Showing posts with label boavista. Show all posts

#21 Boavista (Home, 2008/2010)


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).

Cheers in advance!
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#9 Malaga (Home, 2007/2009)


When I bought this shirt, during one of my trips to Madrid, Malaga was just a mid-table club, sometimes struggling to keep their La Liga spot, and sometimes actually going down to come back right after. Now everything is different. This season they have the 3rd highest budget in La Liga, still away from Real Madrid and Barcelona, but they're now spending more than teams like Sevilla, Valencia, Atletico de Madrid or Villareal. Obviously thanks to Sheikh Al Thani and his fortune.

They used to sign some players from portuguese clubs, like Boavista legend Litos, Benfica's Paulo Jorge, Boavista's Hélder Rosário or Belenenses' Eliseu. Now they're usually more into some big names: Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Toulalan, Demichelis, Enzo Maresca, Julio Baptista, Buonanotte or Santi Cazorla. A very talented squad indeed. Let's see how it goes for the Malaga boys.


As I said, I bought this shirt in Madrid, during a memorable 4-day-trip. I had to walk like 40 minutes under extremely high temperatures, though. I was looking for some bargains, and I thought the best place to find plenty of offers was obviously El Corte Ingles. It's a huge department store, and there's like one in every spanish town (and also one in Lisbon and one in Porto). I was quite disappointed with the small amount of shirts available: mostly big clubs, and this Malaga one was the only that got my interest. It was also cheaper than the others: it costed around 30€, I think. It has no sponsor printed, which is a good thing, as Malaga's sponsorship that season was really poor and made the shirt look not so good.

Malaga? How original.
The shirt itself looks nice. Traditional blue and white vertical strips, with some details in golden.



Back then Malaga used more of a sea-blue, now they're using a lighter blue, like sky-blue or something:


I guess I prefer the old colours though.
Malaga always remembers me of an epic UEFA Cup round between them and Boavista. Quarter-finals, I think. We lost 1-0 in Malaga, managed to win 1-0 in Bessa with a late goal from a perfect free-kick taken by Luiz Claudio, and then we won on the penalty shoot-out.

Luiz Claudio. Could have been a legend. He wasn't.

 Now some more photos of the shirt, and of course, the almighty Litos playing for them:
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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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#5 Boavista (Home, 2004/2005)


I support Boavista since I was a little kid. Back then I didn't understand the offside rule. I remember going to Bessa (our home) and spend most of the match playing on the old terraces with other kids. So Boavista is pretty much a part of my life.

I obviously own some Boavista shirts, and this one is actually one of my favourites. I bought it in funny circumstances: me and my school mates were planning a trip to Italy (Firenze, Venice and Rome), and we were trying to collect some money to make it more affordable to everyone.

So we prepared this kind of auction, with books, old school material (vintage stuff, I'd say), and some items offered by companies. We also contacted Boavista and Porto to get football shirts so we could get some money. Boavista donated this match-worn shirt (as a supporter I'd say it was worn in some friendly matches, because it didn't have the sponsor printed yet, and that was normal). Porto, obviously, gave absolutely nothing (I think).

.
The starting price was 15€, I bought it for like 20€. I had to make sure I'd get this one. It'd be an embaressment if the most popular - and probably one of the few - Boavista fan in the school didn't buy this one. There was this annoying guy that also shouted twice so I had to pay more money to get the shirt, but no problem in the end.


The shirt was worn by Zé Manel. Not a Boavista legend, but something like a fan favourite when he was playing for us. He spent a few seasons with Boavista, after impressing for Paços de Ferreira. In his first season in Bessa he scored like 10 goals or something, a big deal for a winger. Here's one of his goals:



And, more important, a goal against Porto a few seasons later. It's always great if you score against those guys:

Zé Manel scores against Porto

Lovely.
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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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