#24 Bahrain (Home, 2010/2011)


My recent trip to London was pretty much disappointing in terms of football-shirts-purchasing. Sportshops in the city center didn't have have many shirts available (apart from big clubs and national teams). Besides, the ones that got my interest were way too expensive, and that kept me away from them. That means this Bahrain one was a nice finding: it fits perfectly in my collection, and it cost only around 25£, definitly a nice price. It's a shame I didn't manage to add some more english club shirts to my collection, but a trip to Dagenham to get a Dag & Red shirt was out of hand. What a shame.


As usual, Puma did a great job here. The shirt is mainly red, but some little details make it a little more interesting: the golden stuff on the sleeves and on the neck, and the Bahrain flag on the collar.

Original, but unnoticable unless you're Cantona. 
Poor Bahrain. They're obviously not a great team, but recently they've been quite sucsessful - having in mind the Kingdom has a population of only around 1,2 Million. A small talent pool indeed, but that didn't stop them from improving in the last few years.

They were quite close to qualify for both World Cup 2006 and 2010, but somehow managed to lose against Trinidad and Tobago and New Zealand by small margins. I bet the King was not happy at all.

I don't expect a great World Cup 2014 Campaign, as they banned and arrested some of their best players after some Arab Spring Protests in Manama. They were also forced to leave the country, and are now playing in Oman and Australia. Wicked.

I actually read both in FourFourTwo and World Soccer Magazine that football clubs and football fans actually had a major role in some of the recent Arab Uprisings, will talk about that later.


Their Asian Cup record is also not brilliant at all. And if they keep arresting their best players for political reasons, I can't see that changing soon. Their league is probably still far from neighbouring countries ones, as you won't find many big names playing in Bahrain. I guess the Oil Lords prefer to invest their money elsewhere.



 Some arabic, that's nice.
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#23 Morecambe FC (Away, 2007/2008)



There's not much to say about this one. I bought it from the same buyer who sold me the Guanghzou Evergrande one. It was cheap, it looked good, and I could bring it for a reduced shipping cost. Anyway, I was quite glad with it, even though I don't have any special feelings about Morecambe.

Ok, we're talking about a League 2 club here, the 4th tier in english football. It's pretty much impressive how huge football is up there in the UK. I've been into lower league english football for quite a while now, and it keeps impressing me. Thise summer, I bought the FourFourTwo Season Guide and the media coverage of lower divisions is absolutely incredible. Virtually impossible here, where newspapers usually don't dedicate more than 2 pages to the 2nd League, and if you want to explore something deeper than that you'll find mostly results and goalscorers only.

The fascinating thing about english football is that those lads really support their local club. And that's way different from what happens around here, where smaller clubs in the 1st League struggle to have attendances above 2000 people. The clubs also seem to be really organized and professional. Smaller clubs here are starting to improve, but 2nd League clubs are mostly run by local club who have no clue how a football club should be organized in the 21st Century.

Well, I'm done with the whining, let's have a closer look at the shirt.


One funny thing: Morecambe has changed its badge recently, from this lovely english-style one:


To this modern one:

What?
Yeah, that's a shrimp. A shrimp. Don't know about you, but shrimps remind me of weddings and other parties. I have no idea why a club would held a shrimp on their badge, but hey, I love shrimps, so no problem.

And if you were expecting a huge shrimp as the club's mascot, you're wrong. Christie the Cat is their mascot. I guess they changed pretty much everything in the last few years: moved to a new stadium, changed badge and shirt colours. Does that make my shirt a little bit more rare?



Morecambe used to play non-league football, but they were recently promoted to League Two. Checked their squad, but I never heard of any of their players. I do remember Dag & Red smashing them a few seasons ago in a play-off.

This shirt is quite similar to that Norway one I posted a few weeks ago. It feels a bit tight on the sleeves (yeah), but overall it's quite good.


Xmas coming, so don't forget my collection. Cheers in advance.
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#22 St. Pauli (Home, 2008/2009)


Ah, St. Pauli. A truly cult club, and surely my favorite team in Germany (even though they didn't sign Jong Tae-Se).

Some of you might ignore the fact that this Hamburg-based club has more than 11 million supporters (at least that's what they say). There's actually many reasons why one should love St. Pauli.

