#31 Saint-Étienne (Home, 2009/2010)

23:05 as saint etienne , ligue 1 shirt , michel platini , platini shirt , saint etienne shirt , st etienne shirt , support your local football team 4 Comments

My computer is back to work, finally.

Looking back at the moment when I bought this shirt, there's no way I can feel a little bit sad about it. Or at least, it's impossible not to regret going with this one when, in the very same shop, there were some Burundi, China, and Iceland shirts. And maybe a few more that I can't remember now.

I went with the St. Éttiene one mostly because it was a bit cheaper. I guess it didn't cost more than 35€ or something, which was a good price indeed. I found it Paris, in NSH Football, a great shop in Place Republique. I was on a budget, and buying a Iceland shirt (for 70€) would be like 1/4 of my total expenses.

I always had a soft spot for St. Étienne, even though I'm not really a fan of Platini since he became UEFA's big boss. After a golden period in the past, specially in late 70's, St. Éttiene became some kind of yo-yo club, going down and up many times after 1980. And sometimes with some financial scandals to spice things up.


Their green shirts are somehow iconic in french football. And I actually can't remember of much clubs who use plain green shirts as their home kit. No surprise their nicknamed Les Verts, or The Greens in english. Os Verdes in portuguese.

In this 2009/2010 version, Adidas decided to add some golden to the shirt, something that didn't make much sense as there's no golden in their badge. Recently, Adidas came up with a different approach.


Definitly a better effort from the german lads. The sponsor doesn't ruin the shirt, and in mine it kind of does. It's way too big, and what's with the diagonal design? Wicked.


Apart from the golden, there's some level of detail that always looks nice.



I didn't know where this last logo came from, so I had a look on Wikipedia, and discovered it is the coat of arms of the city of Saint-Étienne. Brilliant stuff, it's always amazing when the clubs are attached to its roots. That's pretty common in France, where, apart maybe from Marseille and Lyon in the last few years, there's not a big national force, every region has its football club mostly with local fans.

Always always support your local football team. And if your local team is way too big and you can't afford to go to their matches, maybe you should start following smaller clubs in your area.


Anyway, back to Saint-Étienne. A few nice things I discovered about the club and the city:

- For some reason Saint-Étienne has some relations with Oeiras, a small city near Lisbon. Never been there, I think, and I'm not really sure if I ever will want to go there.
- St. Étienne has more league titles than any other french club: they lifted the trophy 10 times.
- Brittish band Saint-Étienne apparently named themselves after the club. They're ok. So here's one of their songs:


- They're not rich enough to have Neymar on their books, so they decided to go with Gabon international Pierre Aubameyang.


And now some more photos of the shirt and of Platini playing for St. Étienne.

Classy stuff. A bit gay though.

Classic Football Shirts, as usual, actually has some old St. Étienne shirts for sale. Worth a look if you're into vintage stuff.

Wanted List

20:17 cambodia football , cuba football shirt , falkland islands football , falkland islands football shirt , phnom penh crown shirt , san marino football shirt , tuvalu football , tuvalu football shirt 0 Comments

My computer broke again last week, so I'm either using my brand new Samsung Galaxy Tab or my old desktop. That means I don't have much access to pictures of my shirts (without some kind of work or another), so I decided to update my Wanted List.

Cuba 10/11

This is Cuba Home 10/11. I'm not really interested in the "Che 59" thing, even though it adds a bit of spice to a otherwise quite boring shirt. Football in Cuba is not a big deal at all, and I always had a soft spot on the country - that's why I'm looking forward to catch this one for a reasonable price. Subside Sports is selling it for around 35£, they've been sending Promo Codes quite often, but still a bit too much. I'm confident it'll go lower.

Not much to say about it, it's basicly plain white and a Cuba Flag.

Falkland Islands 2010

I found this Falkland Islands Shirt a few weeks ago on eBay, but failed to get it. It ended up being sold for more than £70, I'm not really sure I'd go that far. It's quite an interesting one, to be honest I didn't even know the Falklands were playing at a national level. But they did play a few internationals, being trashed on a regular basis. As far as I read, there are only 4 teams in the Islands, so it's not a big surprise they are much weaker than other non-FIFA squads (like Greenland or Isle of Man).

The team used this shirt during the Wight Island Games, but I have no idea how they did. I believe the seller didn't have much of these around, so it's expectable I won't be putting my hands in a Falkland shirt any soon.

Phnom Penh Crown

Phnom Penh Crown shirts appear on a regular basis on eBay, I'm just not sure if it's always the same seller (with different names), or different sellers, or even sellers and re-sellers. Not important anyway: the shirt is a beauty, and it'd fit perfectly in my collection. The last one I've seen was being sold for no more around 30€ (free shipping, yey), an attracting price tag for such an obscure shirt. They usually come up with name and number too, so that's an interesting bonus.

A few weeks ago, PPC's Press Officer did spend a few minutes to share some kind words in my blog, and that was cool. It seems Phnom Penh giants are now quite organized and are doing well in local football. I wish them luck. I already own a Cambodia football shirt, so a national team shirt + club shirt would kind of make me an expert in Cambodian football. If they ever win an Asian Cup, I might comment on that.

