You know that earlier this year I decided to restart this blog and put a focus on national teams. Given that the World Cup was about to be upon us, that was a very easy decision for me. And now with the Nations League and my time restrictions it is still a challenge to post regularly. Therefore, it is unlikely that I will go back to club jerseys any time soon. However, today is my birthday and for that reason I want to do something special. After all the Austria extravaganza yesterday, I just cannot go back to normal “programming”. For that reason, I went back to my jersey review videos for 2018-19 (links are below) and decided to post here all my favorite shirts of the European Club season. No long description, just the shirts and a short sentence. 🙂
Before we start, I run through the leagues/competitions in the order I covered them on my YouTube channel. To see my quick thoughts on each shirt simply click on it.
Let’s start in England in the Premier League:
AFC Bournemouth Home: Bold design, subtle use of gold and a sponsor the ties nicely to the color scheme
Chelsea FC Home: A fresh new design on the classic blue kit
FC Everton Home: simple, yet very classic look.
FC Liverpool Home: A classic look for a classic team
Manchester City Away: Probably my favorite Premier League jersey this year. I love the alternating pinstripes
Manchester United Third: best example for this Adidas template and a great job aligning the colors of the sponsor with the logos on the jersey
Tottenham Hotspur FC Home: I just love the navy accents on the white shirt. Even the gradient looks great!
For a full description of these and (most of) the other Premier League jerseys, watch my jersey review videos:
Now, next up is the league of the World Cup winners France:
Girondins de Bordeaux Third: wonderfl alternate look.
Caen Home: Nice re-interpretation of PSG 93-94 and Barcelona 17-18
Olympique Marseille Away: great use of light blue accents on a black shirt
OGC Nice Home: If Macron would make a Milan jersey it would look like this. Classic, classy, superb!
Nimes full set: I just love how the dragon from the crest is featured on the bottom of the shirt.
Stade Rennais Away: I love the pattern on the bottom on the jersey and the subtle red/black accents.
AS St. Etienne Away: Super nice look! Making the very best out of this classy template.
Toulouse Away: Even the many sponsors (all in one color) cannot distract from the modern look of this jersey.
Again, you can see full comments on these and all the other Ligue 1 jerseys in this playlist:
By now, you should know that Serie A is my favorite league and there are sooo many great shirts this season:
Atalanta Bergamo Home: Just a classic look!
US Cagliari Home: I love te half/half look and the colors. Also the sponsors tie in with the crest
FC Internazionale Away: Simple at first, but I love the half/half collar and the subtle snake skin pattern all over.
SS Lazio Home: Perfect Lazio look! They should wear this forever!
AC Milan Home: Puma issues a classic Milan shirt and eases my nerves about the supplier switch.
FC Parma Home: Yellow, blue, hoops! How great is that shirt?
AS Roma Home: Did you notice the chainmail pattern on this shirt? Roman legionnaires for sure!
US Sampdoria Away: What a clever way to incorporate the classic pattern on a super classy shirt.
US Sassuolo Away: Alternating pinstripes for the win!
Udinese Calcio Home: Nice way to add a touch of gold that ties in nicely with the crest.
That was just a small sampling. Watch all Serie A shirts in these videos:
Quick, let’s look at a few La Liga jerseys:
Real Betis Balompie Home: Super nice looking shirt!
Atletic Bilbao Home: Interesting reinterpretation of a classic shirt
Celta de Vigo Home: Only very subtle Adidas branding to make a great shirt.
RCD Espanyol Home: All shirts look great, but the home jersey paired with that sponsor is a beauty!
Girona Home: Diagonal striping? Unusual, but very much in tone with the crest!
UD Levante Home: The best Barcelna shirt of the past 5 years?
Real Madrid Home: Happy to have the black accents back and I love the neckline!
Real Sociedad Home: Macron delivers another really nice kit.
Real Valladolid Home: I love how the sponsor is made to fit in the clor scheme.
Even more jerseys right here:
So, here are my favorite Bundesliga jerseys this year:
Bayer 04 Leverkusen Away: Alternating diagonal pinstripes in reference to the 1988 UEFA Cup winning kit.
Borussia Dortmund Home: I love the black sleeves broken up by yello bands.
Mainz 05 Home: Simple, yet effective with two-tone red hoops.
Borussia M’Gladbach Third: Beautiful green shirt with nice texture.
VfB Stuttgart Third: All Stuttgart jerseys this season are great, but this one is probably the best!
SV Werder Bremen Third: Classic Werder look and I love the diamonds radiating from the crest.
Of course, I reviewed also all the Bundesliga jerseys:
Now, let’s go tho the Champions League and look at a few jerseys from teams not in the big 5 leagues.
AEK Third: Simple and classy!
AFC Ajax Home: You cannot mess with greatness and Adidas surely didn’t.
SL Benfica Home: Still this is a very modern yet classy interpretation of a classic strip.
