#8 India (Away, 2008/2010)


I was actually very surprised to find this shirt in an european sports shop, but I also was tremendously happy to manage to buy it. As far as I remember, it was the last one there, and it wasn't exactly cheap. Now you can find it for quite a reasonable prize in eBay and other sites, as they have a new kit (still by Nike).

I purchased this India shirt in the same place where I bought the Borussia Mönchengladbach one. I really can't remember if it was in Berlin or Hamburg, but I'm sure it was in Germany. I think it was in Berlin, though, because in Hamburg I was specially looking for a St. Pauli one (of course I got it, will post it later).

The shop was pretty good, with plenty of german clubs shirts, but I actually wasn't expecting to find an Indian one there. Their national team is really really weak, but it seems there's some improvement in the local championship. As a former brittish colony, it'd be predictable that they'd be at least a little bit better than they actually are. I suppose they prefer cricket or something.


Every player in their national squad still plays for Indian clubs, mostly Dempo, East Bengal and Churchill Brothers. And that's also surprising: I believe there's a pretty big Indian community in London and England in general, so it'd be predictable that some players would appear. A bit like Zesh Rehman, former QPR defender, now playing for Pakistan, and Anwar Uddin, former Dag & Red defender, playing for Bangladesh. There was actually an Indian player playing for Bury, a small english team. His name's Baichung Bhutia, and he's probably a fan favourite.

Bhutia playing for Bury. He didn't play too often, so they didn't have any shirts for his size anyway.


Sunil Chhetri was actually close to join QPR in 2009. He's a big deal in India, I think, and QPR signed him, but he never managed to get a work permit to play in England, as India is too low in the rankings. Too bad for him indeed.

One of the unluckiest guys in the world.
It's not that surprising that Nike is working close with India: they have a huge economical potential, their economy is growing really well (and faster than Marc Wilmots running by the sideline), so there's a lot of Indians willing to pay to get some merchandise. I think.

Specially with nice shirts like the one I own. It's really simple, but the colours are just great. The orange looks awesome, a bit darker than the Netherlands shirt's, and there's this light blue detail in the neck that makes it quite classy. It's also pretty comfortable, and the material is top-class. Maybe that's why it was so bloody expensive.



Also some great details inside.

I've made this one bigger so you could see the details better.
Portugal and India had a very close relationship in the past. In 1498, Vasco da Gama, a portuguese, found how to get from Lisbon to India by sea.That was specially important to bring some Indian spices to Europe. Until late 1940's, Portugal still had some Indian enclaves, Goa, Damao and Diu. So nowadays it's still possible to find some portuguese names in their national team, like Rebello, Rodrigues, Miranda, Carvalho, Oliveira, Fernandes, Silva, Barbosa or Joaquim. Those are really typical portuguese names. No Ronaldo though. And there's still Sporting Clube de Goa, clearly inspired by Sporting Clube de Portugal. If Sporting Lisbon fans are upset with their team's results, hey, take a look at your Indian friend: last season they were playing in I-League 2nd Division, so cheer up.

Even weaker than Sporting.
By the way, I'm currently trying to get 2 more shirts. One of those is specially rare and I'm sure I'll have it. Not sure if for 15£ or 20£, so wish me luck.
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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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#7 Celta de Vigo (Home, 2007/2009)


Celta de Vigo is specially popular in Portugal. Well, maybe not popular, but pretty well-known. Porto fans love Celta. They really do. And Benfica fans can't hear a single word about them. Why? Well, back in the late 90's, Benfica was a complete disaster. Awful squads, with a lot of low quality players, a huge amount of problems with the board, and also financial problems that made them realease ridiculous videos with appeals for money. Ah, a classic.

