#25 Cambodia (Away, 2011/2012?)

13:29 asia football shirts , asian football , cambodia football , cambodia jersey , cambodia national football team , cambodia national shirt , cambodia shirt , sok rithy 4 Comments

Now, this is the ideal Christmas present. Too bad I had to buy the shirt myself, but it was a great moment anyway. This Cambodia Away Shirt is surely one of the rarest items in my collection, and arrived from Thailand. Probably from the same guy who was selling the East Timor ones. I'm keeping an eye on his items, he might be an important source of great buys.

I must confess I don't know much about football in Cambodia. To be completely honest, I know almost nothing. They usually don't do very well, and are quite weaker than neighbours Vietnam. A quick look on their recent record shows wins are as rare as their shirt. They recently beat Laos 4-2, but were smashed 6-2 on the return game. That victory was actually their first in World Cup Qualifiers, so I believe people were celebrating around Phnom Penh like crazy.

Things are a little bit better if you look at local tournaments. They did participate in AFC Challenge Cup in 2006, but were knocked in the Group Stage. They occasionally take part in ASEAN Football Championship, but again failed to get through the Group Stage.


According to the seller, this shirt was used by the U23 squad in the Sea Games 2011, that took place in Indonesia. I have no clue if that's true, but I did find a picture of some players wearing it against Indonesia, in what's described as a "qualification match" for the South East Asian Games.

Love the hair.

I'm glad their football talent isn't directy proportional to their shirt design: apart from poor results, the shirt is pretty much impressive. Nice work from FBT lads. They were a bit creative, and even though the shirt is not as fancy as a Puma one, it still looks ok.

Now, take a closer look to that last picture. As you can (hardly) see, one of the players is wearing the number 3, the same as in my shirt. I don't know anything about him, except his name is Sok Rithy, who played 8 times for Cambodia and represents Preah Khan Reach, a team somehow connected to the police forces.

I also used to wear #3 when I played amateur football.

So, Rithy is something like my new hero. Hope to hear from him soon. I know he's a defender, and probably a left-defender.

I'm not really into Cambodia's local league, but Phnom Pehn Crown seems to be the dominant force. They actually have some nigerian and japanese players, and their coach is David Booth, an english lad that once managed Darlington. Then he started a successfull (??) carreer in smaller clubs in exotic countries. Nice choice, Booth. I've seen a Phnom Pehn Crown shirt for sale on eBay, but it was too expensive. Maybe later.


I actually like their flag: it's great when your national symbol has a temple in it. I guess it wasn't too easy to put that up on the shirt.

But is there any hope for the national team? Not really, I'd say. Most players are still playing in the local league, that doesn't seem that strong at all. There's some nigerians playing there right now, but I believe their quality isn't exactly top-class. The national coach is Lee Tae-Hoon, an unkown south-korean manager. Let's see how it goes.

I'm still delighted with the shirt.


More to come soon. I've been quite busy, but in the next few days I'll post some new (and old) shirts.