FC Barcelona (Away 2014/15)

So, Barcelona topped their outstanding season by winning the Champions League for a fifth time, thus becoming the sixth team to wear the multiple-winner badge (after Real Madrid, Ajax Amsterdam, Bayern Munich, AC Milan and FC Liverpool). However, under new regulations, they won’t be allowed to keep the trophy. However, 4 trophies in 9 years marks them as clearly the best team of the past 10 years or the Era Messi. However, the team is more than just one superstar and yesterday Spains’ probably best ever player played his last game for the only club he has played with professionally, Xavi Hernandez. And in his honour, here is the post about the last Barcelona jersey, I have not covered this season:

Worn only in La Liga, Barcelona’s away colors this past season were orange – a color the team has used frequently in the past. The jersey is quite simple with a crew neck collar and no accents except for the sleeve trims which are red on the front and blue on the black. The main accent color for supplier and sponsor are blue with the full color crest nicely on the left.

The back is a bit more interesting. Beside the blue sleeve cuffs, the back of the collar displays a red and blue patch broken by the senyera. Just below is a blue Barca wordmark. Somewhat irritatingly, the names and numbers are applied in black with a yellow outline which breaks with the overall color scheme. It becomes even more irritating when you see the UNICEF logo appropriately applied in blue below.

As far as Barcelona away jerseys go, this one is one of the better ones. I do like the simplicity and also like the few but distinct accents. I only wish that the names and numbers were applied in a better color.

My rating: 7/10 stars.

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Spain (Home 2012)

As we all know, Portugal faced Spain in the EURO 2012 semifinals. And as for previous championships, Spain played in a red jersey with dark blue shorts – a look I do like better since it looks more classy and aggressive.

As with almost all 2012 Adidas national team jerseys, the Spain jersey has a modern look with a retro feel. For starters, the V-neck collar looks very much like a 1980s shirt, especially with the yellow stripe in it. The tone of the red is a bit darker than for the 2010 World Cup, but that fits nicely with the overall darker look of the kit. The three stripes are in yellow as is the logo and the number on  the front. If you look closely, there are two diagonal stripe inlays on the front running from bottom right (player’s perspective) to the top left. I was at first surprised that there are only two not three stripes, but then I got it: It should remind us of the Spanish flag. Nice thought, but I thought it could have been left out The only thing that really bothers me are the blue stripes on the sleeve. They look out of place and like they have been put there because we can. Other than that the front side looks extremely well balanced.

However, the nicest feature is to be found on the back below the collar. Typically, this is the place where Adidas teams get treated with something special. Well in this case, the trapezoidal areal is in dark blue with a slanted Spanish flag. And to the left and right it read “Real Federation Espanola de Futbol” On the inside the same patch tells us that Spain won the European Championship in 1964 and 2008. I have already said a lot about the font used by Adidas in previous posts, so no need to rehash it.

This jersey is worthy of a champion and as it turned out, Spain won their (unprecedented) third consecutive tournament in this one. Except for the blue stripes on the sleeves, this one looks great. I only wish it had a shirt collar to make it look a bit more “grown-up”.

My rating: 8/10 stars.

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Related articles

• Spain (Away 2012-13) (soccerjerseyworld.wordpress.com)
• Spain (Home 2013) (soccerjerseyworld.wordpress.com)