#33 QPR (Home, 2009/2010)


I really really like QPR. I always had a soft spot for London clubs: Tottenham, Fulham, Millwall or obscure Dag & Red. QPR is no exception, but they're probably among my favourite clubs in European football. That's why I bought their home shirt a few months ago, even though I already owned an away shirt from a previous year. It'd make no sense to miss an oportunity to get such an awesome kit. I think hooped shirts are quite cool, and I always liked the blue-white choice (Reading, De Graafschap and so on). 

I was quite happy to see this one appearing for no more that £15 pounds, and as some friends also wanted to purchase a few shirts, I couldn't waste the chance. 


QPR made the frontpages a few times in the last couple of years - but not always for amazing reasons. Following many seasons in the Premier League, the Hoops were quickly relegated to the 3rd tier. As many clubs in that situation, the Londoners were facing a serious financial crisis, but in 2007 F1 millionaires Ecclestone and Briatore decided to buy the club. That didn't solve everything, though.

There's been some buzz around The Four Year Plan, a brilliant documentary that shows how things were going inside the club during the Briatore years. It's not out yet, but it was broadcasted on BBC and there was someone sharing it online. Anyway, buy it HERE, it's a must for every football fan out there. For my portuguese readers: Paulo Sousa is in it, and you immediatly understand he's a damn lousy manager. No wonder he's in Hungary now. The club was a mess anyway, Briatore seems completely ignorant and unaware of how things are when it comes to football and football fans. At some point he was completely mad because some supporters booed him (after QPR fired like 4 coaches in 2 seasons), and you can see him in the documentary asking other supporters to name the ones who booed him, otherwise he'd leave and the club would have no money. Priceless, go and watch it.

A great player, an awful coach.
QPR are now back in the Premier League, and despite having a decent squad (in my opinion), they're struggling to avoid relegation. With only 8 matches to go, they're still in the drop zone, so it's going to be a pretty tough mission. I hope they don't go down, but I'm not putting any money on that. 

Remember Akos Buszaky, the hungarian midfielder that had brief spells in Porto and Académica? Yeah, he's with QPR now. He actually went there a few seasons ago and now he's more of a backup for the midfield, but still interesting to see him in a Premier League club (as he didn't seem brilliant around here).

Oh exploitable.

And there he is, modelling my shirt. I like how the sponsor doesn't ruin it. Here you can already see their new logo, that replaced one created in the 80's. I was kind of used to it, so I'm not really sure if I like the new one. Marketing stuff.


And here's the old one:


I've got nothing much to say, so here's some final pictures:

I should have ironed it first.



The usual nice details: some text in the collar, some grey in the back. Somehow it gives the shirt a quite classy looke. I don't like the red Lotto logos on the sleeves, it's way too big.

UPDATE

I forgot to mention a few things. A few months ago, when I visited London, I pretty much stumbled upon QPR's ground, Lofts Road. It's quite cool to see a Stadium packed in the middle of many houses and other buildings, I guess they don't have any space left to expand it. Have a look:


Ver mapa maior


So, unless they demolish a few buildings, I really can't see how they can have a bigger stadium soon, unless they move somewhere else. I guess that'd be a shame: it's great to see a stadium right in the middle of a neighbourood.



I didn't manage to catch a Premier League match, but I did attend a England - Sweden match in Wembley. Great stadium, the atmosphere was ok, but the match itself was a bit boring.

A few weeks ago I was talking to a friend of mine about how great it'd be to travel around Europe on weekends to attend football matches in different countries. It'd be awesome. I wish I was a millionaire.
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#32 Croatia (Home, 2008/2010)


Buying a Croatia shirt had been on my plans for a while, so I couldn't help myself when I found this one in a shop in London available for such a low price: 15£. Massive sale, so no doubts I had to go for it. 

Their chequered shirt is definitly among the "love it or hate it" section, and I'm definitly going with the first choice. I remember how surprising it was for me to find another football team wearing chequered uniforms, and, even though the red made them a little different from Boavista's, they had to be an instant favourite. 

I was also really surprised by their World Cup 1998 campaign, when they played brilliant football and finished 3rd, only losing to eventual champions France. Standing in front of the TV following their matches is one of my first footballing memories. I really wanted those lads to do well, and I still remember some of them with a nostalgic feeling. 

Players to remember:

Davor Suker
Suker, amazing striker. Always wanted him to score, and no doubt he was pure class. 

Robert Prosinecki
Prosinecki is a total legend. Great passing abilities, great techinque... he quite had it all, and he was the engine that lead Croatia for many years. Now a coach with Red Star Belgrade. Funny fact: he actually played for Yugoslavia before Croatia's independence.

Drazen Ladic
It's not that Ladic was specially good. As far as I can remember, he was no big deal at all. He spent most of his career with local powerhouse Dinamo Zagreb, but I liked him because of his original kit and because he looked a but like Gabor Kiraly. He also seemd quite charismatic, maybe that explains it.

Anyway, another thing I loved about Croatia in 1998 was their Lotto shirt.



A bit rare but not very hard to find. I've seen a few for sale both on eBay and Classical Football Shirts, but usually at high prices. I'm keeping an eye on them, if the right deal appears, I might very well end up buying one. 

But I didn't yet, so let's focus on the shirt that I actually own.



Nice thing it's pretty simple: red and white chequered pattern, blue collar and that's it. No variations, no fancy designs... Basic stuff. Sometimes that means dull and boring shirts, but when it comes to a chequered one, well, there's not much you can do to make it more original without ruining it. 

Now, at the back, they decided to have a blank space for name and numbers. Understandable, but if you happen not to print any names there, it's quite pointless and it looks a bit ugly.


Hrvatska means Croatia. Yep.

Now that I finally have a Croatia shirt, I can focus on getting that old one. Have you seen their new away shirt? I think it looks pretty good.


Their away shirts are either awesome or absolutely awful, nice work with this one I think.
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#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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