By LIAM DIVILLY
From OJ Simpson documentaries and Friends re-runs to Polaroid cameras and Nokia 3310s. The world of 2020 is obsessed with trends and tributes to the past, predominantly the 80’s and 90’s. With a lot of these trends, the sheer practicality of trying to reverse time or technology has to be questioned. But one genre of popular culture that has benefited from this generation’s taste for a time before their own is football fashion.
Let’s be honest, as slick, professionalised and polished football may be today, there was something irresistibly more romantic and cool about so many aspects of the sport during the 80’s and 90’s. Whether it be having to find out the result of a game on the back page of a newspaper 12 hours or more after the final whistle, or the best players in the world being allowed go boozing twice a week (at a minimum).
But not only was the lifestyle that surrounded the game considerably simpler, so were the kits. This was before the days of skin-tight, slimlined jerseys with a sponsor for each sleeve. Unlike today, the jerseys were neither oversimplified with single block colours nor were they over complicated with quirky collars. It never looked like someone had tried that hard to design them, but at the same time, it looked like whoever had designed them was a genius.
So much so, that in 2018 Adidas paid homage to the genre, by designing several teams’ kits for the World Cup in Russia, in the image of what they had worn at the same tournament in 1990. Here’s our top 5 retro kits.
#5: Real Madrid 2002/03 (Home)
The peak of the Galacticos and the peak of football fashion in the Spanish capital. Both of Madrid’s kits for the 02/03 season could’ve made this list, with a black away version of the above jersey synonymous with a Ronaldo (yes, the original one) hat-trick and iconic performance at Old Trafford.
A classic all-white Madrid kit with Adidas’ trademark three stripes down each sleeve. It’s even sponsored by what was one of the world’s largest manufacturers of flip phones. Can you possibly get more nostalgic?
Bonus points for creative lettering on the back.
#4: Argentina 1984-86 (Away)
Remembered by most for Maradona’s hand of God goal versus England, Le Coq Sportif’s mid-80s effort gets fourth spot on our list.
Iconic? Yes. But simple? Even more so. Never mind all that was achieved in this kit as Argentina went on to win the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, but just look at the aesthetics alone. A white collar and white sleeve cuffs along with a subtle dark and light blue stripe pattern. Apart from that, there’s not nothing else too it.
A reminder that sometimes the best kits take the least effort to design.
#3: Napoli 1984/85 (Home)
What a time Diego Maradona must have been having in the mid-8os. Aside from partying all week with the Neapolitan mafia and then being the greatest footballer of all time at the weekends, he was getting to wear some of the greatest kits ever produced.
Just like the shirt which he donned with Argentina in ’86, Napoli’s kit for the previous two years was uncomplicated, bordering on effortless. Sky blue and not polluted with sponsors on each sleeve an over-intricate designs. But as we’ll see with the top two, there’s a reason why the sponsor is in the geographical core of the kit.
No one doesn’t like Mars bars, no one doesn’t like Diego Maradona. No one doesn’t like Napoli’s most famous kit of all time.
#2: Gremio Home 1990-92 (Home)
Without a doubt the most niche entry in our list, and also the most creative. Brazilian club side Gremio managed to secure the Creme de la Creme of brand deals, getting Coca Cola to pay for possibly the most iconic logo in the world to be placed slap bang in the middle of their jerseys for two seasons in the early 90s.
The white pinstripes separating Gremio’s traditional blue and black colours are what makes this kit. Again, Brazilian kit designers Penalty haven’t messed about with the collar, and the club’s badge slots in perfectly to what is in our opinion the most underrated retro kit of all time.
#1: Bayern Munich 1995/96 (Away)
There’s plenty of Bayern Munich jerseys that could be put into this list, and there’s also plenty of Opel sponsored jerseys which could’ve been included, but we’ve decided to stick to one. And it makes its way straight into the top spot.
Another white strip with the three black Adidas stripes down each side, but also with the added plus of the red and blue of Bavaria thrown in. Unlike most kits of this era, the designers didn’t mess it up with an eccentric collar, and spelling out Adidas as opposed to inserting the logo was a nice touch, perhaps something the German brand should return to.
Also, whether it’s PSG 1998, Republic of Ireland 1990 or early 00s AC Milan kits, anything with the big Opel logo slapped in the middle is a winner.
Football'sTop5 