Reasons why you should love FC St. Pauli:

- Their home stadium is located right next to Reeperbahn. Something like a mini-Amsterdam in Hamburg, except a lot more hardcore, with many bars, prostitutes and alcohol around. A real red-light district, with many no-children-allowed areas. And some bad things, too, but I really can't remember any. There's actually a funfair near their ground, the Millerntor-Stadion.

What if PSG moved to a Stadium near the Disneyland?
- St. Pauli was the first club in Germany to completely ban right-wing activists from their home matches, and obviously any right-wing symbols or displays on the terraces. That attracted an alternative fan-base, with many left-wing supporters.

- They famously display a Skull and Crossbones symbol everywhere - flags, scarves and even on their shirts. It's like their unofficial badge. Pirates rock, so they rock too.

Looks great on my shirt!
- Their fans are passionate and, above all, great lads (except when they're fighting neo-nazis somewhere). In 2006, they organized the exciting FIFI Wild Cup, a sort of World Cup for national teams that aren't allowed to enter in FIFA competitions, like Tibet and Greenland. St. Pauli fans competed as "Republic of St. Pauli". Wicked. Also, they usually organize displays against racism and sexism in football. The fans were also involved in an organization called Viva Con Agua de St. Pauli, that worked on improving water quality in developing countries in Africa. Pretty noble, I'd say.

Tibet in St. Pauli with the very same shirt I own.
Hell yeah!
- The club stuggled many times, but always survived. A few years ago, they were playing 3rd Division football and facing severe financial problems. A huge fan operation was set up, and they manage to save the club. Last season they played in Bundesliga.

- Icelandic post-rock band Sigur Ros bass player supports St. Pauli, and there's a great song by british band Art Brut named St. Pauli. They usually play Blur's Song 2 at their home ground whenever they score a goal. Nice choice. Vaduz used to play that song too.



When I visited Hamburg (a nice city by the way) a few years ago (in 2008 I think), there was keine chance  not coming back with a St. Pauli shirt. After a nice walk in Reeperbahn, I headed to their stadium. St. Pauli's club shop was unsurprisingly not posh at all, but it had a lot of stuff for sale. It was also a nice way to practice my german. The girl in the shop didn't understand why a portuguese family would visit Hamburg in the summer though, as everyone in Germany was dreaming about sunny beaches in sunny Algarve. I can understand that. But I kindly smiled and told her that the weather in Porto (my home town) isn't brilliant either.

But well, I managed to buy my shirt and everybody was happy.


The shirt is, at least, a bit unusual. How many teams pick brown as their home colour? Not many. The shirt has very thin brown and black stripes, but it looks mostly brown. They did a nice job with the sponsor too, it doesn't ruin the shirt at all. St. Pauli kits are manufactured by Do You Football, a german sportswear firm I never heard of before buying the shirt. But they've been doing some good jobs with the Pirates.





I actually don't like brown that much, and their away kit always look a little bit better. But a white St. Pauli shirt? No no, it makes no sense. It had to be the home one.


 Got to love St. Pauli. It'd be just awesome if there were more clubs like this one.
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#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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#20 Club America (Away, 2010/2011)


When my dad told me he was going to Miami for a couple of days, to write some articles about portuguese companies that were establishing there, I obviously said it'd be awesome if he could get me a shirt from yet another american club. Once again, that was not an easy mission for him. He said he didn't see any MLS club shirt for sale, but he did find a Nike Store that had a couple of mexican club shirts (maybe because of the large hispanic community living in Miami), and he picked this Club America one. Nice choice indeed.


I'm not really into mexican football, and I must say I don't know much about the clubs. I know Club America is one of the most populars in Mexico, so that's probably why Nike was selling their shirt in the States. I actually own a Cruz Azul shirt (bought it in Spain), and I'll post that one later. Mexican club shirts are always at least a bit original: colourful, with plenty of sponsors and interesting designs. This one is no exception. I like the dark-blue/yellow combination, and the overall effort is quite nice. This shirt also rocks because it has "Corona" printed on the back.



Bread and Powerade. A friend of mine says that's the best breakfast after heavy drinking nights.
As a beer enthusiast, I obviously must say I tasted some amazing beers. Corona isn't brilliant, but I like to drink it in hot summer days with my mates. It just feels good. A Corona sponsorship in a shirt is a nice bonus indeed.

