#31 Saint-Étienne (Home, 2009/2010)


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.
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Wanted List

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


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.
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#29 Timor-Leste (Away, 2012/2014)


The East-Timor (or Timor-Leste in local language) fits in the "amazing and rare" category. A few months ago, I believe Timorese shirts would top some of the "toughest to get" shirt-list, but that changed when a seller from Thailand launched a few on the market. Unsurprisingly, most collectors got it for actually a reasonable price. I was afraid there was no shirts left, but I'm quite glad I was wrong. I'd kill myself if I missed this one. Seriously, I would. Someone from the UK is selling this one right now (probably he got two and he's making a quick profit), and with still 2 days left for the auction to end, it's costing £41 + shipping already. I got mine for £28 + shipping.

A few of the buyers are actually not sure if this is an official Timor shirt. It's definitly original Nike, but it's hard to be 100% sure that the shirt is not some kind of fake. My bet is that the guy got it directly from some Nike factory in Thailand (where he's based). At least I hope so. My guess would go for "good one", as it definitly looks exactly the same used by East-Timor on a World Cup 2014 qualifier against Nepal.

They lost 7-1.

It's pretty obvious this is a Nike template with just a badge and Timor's flag printed on it. No hard-work from Nike for sure. But according to Wikipedia, Nike is providing the kits right now, so let's believe the shirt isn't fake. I don't think someone would actually spend time trying to fake a East-Timor shirt, specially using original Nike shirts. That'd be expensive and stupid, as I'm sure there's not more than 150 people around the world wanting to put their hands on a Timor shirt.

The material is definitly good, but the printing is quite poor. I'm not wearing it that much, because I'm afraid the flag can just vanish, and the FA's logo, even though it is a beauty, is far from perfect quality printing.

It look ok here, though.
As you probably know, Timor-Leste used to be a portuguese colony, until 1975, when they became an independent country. Just to be invaded by Indonesian troops three day after. The Indonesian occupation of Timor went largely unnoticed for many years, but in the 90's, footage of a massacre changed it all.

In Portugal there were some pro-independence demonstrations, and a huge solidarity wave put Timor in everyone's mind. If you talk about Timor, I'm pretty sure everyone in Portugal would mention those days. Things went specially emotional after the 1999 referendum, when the people massively decided they wanted to free themselves from Indonesia. Pro-Indonesian militias then started a campaign of violence in Timor, killing hundreds (or thousands) and destroying important infrastructures. I suppose they weren't even thinking of playing football back then. In Portugal, Timor was a really big deal, and there's actually an iconic song that still echoes in everyone's mind when you think about the country.



Things calmed down after a UN force entered Timor and restored order. After very tough years, East-Timor was finally able to start a new life. And so did their football national team!

In 2002, Timor joined AFC, and they took part in the 2010 World Cup qualifiers. No success yet for the minnows: they are currently ranked 205 in FIFA rankings, just ahead of San Marino, Montserrat and Andorra. Things seem bright for them, though. According to Wikipedia, they do have two training camps - one in Brazil and one in Australia - and they are trying to get some foreigners with Timorese roots to play for the national side. Let's see how it goes.


Alfredo Esteves seems to be their most talented player ever. Now 35, he represented some clubs in Portugal, and then headed to the United States. Now he's playing in Australia. His star-status might be in danger, though, as now there are some Timorese playing in Brazil and neighbour Australia. I hope they are any good, as it sucks to see a portuguese-speaking-country so low in FIFA Rankings.


A quick look at the Superliga shows that, unsurprisingly, most Timorese clubs have strong connections with portuguese football. You find FC Porto Taibesi, Académica, Firma Sporting, SLB Laulara and Sporting Clube de Timor. There are no references to Boavista, but I know we're big in Timor. After we won the league for the first (and only) time, a portuguese television actually interviewed some Boavista supporters in Timor. They were quite happy with it, and some of them actually owned Boavista shirts. No idea how the jerseys got there, but it was great to see.

And talking about jerseys, here is the design of the very first East-Timor football shirt (1967):


I'm really not sure about the story behind the shirt, but it really looks a lot like Boavista's:


They all had facial hair. Good old times.
Timor loves Boavista so much that they actually used chequered shirts. Beat this.
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#28 Millwall FC (Home, 2003/2004)


This is a pretty old one, but it kind of represents the first spirit of my collection. I bought it during a trip to London back in 2004 or 2005, when I had no more than 5 or 6 shirts, and I still love it. Now that I own more than 60, it's great to have a look at my old purchases, and most things didn't change too much.

I headed to Lillywhite's in Picadilly Circus with two clubs in mind: Dag & Red (still got to work this one out) and Millwall. I always liked smaller clubs from London, and Dag & Red was some kind of Championship Manager favourite, and Millwall always fascinated me because of their loyal supporters, and for being an unfancied outfit in a city that has dozens of clubs.