San Marino Home

San Marino shirts are highly regarded as one of the rarest in European football. I must say I do prefer Liechtenstein and the Faroe Islands over San Marino, but minnows are minnows and they'll always have my support. Classic Football Shirts did an amazing job and are selling a number of shirts used in their WC2010 Qualifying Campaign, and I guess they're doing well among shirt collectors worldwide.

Only con: £50. I'm saving some money to get one, either with number 8 on the front, or maybe number 3. Will have to make my mind on that, as they have a nice ammount of different numbers to pick from (and most of them in many sizes). Maybe I'll get what legendary Andy Selva uses to wear. I bet it's 9 or 10. Anyway, San Marino is definitly a must, so it'd be a shame if I let this one go. I won't though.

Sky-blue teams are doing specially well in the past few days: Napoli dominated Chelsea (3-1), and Man City were too strong for Porto (6-1 agg). Maybe it's a good time for San Marino to schedule a friendly match against Andorra.

Tuvalu

I've seen this lovely Tuvalu shirt in some blogs, and it's actually a two-in-one thing: it's a great shirt of a really rare national side, and if you buy it, you'll be helping the lads with their project of entering FIFA. It'd cost a lot of money to get it over here, though: final price 70€. But I really like it - always loved the yellow-blue combination.

Looking a bit back, Tuvalu seems a bit stronger than local opposition, as they beat American Samoa and Samoa, and even Kiribati and Tonga. Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and New Caledonia proved a bit too much for the former dutch colony, though. Heerenveen legend Foppe de Haan is now in charge of the national team, an interesting move that brings some hope to the tuvuluan. As a coach, he did an amazing job at Heerenveen, bringing them back to Eredevisie and actually managing to finish 2nd, and he also won the European Cup with Netherlands U21 in 2006. Sounds like Tuvalu got really ambitious!

#30 Al-Rayyan (3rd Shirt, 2007/2008)

10:28 al-rayyan , al-rayyan 3rd shirt , al-rayyan shirt , football shirt collection , joao tomas , qatar clubs , qatar football , qatar football shirt , qatar league , rare football shirt 1 Comments

I still remember when the first football stars started moving to middle-east clubs, back in 2002 and 2003. Qatar, Kuwait, sometimes Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates all looked like fancy destinations for ageing football players that wanted some huge loads of money before their iminent retirement. I remember Desailly and Batistuta moving to Qatar, and later Frank and Ronald de Boer joined them. The dutch twins both played for Al-Rayyan, and I guess that was the first time I heard about the club.

I was looking for some shirts to order along with some friends - to save shipping costs - and I knew I had to pick up one from a Qatari club. They were cheap, rare, and I didn't own one yet. I went with this Al-Rayyan shirt, because the design looked ok, and I knew a few things about them.


If you look back at their history, since 2003 it looks a bit of a golden retirement house for famous players. They first signed Hierro, Mario Basler and Ali Benarbia. They were all in their last days as a player.

Already a bit fat, this is Hierro in Al-Rayyan home shirt.

Many followed him: Frank and Ronald de Boer, Sonny Anderson, Salomon Olembé, Fabrice Fiorese, Emile Mpenza, Sabri Lamouchi... and portuguese striker João Tomás. He wasn't even old yet, but he moved there back in 2006 (he was like 29 or 30) after good seasons with Braga.

Buy one, get two stars!

Couldn't find a picture of him playing for Al-Rayyan, so here is João Tomás in Rio Ave.

João Tomás scored lots and lots of goals during his career, but never managed to get his place in the national squad. After he moved to Al-Rayyan, he returned to Braga and then moved to Boavista (back then already in the 2nd League). Then he signed for Rio Ave, where he's been scoring a fair amount of goals - 26 in 2 and half seasons.

In 2009, Al-Rayyan signed Afonso Alves. Now here's a guy who decided to finish his career earlier than the usual. After amazing seasons with Heerenveen in Holland, the future seemed quite bright for the brazilian striker. Middlesborough signed him, in what was definitly a disappointing transfer for such a popular guy. I guess everyone was expecting him to sign for a bigger club, but when he decided not to show up to a couple of training sessions I guess Heerenveen didn't have much option rather than selling him on the very last day of the winter transfer window. Boro got the guy, but he never delivered: just 10 goals in two seasons.

Alves then moved to Al-Sadd, and then to Al-Rayyan, where he still plays.

This shirt is way cooler than mine.

And that's pretty much it. A former Boavista and Braga defender, Moisés, plays there too. I really liked him, he was a great centre-back.

As you can see, Al-Rayyan changed shirt manufacturers recently, from local Burrda to Adidas. It's not that my Burrda shirt isn't cool, but it isn't exactly top-quality.


Here is the lion I mentioned earlier. I'm not really a fan of this kind of water-mark stuff, but it kind of gives a original look to the shirt. I've been trying to find pictures of Al-Rayyan actually using their 3rd kit, and all I got was this:

Close enough.

Yep, that's the same shirt.

And a video of a goal in this very same match (against Al-Arabi):


Quite an impressive goal! The defenders looked really lousy, but it is a great run anyway.


Now that the money has moved to China (and even India), if you want to have a look at the stars who once shined in middle-eastern football, check this 20 Minuten gallery. They do include Taribo West in their list, but it's still cool to see.