Showing posts with label croatia shirt. Show all posts

#32 Croatia (Home, 2008/2010)


Buying a Croatia shirt had been on my plans for a while, so I couldn't help myself when I found this one in a shop in London available for such a low price: 15£. Massive sale, so no doubts I had to go for it. 

Their chequered shirt is definitly among the "love it or hate it" section, and I'm definitly going with the first choice. I remember how surprising it was for me to find another football team wearing chequered uniforms, and, even though the red made them a little different from Boavista's, they had to be an instant favourite. 

I was also really surprised by their World Cup 1998 campaign, when they played brilliant football and finished 3rd, only losing to eventual champions France. Standing in front of the TV following their matches is one of my first footballing memories. I really wanted those lads to do well, and I still remember some of them with a nostalgic feeling. 

Players to remember:

Davor Suker
Suker, amazing striker. Always wanted him to score, and no doubt he was pure class. 

Robert Prosinecki
Prosinecki is a total legend. Great passing abilities, great techinque... he quite had it all, and he was the engine that lead Croatia for many years. Now a coach with Red Star Belgrade. Funny fact: he actually played for Yugoslavia before Croatia's independence.

Drazen Ladic
It's not that Ladic was specially good. As far as I can remember, he was no big deal at all. He spent most of his career with local powerhouse Dinamo Zagreb, but I liked him because of his original kit and because he looked a but like Gabor Kiraly. He also seemd quite charismatic, maybe that explains it.

Anyway, another thing I loved about Croatia in 1998 was their Lotto shirt.



A bit rare but not very hard to find. I've seen a few for sale both on eBay and Classical Football Shirts, but usually at high prices. I'm keeping an eye on them, if the right deal appears, I might very well end up buying one. 

But I didn't yet, so let's focus on the shirt that I actually own.



Nice thing it's pretty simple: red and white chequered pattern, blue collar and that's it. No variations, no fancy designs... Basic stuff. Sometimes that means dull and boring shirts, but when it comes to a chequered one, well, there's not much you can do to make it more original without ruining it. 

Now, at the back, they decided to have a blank space for name and numbers. Understandable, but if you happen not to print any names there, it's quite pointless and it looks a bit ugly.


Hrvatska means Croatia. Yep.

Now that I finally have a Croatia shirt, I can focus on getting that old one. Have you seen their new away shirt? I think it looks pretty good.


Their away shirts are either awesome or absolutely awful, nice work with this one I think.
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Two New Shirts (and East-Timor arrived)

Didn't post for quite a while, as I was spending some lovely days in London. The trip was fantastic, but quite a disappointment when it comes to football-shirt-collecting. Soccer Scene let me down, so I bought two shirts in Lilywhite's (located in iconic Picadilly Circus, definitly worth a visit): Croatia (Home, 2008/2010) and Bahrain (Home, 2010/2011).

I always loved Croatia, I remember supporting them back in the 1998 World Cup. The shirt was a real bargain - 15£, so it was a nice chance to add it to my collection. The chequered pattern is an absolute classic, I'm glad I've got this one now.

I don't know much about Bahrain and their team, except they've been improving in recent years. They failed to play in the 2006 World Cup because they (maybe surprisingly?) lost to Trinidad and Tobago in the playoff. In 2010, same story, this time losing to defensive outfit New Zealand. Maybe they'll make it in 2014! The shirt looks nice, and it just cost 25£, so I'm also happy with this one.

Other things I've learned from my trip (and I'm just talking about football shirts here):

The new Puma Shirts for African teams look great, as always. Specially Ghana.Puma is doing an amazing job down there. They were all designed by local artists.

Ghana
Egypt
Ivory Coast
Senegal
Togo
Burkina Faso
Cameroon
Great shirts, uh? I'm pretty sure I'll put my hands on the Ghana and Cameroon ones as soon as they're a little bit cheaper. The teams will be wearing the shirts soon, in the African Cup of Nations. Also a great competition to follow closely. It has everything: some good players, some rising stars, and some ridiculous goalkeepers and defenders from weaker teams. It's exciting and sometimes a good laugh!

