Italy (Home 1990-91)

Again, there was a long silence from me as I am continuing to focus on my YouTube channel. However, as my collection is growing, I always wanted to document my shirts and I think this is the perfect opportunity to keep on posting to my blog. In case you are still interested in me rating current shirts, I offer you to come over to my YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/c/MySoccerUniverse and follow me there. Now, I am planning to do these posts in order as they entered my collection which of course is a bit fuzzy esp. at the beginning. But for most cases, I have the order down quite well.

⚽👕#1: Italy Home (1990-1991) 🇮🇹

Acquired: 1990 (gift from my aunt)

Brand: Diadora

Size: Large

Version: Unbranded player version

Condition: good (sleeves, collar and crest wrinkled)

Favorite player: Roberto Baggio 🇮🇹

Notes: This one started it all! This is my first ever real soccer jersey. A friend of my aunt bought it for her while on vacation in Italy as a gift for me. The price was more than my aunt expected to pay, but little did she (or I for that matter  – being just 12 years old at that time) know that this is a player issue version. Regardless, this shirt has always been the pride and joy of my collection! The silky smooth and shiny material, the beautiful flag trim and the overall quality speak for itself. I was wearing this in gym class regularly for 6 years running!!! At the end of the past millennium it suffered an unfortunate accident, when my mother accidentally washed it a bit too hot and hence the wrinkling occurred. From that moment on, I was wearing it much less often and even learned to take care of shirt for myself from that moment on. About 5 years ago, I learned that this is indeed a player issue and was truly dumbfounded! In 2020, I finally got the courage to try and iron out some of the wrinkling which was a good but not overwhelming success. As of this moment, it hangs very prominently in my office/studio on permanent display only to be worn at very special occasions!

Italy (Home 1992-94)

So, let’s have a look at the losing side of the 1994 World Cup Final: Italy. While Romario might have been the outstanding player of the tournament, I think its most iconic picture is the one of Roberto Baggio missing the decisive penalty kick. Italy were late starters in that tournament. An opening game loss against Ireland in New York (is there any better place for that game in the world?) almost put them on the brink of elimination. Late heroics from R. Baggio against Nigeria and Spain made them get through to the semis where a really tough Bulgarian team can rightfully claim to have been denied a penalty (which presumably would have evened the game). Still, Roberto Baggio carried the Italian team on his shoulders into the World Cup final.

The shirt worn on the fateful July day was already in use since 1992. Back then it basically updated the previous version used by Italy: a plain azure blue shirt, but instead of the Italian flag color trims on sleeves and shirt collar, a triangular pattern was used to display the flag making the collar more blue. It does not look bad, but I preferred the previous version a lot more. The most obvious change was in the form of the FIGC logo. It does not look bad at all, but I still wonder why the plain blue circle. It does remind me of the NBA championship trophy. Come 1993, the shirt (like almost any other soccer shirt at that time) got an inlay in form of a repeated pattern of the aforementioned logo. This adds structure but also obstructs a bit the beauty of the classic azure blue jersey.

The back is pretty much the same as the front in both versions with very nice and large names and numbers. The font is quite unusual – but I actually like it. The shadow fits nicely and I like its rounded look. So much different from today’s frequently angular fonts.

All in all, the shirt looked better than either team’s performance in that final. It is not the best Italy jersey, but it is not too far off.

My rating: 8/10 stars.

Ho do you rate this shirt?

Italy (Home 1986-91)

This is my 60th post. 59 posts without a perfect score. That has to be changed! So let’s have a look at the first soccer shirt I ever owned – to this day probably my favorite. You already know that I like Holland, but I do like Italy equally well (if not more – they are at least winning trophies). Contradiction? Maybe. Have in mind, I fell for soccer in 1990 and at that time AC Milan was the most talked about team. And their stars were all from Holland (Gullit – Rijkaard – van Basten) with a strong Italian backing (Baresi – Donadoni – Maldini). So that’s where it all started. This Italy shirt is remarkable (by today’s standards) in the sense that it was used in three major tournaments. Unfortunately, it was not meant to be for Italy in all of these tournaments, but at least they looked extremely stylish.

This was a time when the Italian team was supplied by an Italian company: Diadora. The shirt is rather simple: it is plain azure blue with a shirt collar. What I really like are the Italian flag trims. It is subtle but you still incorporate the national colors. The crest of the FIGC looks light years better than the current abomination or any other. Although – and this is the only minor, minor criticism – I prefer the Italian shield. Still the crest is so close, that I don’t hold it against the shirt.

The back is also plain blue and only featured the number in white and that oh-so-classic 3D font. Simply superb.

What can I say more? I love this shirt! The colors are amazing, it is a classic design and it manages to incorporate the national colors in a great and subtle way. Add to it that it was worn with white shorts and blue socks (something that does not happen that often these days of uni-colored uniforms) and it is the best. It was also the first one I owned. 🙂

My rating: 10/10 stars.

How do you rate this shirt?