England Retro Shirts
November 22, 2009 by edd
Filed under National Team Retro
England remains one of only eight national teams to have ever lifted the World Cup. In 1966 at Wembley Stadium England beat West Germany wearing the iconic red away shirt. The red England football shirt is still a firm favourite with supporters and attempts by the F.A. to change the away kit to grey in 1996 led to a backlash from the media and fans. The grey kit was only worn for three matches before being withdrawn.
The white home shirt has remained largely unchanged since Englands first international game against Scotland in 1872, occasionally extra coloured piping or flashes have been added to the shirt, the 1982 World Cup in Spain saw England add red, white and blue shoulder panels. In recent years the Cross of St. George has also been added to many shirt designs. Occasionally England have needed to play in a third kit, this has mainly been all blue, the 1970 World Cup match against Czechoslovakia in Mexico is one of the few occasions this shirt has been worn in a match.
There are many iconic England shirts, Gazza famously dried his eyes on his shirt after being knocked out of Italia 90, Terry Butcher turn his white shirt red with blood during a a vital World Cup qualifier in Sweden, Bobby Moore swapped his England shirt with Pele after an epic match in the 1970 World Cup. The most iconic of all England shirts will remain the red away shirt worn by Bobby Moore as he lifted the World Cup in Wembley in front of the home crowd. Get the 1966 Shirt ~ Click Here.
German Retro Shirts
September 4, 2009 by edd
Filed under National Team Retro
Germany’s team’s home kit has always been a white jersey and black shorts which derived from the 19th century flag of the north German State of Prussia. The away jersey color has changed several times but historically a green shirt with white shorts is the most often used alternative color combination but other colours such as grey and black have also been used. The last change, from black to red, came in November 2004 on the request of Jürgen Klinsmann, citing that teams in red are statistically more successful and he hoped to use the red away shirt as first choice for the 2006 World Cup but Germany played every game at the 2006 World Cup in its home white colors.
In the 1954 World Cup, West Germany, captained by Fritz Walter played favorites Hungary in the group stage and suffered an incredible 3-8 loss. They went on to meet Hungary again in the final, facing the legendary team of Mighty Magyars again, which had gone unbeaten for 32 consecutive matches. In a shocking upset, West Germany came back from an early two goal deficit to win 3-2, with Helmut Rahn scoring the winning goal with only six minutes remaining. The success is called “The Miracle of Bern” and the unexpected victory created a sense of euphoria throughout a divided postwar Germany. The triumph is credited with playing a significant role in securing the postwar ideological foundation of the Federal Republic of Germany. They’ve even made a film about it – Das Wunder von Bern!
Classic Brazil Retro Shirts
December 16, 2008 by edd
Filed under Classic Retro Shirts
If it’s samba style you’re after then take a look at classic Brazil shirts from the past. A retro Brazil shirt won’t help you play better but at least you’ll look the part!
The Brazilian national teams first ever match was against English club side Exeter City in 1914! To this day Exeter fans claim to have taught Brazilians how to play football! The result of the game (a 2 – 0 defeat for Exeter) suggest that the Brazilians already had a fairly good grasp of the basic rules. The famous quote about the game of football is “The English invented it, the Brazilians perfected it.”
When we think of the Brazil team we always imagine the famous yellow shirts and electric blue shorts, but Brazil only started to wear the yellow and blue kit from the mid 1950′s. Before then Brazil flirted with a number of different colour combinations including: Red shirts & white shorts, white shirt & white shorts, yellow & green vertical striped shirts, yellow & black striped shirts and a few more variations besides! After an embarrassing defeat at home in the 1950 world cup the Brazilian public blamed the current kit (white shirt with blue collars) for the lose! claiming it wasn’t patriotic enough.
In 1951 a Brazilian daily newspaper held a competition to design a kit incorporating the four colours of the Brazilian flag. The design of nineteen year old Aldyr Garcia Schlee from the town of Pelotas was chosen as the winning entry. The new kit of yellow shirt with green trim and blue shirts echoed the design of the brazilian flag perfectly. The kit was first used in 1954 and has remained largely unchanged ever since.
You can view a full our full range of retro Brazil football shirts in our store ~ Click Here
Classic Cheaters Retro Shirts
December 15, 2008 by edd
Filed under Classic Retro Shirts
Get that authentic bad boy look with our selection of world class cheaters shirts. Players like Maradona, Cristiano Ronaldo and Didier Drogba have taken cheating and diving to a next level. If you want to be instantly unpopular on the terraces or down the pub then get yourself a bad boy retro football shirt.
*Thierry Henry* coming soon!
Cheeky Winker
Christino Ronaldo the player everyone loves to hate (even United fans) endeared himself to his adopted country by getting England player Wayne Rooney (his United team mate) sent off in a World Cup Quarter Finals match in Portugal. Ronaldo ran the length of the pitch to plead with the referee to give Rooney a red card.
Rooney duly received his marching orders from the ref and Ronaldo gave a cheeky wink and smile to the Portuguese bench, Portugal went on to win the match and Ronaldo later said “He is my team-mate and a player of international level. I felt very sorry for him [Rooney] because we are team-mates and very good friends.” With friends like that… You can get you very own C. Ronaldo bad boy look with a retro Portugal shirt, to complete the look you’ll need a cheeky wink and a gallon of grease for your hair!
Hand Of Knob
Often called the greatest player that ever lived, in reality Maradona is just a knob! The only thing he is legendary for is cheating! His ‘Hand Of God’ incident against England in the Mexico World Cup is the stuff of legend. How the match officials could think a player who stands at only 3.2 ft could out jump England goalkeeper Peter Shilton at 6ft is beyond me!
We should also remember that Maradona was a world class diver, his dramatic tumbles in the ’94 World Cup should have earned him a place on the Argentina Olympic Diving team. You can take your pick of shirts for Maradona, he cheated his way around the globe playing for Barcelona, Napoli, Savilla and Boca Juniors. We think his cheating is best remembered in his number 10 Argentina shirt. To get the authentic ‘Maradona’ look you may also need to purchase 500 meat pies, afro wig and walk on your knees!
Remember Versaille!
The 1982 World Cup Semi Final: This wasn’t the first time Germany delivered a knock out blow to France, this time it happened on the footballs fields of Spain rather than the battle fields of Europe. Micheal Paltini’s French team had won many admirers with their free flowing attacking football style, which had seen them progress to the 1982 World Cup semi finals where Germany awaited them.
By comparision the Germany’s had only reached the final stages of the competition by engineering a result with Austria, in a disgracfull performence the German and Austrian teams played out a 1-0 win for Germany which guaranteed both teams would reach the next stage of the competition, players strolled around the pitch, passing the ball sideways and backwards. The outraged, largely Spanish crowd yelled ‘Fuera, fuera’ (‘OUT, OUT’). The result of the match meant that Algeria who had beaten German in the opening game would go out of the competition.
Unfortunately the semi final match will only be remembered for one horrific tackle. The most controversial, and still talked-about incident of the game came mid-way through the second half, when Platini’s lofted through ball sent substitute Patrick Battiston in for a run on goal. German goalkeeper Schumacher could see that Battiston would have a clear scoring opportunity. Without hesitation German keeper Schumacher ran out of this area and launched himself at Battiston, the Frenchmen just had enough time to lift the ball over the keeper before being flatten. Battiston was knocked unconscious by the challenge, lost two teeth and broke three ribs! the match referee didn’t even book Schumacher for the tackle! We looked all over the web but we couldn’t find a retro German keepers shirt from ’82 but you can play the part of Battiston with a great retro France shirt.
