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…
Can you believe it, it’s Daniel (@rockstardjc)!And he’s a man with a dream. The dream of picking more shirts for this feature than anyone who has gone before. Will he succeed? Settle in, this might take a while:
TELSTAR FOURTH 20/21
Daniel: “I’ve chosen this because of its unique design, I’ve had my eye on it since the last CFS sale. Beautiful club badge and great message for equality for all.”
Cost: £49.99, Total so far: £49.99
Who doesn’t love a rainbow? Skittles, kaleidoscopes, shiny football stickers, the world is richer for them. That’s why it’s great that the LGBTQ community uses one as their symbol of diversity and inclusiveness and Telstar are supporting their message here.
BARCELONA HOME 92/95
Daniel: “Who does not love a bit of classic Kappa? Excellent sleeves and instantly recognisable. Managed by Cruyff and with 2 former/current managers in the squad with Guardiola and Koeman.”
Cost: £76.99, Total so far: £126.98
A home shirt used for three seasons, unheard of today but back then manufacturers knew when they were on to a good thing. This asymmetric Kappa number with its sleeve taping and white piping was a keeper.
MARSEILLE THIRD 10/11
Daniel: “Just a fantastic design from Marseille. Techfit technology and the red, yellow & green stripe makes it noteworthy.”
Cost: £45, Total so far: £172.98
Now, long before Ajax had their Bob Marley third shirt, Marseille had this. Black, red, gold, green…and cyan. I know it’s traditionally a Marseille colour but could they not have left it off just this once? Still, this is a bargain shirt.
VALENCIA HOME 05/06
Daniel: “A classic here, T90 and Valencia is a winning combo. Love this because of the legends they had at this time, Villa, Aimar, Ayala, Kluivert. Strongest team in years.”
Cost: £45, Total so far: £217.98
I know template shirts get a bad rep, but stop and think for a minute, I’ll bet some of your favourites are templates. Adidas EQT, Teamgeist, whatever that Hummel one was with the stripes, all templates. And one of the most prolific templates is Nike’s T90, having been seen on the backs of players everywhere from Barcelona to Australia. This one is a simple affair, the orange cuffs are a welcome flash of colour on a smart and sober shirt.
INTER MILAN HOME 12/13
Daniel: “Not the best of season for Il Biscione but in Cassano they had a player who was going to be the next star in world football, for many reasons it never happened. I also have the red away so matches up.”
Cost: £49.99, Total so far: £267.97
How come the best derbys are always red vs blue? Liverpool v Everton, Man United v Man City, AC Milan v Inter Milan. I mean I could argue that the red teams always have the best shirts too, but Inter could be the anomaly. There’s something so smart, cool, about the blue and black stripes.
FRANCE AWAY 2004
Daniel: “France and Zidane, not any better combination. Clean design and fantastic nameset, what else could you ask for?”
Cost: £39.99, Total so far: £307.96
Little did Zidane know he’d be making another France away shirt very famous in just two years time. A very simple shirt, the tricolour sleeve stripes are a nice touch.
1860 MUNICH AWAY 21/22
Daniel: “From the official shop, this beautiful 1860 Munich Shirt from this season. The blue geometric design works amazingly well with the elegant gold trim. An instant classic.”
Cost: £67.96, Total so far: £375.92
Did you know that 1860 Munich are the reason Bayern don’t use blue on their shirts anymore? They say it’s for rivalry reasons but I think they just don’t want to get dragged into a sartorial battle with their neighbours, especially when they pull out something as classy as this.
VENEZIA HOME 19/20
Daniel: “Obvious choice for most people. Great effort from Nike for Venezia. Simple but effective with its colouring . The club crest is just magnificent.”
Cost: £35, Total so far: £410.92
I knew Venezia before they were cool. That’s a lie, but before they turned into a fashion brand Nike used to knock out some very smart shirts for them in that unusual signature colourway.
RC LENS HOME 09/10
Daniel: “Had to go for it simply because the red and yellow. Not many Reebok shirts about and this looks fantastic, the colours pop and the sponsor looks tailor made just for this shirt.”
Cost: £20, Total so far: £430.92
Reebok never really had their moment in the sun did they. Overshadowed by the bigger boys, they produced some great quality shirts and I mean that in the physical sense, you could fall off a motorcycle in one of their mid 90s shirts and it’d come out unscathed. I didn’t realise they were still kicking around in 09/10 but they’ve done a great job with RC Lens’ vibrant palette.
FLAMENGO HOME 95/96
Daniel: “Classic 90s Umbro shirt, what a team to go with, Flamengo. Red and black always work. Home of Romario, self professed 1000+ goals scored. Brazilian legend.”
Cost: £60, Grand total: £470.92
Romario was the first name I ever had one the back of a shirt, a moody Brazil kit from a market in Majorca. I don’t even think I’d seen him play at that point (I was 8) but by that time he had already cemented his legacy in football history. This shirt is from his spell at Flamengo, his hometown club in Brazil, having left Barcelona’s ‘dream team’ (see shirt number 2). Absolutely clinical and deadly on the pitch, he suits the red and black hoops from Umbro’s greatest era.
Talk about value for money! Big thanks to Daniel for taking part, make sure to give him a follow on Twitter (@rockstardjc). 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!
Kit For Brains 
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