Showing posts with label sturm graz. Show all posts

# 34 Sturm Graz (Home, 2008/2009)


I guess Sturm Graz first got football fans attention not because their good Champions League campaigns, but because they named their stadium after Arnold Schwarzenneger. That's right, the muscle-man, and austrian-born Governor of California was important enough in his home region to see the local stadium holding his long name.

The stadium was built in 2000 and 2001, when Sturm was doing quite well both in domestic and european competitions. I do remember them playing in the Champions League, and I found out about their ground's bizarre name in a UEFA magazine, when I was no more than 10 or something. It didn't make much sense back then, either.

Look at how much money they spent in those letters.
But a few years ago, everything changed. The local hero was no more a local hero. In 2005, Schwarzenegger refused to stop the execution of a former gang-member, that actually changed his life and had been working for many many years in preventing kids from forming or joining criminal gangs. The issue was object of long discussions and criticism in Austria, and people in Graz didn't really want to have their local stadium named after Arnold (maybe they never did). The muscle-man himself wasn't too happy that austrians were so pissed at him because of an execution, so he asked the City Council to remove his name from the Arena.

Amazing.
Yep, that saved them a lot of money.
And here is a picture of the UPC Arena (formerly known as Arnold Schwarzenegger Arena), home of Sturm Graz and Grazer AK:


I got the shirt a few months ago, as a Christmas gift from my girlfriend. It was the perfect thing, and there's no way I could complain, as I picked it myself. I've seen many on eBay, but I was really into this one. It was a special design for to celebrate the club's centenary, and is plain black. But the sponsors make sure it looks a bit colourful.



Overall, it's a nice shirt. It's not that usual to find european shirts with such big sponsors, except in Scandinavia. They do have some heavy sponsored kits.

The special logo 1909-2009.


Here's a old Sturm Graz kit that might be familiar to some of you:


It'd be cool to get that one.

Anyway, after very tough years (when the club faced severe financial problems), things seem to be back on track in Graz. They were champions last year, beating favourites Red Bull Salzburg and Austria Wien. Nice one.



And here comes the best part: do you know who's leading Sturm Graz to glory right now? The legendary FRANCO FODA. A former German international, that was never a star anywhere, except in Portugal. His name is some kind of myth around here: many people believed he didn't really exist, but yes, Franco FODA is here to stay. In case you don't speak portuguese, imagine his name was Franco Fuck. It'd be funny, right?


Foda first came to public notoriety in Portugal when Benfica played against Bayer Leverkusen (Champions League or UEFA Cup). I'm too young to remember the match, but people say journalists were quite embarassed and tried to figure out nice ways to say his name without saying FODA. Not easy.

But Franco is not the only Foda in Sturm. His son, Sandro Foda, currently plays for the Graz side too. I'm sure he'll face a portuguese team sometime: it's destiny.

Here's Sandro Foda in a nice shirt.
Maybe I'm spending a few pounds to print FODA 69 in the back of my shirt. It'd be a sucess.
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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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