At the same time, Celta were doing just fine. A good squad, with great players like McCarthy, Karpin, Makalele, Giovanella, Mostovoi or Revivo. When Benfica faced them in a UEFA Cup match, one could predict the galician side had some good chances of going through. But I think noone expected them to go for a massive and unforgettable 7-0 win at Vigo. Yeah, 7-0. Boavista, my football club, a lot weaker and smaller than Benfica, never had such a day. Our worst european result was against Internazionale, a 1-5 defeat at Bessa. And Inter is, at least, a legendary team. I've seen San Marino defending way better than Benfica that day:


After glorious days both in Europe and in domestic football, Celta is now facing some tougher days. Relegated a few years ago, they keep playing in Liga Adelante, the 2nd division in spanish football. Last season they were close to promotion, but Betis, Rayo and Granada stole the show. But they're still a big deal in Vigo and Galicia. I've been there last year, and they were all over the newspapers. And you could easily spot some Celta scarves and flags in small towns in Galicia. I bought this shirt in Vigo, in a really cool sports shop by the sea. A great finding, actually, as I bought 3 other shirts (one from a mexican club!). My family went to Spain again in July or August, and my brother went there again, buying two more shirts. The seller asked if I wasn't with them this year. Clever.


The shirt is definitly great. Sky blue is Celta's traditional home colour, and it has some red and black details. And the material is also quite good. Umbro did a nice job with this one indeed. Here's Kamel Ghilas wearing it:

Celta also reminds of Hristo Stoichkov, the great bulgarian striker. He's a living legend in Bulgaria, and Barcelona fans seem to love him too. But I believe he does not have many friends in Vigo. He never played for Celta, but they were crazy enough to appoint him as a manager a few seasons ago, after 3 disappointing years in charge of the national team.

In Bulgaria, some important players said they wouldn't play for the country again while Stoichkov was the coach. The resulst weren't good, also, so he was sacked. And Celta thought "ah, great, let's get this bad tempered coach and see what he can do!". He certainly showed them what he could do.

Once he arrived in Vigo, he said that he didn't "believe in tactics". And he really didn't. Once, he started a match in a 2-4-4 formation. Genius? Maybe not. Crazy bastard? Probably.

Stoichkov probably making the headlines for some stupid reason.
And now some more photos of the shirt. That's why we're here in the first place, right?


Nice crest. Too religious though.



One of my latest hauls was a Deportivo Coruña shirt, and Depor is Celta's biggest rival. I'll post it, but maybe not too soon, as I might get in trouble with galician supporters.
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#6 Slavia Praha (Home Euro Shirt, 2008/2009)


Slavia's home shirt is definitly one of my favourites. I simply love the half-red-half-white design, with a golden neck and some golden details on the red sleeve. The big red star looks pretty awesome too.

This one was surprisingly hard to get. I first saw a Slavia shirt for sale on Subside Sports for a reasonable price, but as I was going to visit Prague in a few months, I though "eh, the hell with it, maybe in Prague I'll find loads of Slavia stuff". Big mistake.


I started walking around Prague looking for the shirt, but they were nowhere in sight. It was specially annoying because I really had that in mind: I wanted to bring a Slavia shirt to Porto. Buying a Sparta (Slavia's biggest rival) shirt wasn't much of a problem, as they were basicly everywhere. I'll post that one later.

A local salesman then told me it'd be pretty hard to get a Slavia shirt that week, as they had recently changed sponsors (from Adidas or something to Umbro), and they were out of stock everywhere. Besides, Slavia had crucial Champions League match against Ajax, so there was some excitement around the team after some poor seasons. Unlucky with Slavia, but at least I managed to purchase a magnificent Bohemians 1905 shirt, a really rare item. I'll post it later too.

This was the shirt I saw online and wanted to buy in Prague. I lost.
But actually, 2 years later, I found again a great Slavia shirt for sale on Classic Football Shirts, also for an awesome price (16£ I think). That time I didn't give it a second thought: called a few friends, made them buy some shirts so we could divide the shipping costs, and a few weeks later, I finally added the shirt to my collection.


This one is actually the Euro Shirt, it was used during Slavia's 2008/2009 Uefa Cup run. The good thing about the shirt design for european competitions is that usually the main sponsor logo is smaller than usual, which is definitly a good thing.




And I've just realised that I own the shirts of the 3 most important clubs in Prague. Funny.
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