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.
There's not much to say about this one. I bought it from the same buyer who sold me the Guanghzou Evergrande one. It was cheap, it looked good, and I could bring it for a reduced shipping cost. Anyway, I was quite glad with it, even though I don't have any special feelings about Morecambe.
Ok, we're talking about a League 2 club here, the 4th tier in english football. It's pretty much impressive how huge football is up there in the UK. I've been into lower league english football for quite a while now, and it keeps impressing me. Thise summer, I bought the FourFourTwo Season Guide and the media coverage of lower divisions is absolutely incredible. Virtually impossible here, where newspapers usually don't dedicate more than 2 pages to the 2nd League, and if you want to explore something deeper than that you'll find mostly results and goalscorers only.
The fascinating thing about english football is that those lads really support their local club. And that's way different from what happens around here, where smaller clubs in the 1st League struggle to have attendances above 2000 people. The clubs also seem to be really organized and professional. Smaller clubs here are starting to improve, but 2nd League clubs are mostly run by local club who have no clue how a football club should be organized in the 21st Century.
Well, I'm done with the whining, let's have a closer look at the shirt.
One funny thing: Morecambe has changed its badge recently, from this lovely english-style one:
To this modern one:
What?
Yeah, that's a shrimp. A shrimp. Don't know about you, but shrimps remind me of weddings and other parties. I have no idea why a club would held a shrimp on their badge, but hey, I love shrimps, so no problem.
And if you were expecting a huge shrimp as the club's mascot, you're wrong. Christie the Cat is their mascot. I guess they changed pretty much everything in the last few years: moved to a new stadium, changed badge and shirt colours. Does that make my shirt a little bit more rare?
Morecambe used to play non-league football, but they were recently promoted to League Two. Checked their squad, but I never heard of any of their players. I do remember Dag & Red smashing them a few seasons ago in a play-off.
This shirt is quite similar to that Norway one I posted a few weeks ago. It feels a bit tight on the sleeves (yeah), but overall it's quite good.
Xmas coming, so don't forget my collection. Cheers in advance.
Ah, St. Pauli. A truly cult club, and surely my favorite team in Germany (even though they didn't sign Jong Tae-Se).
Some of you might ignore the fact that this Hamburg-based club has more than 11 million supporters (at least that's what they say). There's actually many reasons why one should love St. Pauli.
Reasons why you should love FC St. Pauli:
- Their home stadium is located right next to Reeperbahn. Something like a mini-Amsterdam in Hamburg, except a lot more hardcore, with many bars, prostitutes and alcohol around. A real red-light district, with many no-children-allowed areas. And some bad things, too, but I really can't remember any. There's actually a funfair near their ground, the Millerntor-Stadion.
What if PSG moved to a Stadium near the Disneyland?
- St. Pauli was the first club in Germany to completely ban right-wing activists from their home matches, and obviously any right-wing symbols or displays on the terraces. That attracted an alternative fan-base, with many left-wing supporters.
- They famously display a Skull and Crossbones symbol everywhere - flags, scarves and even on their shirts. It's like their unofficial badge. Pirates rock, so they rock too.
Looks great on my shirt!
- Their fans are passionate and, above all, great lads (except when they're fighting neo-nazis somewhere). In 2006, they organized the exciting FIFI Wild Cup, a sort of World Cup for national teams that aren't allowed to enter in FIFA competitions, like Tibet and Greenland. St. Pauli fans competed as "Republic of St. Pauli". Wicked. Also, they usually organize displays against racism and sexism in football. The fans were also involved in an organization called Viva Con Agua de St. Pauli, that worked on improving water quality in developing countries in Africa. Pretty noble, I'd say.
Tibet in St. Pauli with the very same shirt I own.
Hell yeah!
- The club stuggled many times, but always survived. A few years ago, they were playing 3rd Division football and facing severe financial problems. A huge fan operation was set up, and they manage to save the club. Last season they played in Bundesliga.
- Icelandic post-rock band Sigur Ros bass player supports St. Pauli, and there's a great song by british band Art Brut named St. Pauli. They usually play Blur's Song 2 at their home ground whenever they score a goal. Nice choice. Vaduz used to play that song too.
When I visited Hamburg (a nice city by the way) a few years ago (in 2008 I think), there was keine chance not coming back with a St. Pauli shirt. After a nice walk in Reeperbahn, I headed to their stadium. St. Pauli's club shop was unsurprisingly not posh at all, but it had a lot of stuff for sale. It was also a nice way to practice my german. The girl in the shop didn't understand why a portuguese family would visit Hamburg in the summer though, as everyone in Germany was dreaming about sunny beaches in sunny Algarve. I can understand that. But I kindly smiled and told her that the weather in Porto (my home town) isn't brilliant either.
But well, I managed to buy my shirt and everybody was happy.
The shirt is, at least, a bit unusual. How many teams pick brown as their home colour? Not many. The shirt has very thin brown and black stripes, but it looks mostly brown. They did a nice job with the sponsor too, it doesn't ruin the shirt at all. St. Pauli kits are manufactured by Do You Football, a german sportswear firm I never heard of before buying the shirt. But they've been doing some good jobs with the Pirates.
I actually don't like brown that much, and their away kit always look a little bit better. But a white St. Pauli shirt? No no, it makes no sense. It had to be the home one.
Got to love St. Pauli. It'd be just awesome if there were more clubs like this one.
I own a few Boavista shirts, and this one is surely one of the worst ones. The design is ok, but far from brilliant, and it doesn't bring any good memories. We wore it in the season after the relegation nightmare due to alleged intimidation of referees (indeed a polemic decision), and somehow we managed to be relegated yet again - this time from 2nd League to 2nd League B, the 3rd tier in portuguese football. Boavista should completely dominate the 3rd level, but we actually avoided relegation with just one matchday to play. A bad season indeed.
One thing I don't like about the shirt is the white sleeves. Boavista has chequered shirts, and I think Macron wasted too much space with white (or blank space). I wish it had more squares on the front, too. Andlarger squares.
Maybe the shirt design isn't that terrible, but I'm quite picky when it comes to Boavista clothing.
There's actually one thing I really like here: the badge looks amazing.
Iconic, uh? The shirt also has some yellow details, also a common choice among our recent suppliers. It makes some sense, as there's some golden/yellow in our club crest, but our shirts used to be just black and white. I'm glad those days are back, as our latest kits were just black and white.
I've seen this shirt available online on eBay and Classic Football Shirts, for a quite interesting price. So, if you like it, go and have a look!
Not much black-and-white here. Not good.
I haven't had much time to update the blog, but I do have some new shirts in sight. Christmas is coming, so if you're my friend and have no clue what to give me, just check Classic Football Shirts and get me something. There's some hot deals in the Clearence section. Have in mind that I wear M or L (it depends on the brand).
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