The lads in the shop obviously never heard of Dag & Red. The Daggers were still a small Conference side, quite far away from its League Two/One status of these days. But they did have some Millwall shirts left somewhere. I guess they were glad to sell it, and good for me, it was also quite cheap. I guess it didn't cost me more than 25£, but I really can't remember the final price.

Millwall surprised everyone (except their supporters, I believe) reaching the FA Cup Final in 2004, where they used this shirt. Mine actually seems some kind of special edition launched before the Cup Final:


The sad thing is that Millwall lost 3-0 to Man Utd, but it still was surely a great moment. The Lions also managed to qualify for the UEFA Cup, eventually losing to Hungarian side Ferencvaros (4-2 agg).

There are also many other good things about this shirt. The club logo, for example, changed in 2007, so they're not using the two lions thing anymore.


And here is the new one:
Marketing stuff, probably. And maybe they needed some, as Millwall is frequently associated with hooliganism and other problems. Their "No One Likes Us" song is quite popular, and so is their motto, We Fear no Foe. I must say I love this kind of stuff.

Unfortunetly, Millwall had some hard years after the FA Cup thing. They even played in League One for a couple of years, but are now back in Championship, where they're a few points clear of the relegation zone.

An exciting thing is that local fierce rivals West Ham were relegated, so there are two thrilling matches this season between the two clubs. Things tend to be quite agressive and even a bit crazy, so it's wise to stay away if you're not really into football. Have a look of what usually happens when Millwall and West Ham face each other:


It's still quite impressive how a side that spent so many years away from the top division still has so many (and so passionate) supporters. Hats off or Millwall.

They've been changing kit suppliers in a regular basis, but I must say I was quite impressed with Macron's recent designs:

2010/2011
2011/2012
Not bad, uh? They are now using dark-blue as their home colours, and it looks classy indeed. Mine is still in the old blue-and-white-sleeves-design, by Strikeforce (never heard of them before).



Won't complain, though, as it still looks great.
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#27 Universitatea Craiova (Away, 2009/2010?)


A few months ago, during my recent trip to London, my mate joked about my shirt collection. While I was looking for some rare shirts in England, he said "that one sucks, it'd be cooler if it was from some romanian club! And playing in the 2nd Division!". Et voilá, here it is, a shirt from a romanian club playing in the 2nd Division. Actually, Craiova isn't playing any football this season because of a huge mess between the club and coach Vladimir Piturca.

I tried to read more and understand what really happened, but failed my goal. As far as I understood, there's a debt dispute between Craiova and Piturca, and the Romanian Football Federation decided to suspend Universitatea from every football activity this season. I'm not sure if that means they'll have to start from zero, but that's probably the case. The latest news, from December, tell me a Romanian Court ruled in favour of Craiova, and that means now they're asking for a €250 Million compensation.

Crazy times in Romania. Remember Unirea Urziceni, champions in 2009? Their owner decided to dissolve the team last summer. Poli Timisoara were relegated after finishing 2nd. And some clubs, such as Dinamo Bucharest and Vaslui, were recently investigated because of a bribery scandal. Crazy times indeed.

Romania recently turned into some kind of oasis for mid-talented portuguese players and coaches. As of today, there are two portuguese managers and dozens of players. Cadu, a former Boavista defender, is now the captain of CFR Cluj, where he plays along other 3 portuguese mates, including Beto, former Porto and Portugal's current goalkeeper.

Here's Cadu.
I'm not really into romanian football, even though my all-time favourite player is Romanian. Ion Timofte, of course, the Boavista legend, the best player ever playing for us. He's now back in Timisoara, his home town, where he owns a Hotel named after my club. Cheers, Timo!


Look at that, he rocks!


I was pretty happy with the shirt: it was cheap (around 20€ or less), and it's a nice addition to my collection. It looks great and it's from a club that isn't playing football now! Want anything more rare than that?


I specially like the badge, and they also embroided a romanian flag with 4 stars in it, I suppose it represents the 4 league titles they won in the past. Yep, Univ Craiova used to be quite successfull: they actually were UEFA Cup semi-finalists in the 80's, during the golden-era of romanian football (Steaua won the Champions League back then).


Nice badge, a lion with a sword playing football: epic.
I bought the away jersey, but the home shirt is pretty much the same, except it has a big white stripe and blue sleeves, insted of a blue stripe and white sleeves. Clever work. I bet they were using their black 3rd shirt all the time.



Let's see how it goes for the Craiova boys, hope to hear from them soon. I first heard of them back in 2005 or something, when striker Jeremie N'Jock was linked with a move to Boavista. He was scoring a fair amount of goals in Craiova, but the transfer never happened. He actually ended up playing in Portugal anyway a few years later, when he joined 2nd League outfit Estoril. Now he's scoring some goals in Moreirense.

1.96m. The cameroonian Jan Koller.
By the way, I might have a Cambodia shirt for sale, message me if you're interested.
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