FANTASY FIVE HUNDRED #2: JAMES!

Welcome to another edition of Fantasy Five Hundred, a new feature where we give a guest an imaginary £500 budget to spend on football shirts! What will they choose, new or old, quantity or quality, club or country? Let’s find out…

Today’s guest is James (@JSOH13597 on Twitter), a Manchester United fan and we’re going global for his picks. Over to you mate!

MANCHESTER UNITED HOME 96/98

James: First one, I’m a United fan, Roy Keane just fought for the badge and I couldn’t find another Keano kit on CFS! Otherwise it would have been the United kit from 99 when he single handedly took apart Juventus.
Cost: £175 (w/ Keane nameset), Total so far: £175

Keane is a Manchester United legend and this seems a great shirt to put his name to. I hope you don’t start acting like him with it on though, snapping people in supermarket queues and telling everyone to ‘stick it up their bollocks’.

AC MILAN HOME 05/06

James: Kaka is one of my favourite players ever, if not my favourite. I really became aware of him in 2005 when he had Shevchenko, Cafu, Gattuso, Seedorf, etc around him stood out everywhere. Sick player, loved watching him play. So many memories playing FIFA too.
Cost: £100 (w/ Kaka nameset), Total so far: £275

Kaka certainly is one of the greats and this is one in a long, long line of great AC Milan shirts. Also makes me wonder how many of us fostered our love for shirts by playing FIFA?

NAPOLI 4th 20/21

James: The Napoli shirt is a tribute to Maradona, future classic that one
Cost: £60, Total so far: £335

Staying in Italy for this choice and what a fine tribute to Maradona this shirt was. Napoli have used blue and white stripes before, but here, with the Kappa taping down the sleeves…bellissimo.

NEWELL’S OLD BOYS AWAY 21/22

James: The Newell’s Old Boys kit, it’s stunning. I wanted it because it’s a banger, I only have a River Plate kit at the moment, fancied some more Argentina in the collection. Chances are this will be my next buy- only really became aware of it after an admin from the Newell’s Old Boys account contact me to see if I was interested in the shirt as they were only now selling in the EU. Awesome shirt.
Cost: £68, Total so far: £403

Inspired by their Argentine Championship winning shirt of 1991 (when they were managed by Marcelo Bielsa) this has to be one of the classiest away shirts of the season. Won’t be many over here either I imagine, the football hipsters hipster shirt.

WERDER BREMEN HOME 07/08

James: Diego was another fun player I loved to watch and Bremen is where I have the fondest memories of him really. His set pieces were the best, flopped at Juve, broke my heart.
Cost: £45 (w/ Diego nameset), Total so far: £448

Hopping over to Germany for this choice, Werder Bremen’s home from 07/08 when they reached the Champions League group stage. Diego was named Player of the Month in September and was a part of the teams record 8-1 win over Arminia Bielefeld with 3 assists and a goal.

WALES HOME 04/06

James: The Wales shirt is one that always reminds me of Ryan Giggs and Gary Speed, being Welsh myself players like that were massive, we were a terrible team though sadly. But yeah, first Wales kit I remember wanting as a kid.
Cost: £50, Grand total: £498

Another Kappa beauty for James’ collection. Back then Wales may not have been enjoying the success of the current team, but they looked classy doing it.

What a mix! Big thanks to James for taking part. Do you have a favourite? How would you spend differently? Head over to Twitter to discuss! The next Fantasy Five Hundred will be coming soon!