Crvena Zvezda Third: Very smart away jersey using a dark blue base and still showcasing the club’s colors.
Galatasaray SK Away: I love how the half-half look from the home jersey is used here in the accents.
FC Porto Third: a very playful, yet beatiful shirt!
The full set of Champions League jerseys are critiqued in these videos:
And finally, let’s get a tad more exotic with the jerseys from the Europa League. Here are my favorites:
Celtic FC Away: tartan pattern and celtic cross, what’s not to like!
SK Slavia Home: iconic and beautiful
Fenerbahce SK Home: A nice Adidas version of a great kit.
Sporting CP Home: Macron delivers again.
Apollon Limassol Away: I love the texture on the shirt and the choice of colors! I look at it and imagine the sea!
Dynamo Kiev Away: Simple and wonderful like a classic jersey should be.
PAOK Home: Everything in black and white making for a very unified and solid look. Also, I love the collar!
And here I tried critique all Europa League jerseys:
Well, I hope you enjoyed this slightly different post. Let me know what are your favorite club jerseys this season and how you would rate the jerseys above.
To end my ‘Farewell Umbro‘ week, I want to look at probably my favorite Umbro jersey, which coincidentally I also own: the away jersey worn by Ajax during the (rather unsuccessful) 1998/99 season. For years, Umbro has been equipping Ajax especially during the very successful Louis van Gaal years when Ajax won the Champions League in 1995 and reached the final in 1996. Most of these seasons, the Ajax away jersey was green, but sometimes a darker blue or purple has also been worn. All these designs were useful as an away jersey, but somehow did not fit in the club’s color scheme of red-and-white. Well neither does this one entirely, but have in mind that the colors of the city of Amsterdam are red, black and white.
So, what have we got here? The 1998/98 Ajax away jersey was a black shirt with a broad white center stripe – a design we already know from the home jersey. Unlike the home jersey, the white center stripe is banded by additional thinner stripes: two very thin ones in black and red and then a silvery one. This makes the center stripe look broader than on the home jerseys, but also adds a nice touch to the design. The crest is placed in the center and the unusual sponsor at the time runs down vertically, while the Umbro logo is placed horizontally slightly off-center above the crest. I admit, this looks unbalanced and slightly weird, but this was also the common style of Ajax in the 90s. Still, this is the one point that could have been improved on. The sleeves feature very thin red stripes and the great-looking black shirt collar has a white and red trim.
What I do like about this jersey is that it replicates the design from the home jersey, but in a very unique way. The back of the jersey however is plain black and (unlike) the home jersey has no center stripe. I also like that while black is not necessarily one of the club’s colors, it provides a nice contrast to the home jersey and is easily justified with the reference to the flag of Amsterdam. Given my leanings in club soccer, the color choice was always bound to be a favorite of mine. I only would have wished that the Umbro wordmark and the sponsor could have been placed in a bit more balanced way.
Time to look at a real classic team. One, that unfortunately does not feature in European competitions anymore this season, but is one of the biggest names in the history of club soccer: AFC Ajax from Amsterdam. Not only will Ajax forever be linked to Total Football, it also produced some of the games biggest players, none bigger than Johan Cruyff. Unfortunately, the Bosman ruling changed everything and Ajax became victim of being a great talent producer in a small league. While the team manages to still produce decent sides, it has been a while since there has been a really good side that also could make a dent in Europe. It is a shame, since Ajax is not only one of the most stellar names, but also features one of the most classic shirts you will ever see – one that has rarely been copied (to my knowledge of the big team only Paris St. Germain has a similar jersey which was chosen in honor of the great Ajax team): a white jersey with a bold red stripe in the center.
To me the most classic Ajax shirts were delivered by Umbro, but for more than 10 years their manufacturer is Adidas. Ajax’ home jersey is so iconic, that no one really dares to tinker with it. And so, we still have the classic design this season. With the exception of the 80s-style V-neck, the center of the shirt is red. The stripe is bold enough to house the crest, the logo and the sponsor. It will not factor into my rating, but I wish that the sponsor would not have that white square – still you have to give the sponsor credit for not insisting on different colors. The white sides are only broken by the (mandatory?) three red stripes and the thin red stripes towards the end of the sleeves.
The back is much like the front. The nicest detail probably is found below the collar, where we see a thin black stripe with three white x’s. In case you were wondering, this refers to the flag of Amsterdam. The font used for the jersey is modern and tries to emulate the font used by the Dutch national team, albeit in a more round style making it a lot more acceptable. The only odd case occurs if a player has a long last name in which case the white font spills onto the white sides and only thin red outlines make the name legible, but I honestly cannot find a better solution to this problem.
I think Adidas did a really good job this season and delivered a very nice Ajax shirt. If they would remove the three stripes from the white sides (I know they won’t) it would be a perfect 10. This way it is an (admittedly picky) 9.
My Soccer Universe 
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