Now let's learn a bit about Club America.

Funny fact #1: Cameroon legend Omam-Biyik played there for 3 seasons, and was not less than a massive goal-machine, scoring 49 goals just from 75 matches. I mostly remember him because of his partner Roger Milla.

90's shirt. Classic.
Funny fact #2: a few weeks ago, they transfer-listed the whole squad. Yep, that's right, they want to get rid of every single player, after losing 9 of their last 17 matches. Maybe that's just a motivational move, but hey, sounds like a great idea.

And that's it. Hugo Sanchez played there but that's not very funny, it's just kind of interesting to know. Ivan Zamorano, legendary chilean striker, also spent some time with the Mexican giants.



Nike has been printing inspiring messages on the back of the club's badge, and no exception on the Club America shirt.

Front

Back. That means "Defend it with your life", something like that.
Quite inspiring, but I still think it's a bit pointless. It'd be better if it was written under the club badge or something. Anyway, good job, Nike!
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#19 FC Vaduz (Home, 2004/2005)


Ok, I know some of you were waiting for this one. Let me introduce you my FC Vaduz, the pride of Liechtenstein, shirt. It's one of my favourites, of course (I think I always say this anyway). Liechtenstein national team is among my football passions - I always check their results, and if available, I try to watch their matches online. That made me like Vaduz too: the dominant force in local football, a club that spent most of last seasons in Switzerland's 2nd Division, with a one-year-spell in the Premier League (much for Europe's surprise and my excitement).

During a summer-trip around Central Europe, I managed to spend a day in Liechtenstein. Yeah, it is really small. I guess you could easily go across it without even noticing you were in a different country. Anyway, I liked it: great landscape, nice people, everything seems so organized and in its place, you know?

Finding this one wasn't easy, even in a sunny Vaduz, full of people excited with the recent good results of its lovely football side. The story behind this one is actually kind of funny.


I started looking for it in the city center. There were some sports shops around, so I gave them a try. Nothing there. Nothing from Vaduz, nor Liechtenstein. They were actually surprised there was a young portuguese tourist asking for some local football merchandise. A nice lady said "hey, we don't have the official Liechtenstein shirt, but we do have this Adidas shirt that looks a lot like it.". It was basicly Liechtenstein's blur shirt, without the crown printed and stuff. "Er, thanks, but not really!", I answered.

After some sightseeing, I stopped to buy some pizza. Then I noticed the pizza-seller was actually from Brazil! Back then, my german wasn't great, so a little portuguese-speaking help was nice. "Hey pal, I'm looking for a Vaduz shirt, any idea where they're selling those?", I asked. "Oh, Vaduz! Not easy mate. They're selling it for the same price as a Barcelona or Man Utd one! Can you imagine that? Such a shitty team! Why anybody would even like to buy their shirt for such an expensive price?", he replied. "Expensive? Well ok. But where can I find one?". "Uh, I guess if you go blah blah blah there's one shop that might have some left, but it's a lot of money!". "Ok, thanks a lot!".

Money wasn't much of a problem, as my dad was paying for it (I was like 15 back then, ok?). We went to the place he mentioned, and there was this shop that had one scarf left. A scarf wasn't brilliant, but giving the club's dimension, it was better than nothing. The lads in the store said Vaduz had done well in some European UEFA Cup match a few days before, so there was a massive interest in their merchandise. Which, I imagine, wasn't available in enormous quantities. "But I believe there's one place where you can find some shirts!".


The Post Office. Yeah, I actually bought this shirt in a Post Office. Never seen a Post Office selling football merchandising, but in Liechtenstein that's how things go. I remember there weren't many shirts available, so I had to pick a XL. It's not that big though, so I can still use it from time to time. It was expensive indeed: around 70€. Have in mind that back then, official shirts for most clubs would cost around 60€. But I was pretty glad with my purchase. It's one of my first shirts, and is still one of the rarest in my collection. I still like Vaduz a lot, and I was specially happy when they were playing Premier League football in Switzerland. Their success also helped the national team to improve.

Boavista actually had a player from Liechtenstein: Peter Jehle. A great goalie, now with FC Vaduz. The fans loved him, and he had an impressive year with us, with amazing performances against Sporting and Porto. He quickly became a fan-favourite, and I know he's a nice lad. Having to keep Liechtenstein's nets safe is a tough mission, so he deserves our recognition.


