How does a football shirt collection start?
For me it technically began with the 2014 World Cup. I couldn’t help but root for Ghana, first and foremost because of how their match against Uruguay in the 2010 World Cup quarterfinals turned out. But the Ghana team has always seemed so much cooler to me. The video of Asamoah Gyan and Andre Ayew heading to the locker room before a friendly against England in 2011, jamming to an African tune. The celebration following Gyan’s 2-1 goal against Germany in 2014. They’re more goofy, fun and they seem to just enjoy the whole atmosphere more than everyone else. Not to mention their fans – it’s still on my bucket list to attend a Ghana game seated with the Ghanians!
While rooting for Ghana at the 2014 World Cup, their football shirt happened to also be my favourite at the World Cup – perhaps I was a bit biased. But with the cool African-looking pattern along with the nice white, I had to purchase it. It was my first football shirt since I was a child, so the collection started with the Ghana 2014 home shirt.
By then I had no intentions of actually collecting football shirts. Having just the Ghana shirt was fine with me. But then I went to Africa for two months during my gap year between high school and university, where I went to Madagascar, Kenya and Seychelles. There were many souvenirs to bring home, but for some reason I really wanted to bring home the football shirts as sourvenirs for myself. In Madagascar I didn’t have much time to really look for it, as I was travelling around the whole island, and when asking my guide about it, he just shook his head and told me not to waste too much time thinking about it, as it would not be found anywhere. I accepted and thought it would be more likely to find the Kenya football shirt when in Kenya. Spending most of my time in Kenya experiencing the country and culture, I only had a single day in Nairobi where I could look for it in a mall – but with no luck. However, I found it in Nairobi Aiport. Or, so I thought. Having no knowledge about the common fake Adidas shirts, I thought I had the real deal and was very pleased. So I actually never got a genuine Kenya shirt – and I still don’t have it!
In Seychelles, I was thinking it would be a bit easier, as Seychelles wasn’t really the poor Africa I had seen in Madagascar and Kenya. I was sure there would be a fancy sports shop, where I could purchase the Seychelles shirt. I came across a sports store that had some African football shirts hanging outside, but no Seychelles shirt. This is however the place where I got my Cameroon shirt – the green one from the 2014 World Cup. Even though it might not be the rarest Cameroon shirt, as it was used at the 2014 World Cup, it’s still the best Cameroon shirt I’ve seen. The print is just awesome! Having seen a person wearing a white Seychelles shirt, I got hopeful and went back to ask the manager of the sports store about the Seychelles shirt. He started laughing at me and said that in order to get that, I would probably have to call FIFA or something.
That made me give up, and I returned to Denmark with just a fake Kenya shirt and a Cameroon shirt. It’s not like I was passionate about football shirts or anything at that time, so I actually didn’t really care. But in the following weeks I caught myself actually googling and searching for the Madagascar and Seychelles football shirt every now and then. During the search, I came across many of the other African shirts and realised that it was mostly only the popular teams who had awfully boring designs. This is when the temptation to purchase the cool ones and searching for more began.
I told myself to stop after I got to about five shirts. On a vacation in Spain, I found some of the more common African shirts like Algeria, Senegal and Ivory Coast that I went ahead and bought, partly because of the excitement of actually finding them physically on racks in a store, partly because of their looks and – what I thought at the time – rarity. I wanted to just forget about the Madagascar and Seychelles shirt. Also because I at this point thought I had so many shirts that it was getting a bit ridiculous and also expensive. But I just couldn’t stop looking. And along the way I found even more cool shirts that I had to get. I eventually had to admit that I was actually collecting football shirts by now. But I know why it’s so exciting to me. It’s a really good challenge to find the rare football shirts, and sometimes you can also find yourself texting with the CEO of a company in Burkina Faso, or the owner of a small running shoes store on Seychelles. I love how the process of finding the rare football shirts really can take you anywhere. Also important however, is the financial aspect of collecting football shirts. It’s a great, hard and fun challenge, but can also be expensive. I try to only purchase a shirt when it’s on sale or just originally cheap, and that has held me from purchasing some rare football shirts before, but it’s also just not worth it to let it get out of control. Especially because I’m currently a mere student!
There’s nothing worse than sourcing a very rare football shirt, only to have to let it go. That’s why I really want to eventually have a webshop on the website, or just an eBay, so that I can also help other collectors or other individuals with getting the football shirt they want!
Because of my interest and passion for Africa, but also because the designs of the African shirts are typically very special, I’m mainly interested in the African football shirts. Naturally also because they are rare. I try not to get tempted by a rare shirt if it has a boring design – the Nike or Adidas templates, for instance. Unfortunately a lot of the smaller teams are stuck with just that. At this point I have a rule that it has to have a unique design. Some of my current shirts don’t, and that’s something I regret.
I’m also very interested in the football shirts from the very small countries like Gibraltar, Faroe Islands etc. Not only because they’re typically rare, but also because I think it’s cool how such small societies have a national team of their own.
The Denmark football shirts are high on my list too, being a Dane of course I think it’s nice to have a special Denmark collection, especially now that Hummel has returned to make some unique designs for its country of origin.
The Madagascar shirts would probably have to be my top priority though, as I absolutely love the country and they are some of the rarest football shirts. I would love any Madagascar shirt, and would love to have a nice and big Madagascar football shirt collection!
Eventually, though, I’d like to collect all the FIFA jerseys.
I was inspired by especially Football Shirt World and The Global Obsession – who both just recently finished the 211/211 FIFA challenge. They have amazing collections and, like I said, inspired me to start my own. Be sure to check out their blogs and twitters – you most likely already have.
Thanks for reading!
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