Month: August 2017

Morocco – Away – 1998

Mozambique – Home – 2016

Mozambique has always been an incredibly difficult shirt to get hold of. When Puma supplied the Mozambique shirts they didn’t produce any replicas for the international market (although I did manage to get hold of a sample one), and lacatoni are very difficult to get shirts out of. Mozambique have their own Lacatoni branch and for whatever reason they refuse to respond to e-mails. This particular one came from another shirt collector who got in contact asking if I knew where they could pick up a shirt on their visit to Mozambique, I’d heard previously that a collector was able to find one at Maputo airport. This turned out to be true, and I’ve now got one in my collection. Thanks Brittany.

Malta – GK – 2013

Since first trying to qualify for the 1974 World Cup minnows Malta have managed just 2 wins, both 1-0 away wins over Estonia (1994) and Armenia (2014). Four of their qualification attempts have finished pointless, and twice they have failed to score. Despite this poor record they’ve never quite been the whipping boys that San Marino, Andorra and Gibraltar have conceding an average of about 2.5 goals per game in most qualification tournaments.

The majority of the Maltese players are based in Malta, with a handful playing in the English leagues – including Peterborough United’s Emirati-born Andrea Borg. This shirt belonged to Andrew Hogg who was team mates with Gabriel Zakuani and Lesbian football club AEL Kalloni.

DR Congo – GK – 2017

DR Congo – Away – 2017

DR Congo – Home – 2017

Sierra Leone – Away – 2014

Whilst I already have this design in the collection, and indeed sell it in the Football Shirt World online shop, this one is a match worn shirt from the 2014 matches vs Dr Congo. Picked up from ex-Peterborough united player Zakuani, the shirt was worn by Mustapha Dumbuya who was playing for Notts County at the time. Unlike the Ivory Coast shirt that I picked up at the same time, this shirt seems almost identical to the replica shirt, but with ‘AFRIFIT’ written on the front, and a white inside collar instead of blue.

DR Congo – Home – 2017

There was a time that DR Congo were virtually impossible to find, but thanks to one of football’s strangest sponsorship deals with Irish sports manufacturers O’Neills they are available easily. Ex-Peterborough United defender Gabriel Zakuani captained his country at the 2017 African Cup of Nations in Gabon, so as a Peterborough fan myself I am delighted to be able to add this shirt to the collection directly from the man himself.

Ivory Coast – Home – 2017

Despite being African Champions in 1992, and again reaching the semi-finals of the African Cup of Nations in 1994, Ivory Coast (or Cote D’Ivoire) didn’t reach the World Cup Finals until 2006, they have since qualified every time, but have yet to make it out of the group stages. I already have a few Ivory Coast shirts in the collection including this fantastic 1994 home shirt. However, when a player you know tells you he has a match worn Wilfred Zaha shirt from the 2017 African Cup of Nations in Gabon you’re not going to say no.

The shirt differs significantly from the replica shirts, with lots of rubber strips that make it a pain in the arse to get on and off the mannequin and presumably pull on your chest hair. None of the badges are embroidered either. For some reason this shirt features two ‘celebrate Africa’ patches, and does not have the Gabon 2017 patch that photos from the match show. The shirt has clearly been worn, so my conclusion is that Zaha wore different shirts for the first and second halves, If anyone can clarify this then please get in touch.

Afghanistan – Away – 2015