Another video that really deserves your attention:


It's a documentary about Liechtenstein's football team, and it seems a lot of fun. Never managed to watch more than the trailer, though. But you can find it in Amazon, and even with free shipping if you live in the UK. Just look for "The Mouse That Scored".

Back to the shirt.


As you can see, it's a basic Adidas template: red with white stripes on the sleeves. It looks fine though. It still has the old Vaduz logo, I believe this is the last shirt that still has this crest in it.



And here's the new one:


They both look nice. Now, another funny thing about this shirt is that it has a kind of net inside. Maybe to keep the players warm or something. It's like it has two layers, and that makes it a bit heavy. But warm indeed.



Never seen such a thing. Didn't know it was that cold over there. And from this pictures, I'd say the players would sweat to death.

It doesn't look that hot. And yep, that's my shirt.
See? Well done, Adidas. Take that thing off next time.
And that's it. I don't own a Liechtenstein shirt yet, but that can change soon. You can buy their shirts directly from Liechtenstein's FA website, a nice thing indeed. But San Marino comes first on my list! And as you may know, Classic Football Shirts has a lot of San Marino shirts for sale. Nice one, guys.
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#18 Guangzhou Evergrande (Away, 2010)


This Guangzhou shirt was, as you know if you keep reading my blog everyday (and I know you do!), one of my latest buys. Its design, the chinese characters on the front, and its rarity makes it obviously one of my favorite ones. Guangzhou Evergrande is the current champion of the Chinese SuperLeague, but this lovely away shirt was used during their spell in China League One, the 2nd division in chinese football, after a match-fixing scandal.

Usually, relegations are not really atractive in terms of football investment, but the Evergrande Real Estate Group didn't share this thoughts, and bought the club in 2010. Evergrande's millions turned the club into the main force in Chinese football, mostly thanks to some big-name signings. First, they started with some local talent, and then they brought Muriqui in from Atletico Mineiro, for 3,5 M€, the highest fee ever paid in China.

Muriqui modeling my shirt
After promotion, their ambitions grew even bigger, and they had no problem signing Fluminense star Dario Conca, a talented argentinian attacking midfielder named twice as the Campeonato Brasileiro best player. Taking Conca to an Asian league wasn't cheap, though: he earns more than $10 million a year, not bad for a player with just 9 U21 caps for Argentina.

This shirts looks cool too. Nike did well with Guangzhou.
Muriqui, Conca and brazilian striker Cléo obviously had an immediate impact, and Guangzhou won the Chinese League quite easily. Let's see how they'll do in the Asian Champions League.

The Chinese SuperLeague has actually some portuguese guys around. And some of them are true Boavista legends. Manager Jaime Pacheco, that lead Boavista to the only league title in our history, is now Beijing Guoan's boss. He finished 2nd, and he recently extended his contract, so I guess they love him there. He's not quite popular in Portugal, but no doubts he was amazing during his first spell at Boavista.

"Hit that! More tackles!", shouts Pacheco.
Pacheco won the award for Best Manager this season, but he's not the only Boavista symbol with fans over there. Manuel Barbosa, a former Youth Football Director in Boavista, and the player with most appearences ever in the chequered shirt, managed to get into the Cup Final. Nelo Vingado also coaches some mid-table club. So, as you can see, portuguese lads are doing well in China. Maybe I should go there too.

Now, back to the shirt.


The chinese characters add an exotic look to the shirt, and the design is generally good. I like the blue/light-blue combination, and the golden lines also make the shirt look... asian. Don't know how to explain this, though, but it certainly does.




Their badge is also quite original. Modern, I'd say.


It'd be quite cool to buy more stuff from Asian clubs, but shirts are usually way too expensive. I was happy to get this one for around 35€ on eBay, but it was definitly one of the cheapest I've seen. I wouldn't say it's hard to find shirts from Chinese, Japanese or Korean clubs now (specially on eBay), but the price tag is always a bit frightening. For example, a quick look on eBay for a Beijing Guoan shirt returns items ranging between $52 and $142. That makes me sad: asian club shirts are always quite distinctive and original, and would fit just perfectly in my collection.

With these instructions, I bet my shirt would end up really tiny and pink.
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