austria Vienna (Home 2008)



When I decided to pick German classes in school, I never imagined it'd help me to buy an Austria Wien shirt, during my lovely vacations in Austria. But it did.

Wien. Lovely city. Quite expensive, though. Anyway, earlier that day, I found some Red Bull Salzburg shirts. Didn't like them so much. So, let's go downtown and try to find a sports shop with a wider range of merchandising. I eventually found an official Austria Wien club shop. As usual, it was closed. It was around 17h15, and it closed at 17h (I suppose). I didn't want to go there again. And I actually didn't have much time left in Wien, as I had train tickets to Prague for a few days later. That's when my german classes saved me.

There was someone inside. I supposed it was the boss or something. I decided to give my idea a try. I grabbed a pencil and a piece of paper, and I wrote in (probably ridiculous) german:

"HELLO. I'M FROM PORTUGAL. I'M LEAVING TOMORROW AND I'D LIKE TO BUY A SHIRT, PLEASE".

I hit the glass so he would notice me, then he approached and read my message. First he looked confused. Probably because he never read a sentence with so many grammar problems. Then he opened the door and said "no.". And that was it. How nice from him.

I replied. "Hey man, come on. I came all the way here, I thought it closed later". A lovely lie to persuade this apparently inflexible austrian guy. I insisted a few times, and finally he said "Ok, but cash only!". So, cash only, and I had the shirt on a bag.

Now that I think of it, this is not a great story at all. It's a bit boring, actually. It seemed a lot funnier back then.


The shirt is, at least, a bit original because of its colour. Austria plays in violet, a not-so-common sight in the beautiful game. Which makes some sense, because violet is a silly colour and usually looks awful. 

So, the guys are called Die Veillchen (The Violets), which is also not very original, but understandable. 

Roland Linz plays for them. A decent austrian striker, who left Wien a few seasons ago to join my club, Boavista. Then he left for Braga, a decision that didn't make the fans really happy. Seriously. Now he went back to Austria Wien, where he won't bother anyone. 
 I once saw him buying a new TV somewhere, just a few months after he arrived. So stop complaining about the money we owe you, kid. Sell your huge and modern tv set.

Linz in Violet. This shirt looks nice. Not nicer than mine though.


Linz was popular in Portugal not because he scored 21 goals in 3 seasons (1 in Boavista, 2 in Braga), but because he looks like Sherminator from American Pie. A lousy character for a lousy player.

Yeah, twins.
So, that's it. And I believe I might have just spent 50€ in 2 new shirts. Fingers crossed.

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