I also headed to Wembley to see England playing against Sweden. The match was ok, the new stadium is brilliant, and the new Sweden's away shirt is incredible.


I'll be watching online shops closely to find this one at a reasonable price, even though I already own a Sweden shirt.

Also, my East-Timor shirt arrived last thursday. I'm over the moon with that one. Will post photos soon!
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Wanted: Boyaca Chico

I really really want this one. For obvious reasons: not only it has a beautiful chequered design like my beloved Boavista, but also because Chico is my nickname (short version for Francisco in Portugal, something like Bill and William). A funny coincidence indeed, and that makes me want it even more.

I've first seen Boyaca's chequered shirts in some magazine, and before that I must confess I didn't even know they existed. This is actually their away shirt, the home shirt is also chequered, but green and white:

The black one looks a lot better, right?
It reminds me of Moreirense, a small team from a shitty village near Guimarães, that played for a couple of seasons in the portuguese main league. They obviously stole the design from Boavista.


This shirt looks awful. Seriously, it does.
I've first seen Chico's shirt for sale on Subside Sports. A bit expensive, I thought, but got definitly in my wanted list. I'm glad it's cheaper now, but still 35£ + shipping costs. That means around 50€ total. Not expensive, but not a bargain yet. It's also available on MLS Gear, a surprisingly impressive online shop with lots of stuff not only from MLS clubs, but also from some rare south american and mexican clubs. Also a bit expensive, but some of those south american shirts are pretty much impossible to get elsewhere, so definitly worth a close look.

I actually found a peruvian shirt collector that owns a Boyaca shirt, he was lucky enough to stumble upon the shirt in some Lima shop. He also posted a picture of the shirt being used in a league match.


That could definitly be a match between Boavista and Paços de Ferreira in Portugal.

It's always great to find another team wearing chequered shirts.

 Back in the 90's, Boavista faced Internazionale in a UEFA Cup round. Inter had a brilliant squad, with players like Klinsmann, Matthäus, Zenga, Bergomi, Dino Baggio or Brehme. A few days before the first-leg in Bessa, Zenga, Inter's legendary goalkeeper, stated that he didn't know much about Boavista and its players. "The only thing I know", he said, "is that they wear some weird shirts". The italian (and some international) press started calling Boavista the "weird-shirt-club". And even the portuguese press stills uses the term when talking about Boavista's glorious days in Europe.

The funny thing is that Boavista eliminated Inter and went through the next round. How ironic. We won 2-1 in Bessa, and drew 0-0 in Milano. Legendary.


A few years later, Inter played against Boavista again, and completely trashed Boavista (5-1). I wonder if in Colombia they also say Chico wears "weird shirts".


Boavista and Chico aren't the only teams wearing chequered designs. I'm not mentioning Moreirense because their new shirt design is horrible.

Look, here's F1 legend Michael Schumacher playing for Boavista in different seasons:


Well, just kidding, it's like the Schumacher & Friends team or something. I've seen some of these shirts for sale somewhere. Maybe Classic Football shirts, but I'm not sure.

Sturm Graz also played in chequered shirts back in 2002/2003. As their shirts were also manufactured by Puma, they were pretty similar to the Boavista one.


Boavista 2002/2003:



That was the only season when our home kit wasn't exactly "unique". Other teams regularly use chequered shirts as away or third shirts. Like Besiktas:


Leyton Orient also used a chequered shirt like 10 years ago. Red and white, though:


Obviously reminds me of Croatia:

One of my all-time favourites.

Lens also tried some chequered shirts:

And Siena, from Italy, too:



PSV used this blue and black design as their away shirt:


And mexican club Tecos:

And probably a few more clubs. Let me know if you know some. Not that I'm crazy about chequered kits, I just like them because it's pretty unusual to see those. And by the way, here's the new Boavista shirt, now sponsored by Kappa.
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