Rich J's Top 5 90s World Cup Moments

I love the World Cup..who doesn't? Well, Sepp Blatter's trying his best to ruin it, but then that's pretty much what he always has done...allegedly, said Rich, unaware that it's not actually still the 90s er...not! Ha!

Anyway, every World Cup brings highs and lows...more of the latter if you're from these lands, but here I shall give you my own personal top 5 moments from the 3 tournaments that took place in the 90s. Take note, these are not just the best goals or most famous incidents, this is my personal selection of memories from Italia 90, USA 94 and France 98 so yes, John Aldridge kicking off against Mexico may have been funny, but it's been played out so often now, it's just no longer that special.

Enjoy!

1. 1990 - Costa Rica V Scotland - Geovanny Jara's Backheel

Look everyone, it's Scotland at the World Cup...Yeah I know I've done joke before, but it's still funny! OK, so maybe not to everyone... Anyway, let's revisit the glory days when they used to get to Round 2...wait, what? They never did?  Ooooooooh....
But seriously, back in 1990, it was quite common for Scotland to be at the World Cup and it was only 12 years prior when those north of the border jetted off to Argentina while those 'back home' sat and watched Archie Gemmill tear Holland a new one.


Their opening match of Italia 90 came against a side with no great expectations and so in the sunshine in Genoa, Scotland, in their garish change strip, looked for a positive start. 4 minutes after the interval, that positivity was looking shakey.

Hector Marchena made a diagonal run before playing in the protagonist, defender Geovanny Jara. In the box, close to the penalty spot, it appeared Jara would turn and shoot, but no. Instead, he immediately rolled the ball into the open space directly behind him, allowing the incoming Juan Arnaldo Cayasso to carefully place the ball past the closing Jim Leighton. Costa Rica continued to defend resolutely and held on, Scotland unable to break through for an equaliser.

Ultimately, this early defeat cost them dear as they ended up exiting at the group stage once more as Costa Rica beat the group's whipping boys Sweden while Scotland lost to a single goal against Brazil in what was a much closer contest than the result could ever suggest.

For me, this just epitomised Scotland's World Cup campaigns. A combination of losing games they should have won, conceding a quirky goal and a brave, ultimately futile performance against a better side.


2. 1994 - Yordan Letchkov's header V Germany

One team who are always at the World Cup, and almost always in the final are Germany. Coming into USA 94 as title holders, they started off in their usual fashion...never looking brilliant, but somehow managing to progress. A lacklustre 1-0 victory over Bolivia in the opening match was followed by a stalemate against Spain. In their final group match, they were 3-0 up against South Korea before almost collapsing as Korea pulled 2 goals back, as they had done against Spain.

A jittery second round tie against Belgium saw yet another late scare and another 3-2 scoreline, which meant they would face Bulgaria in the quarters. While Bulgaria will be remembered as one of the best teams at this tournament, Stoichkov going on to share the Golden Boot with Russia's Oleg Salenko, the fact they were in the quarter finals was quite jammy. Opening the tournament with a 3-0 thrashing from Nigeria, they then dished out their own hiding against Greece...but then again, everyone was doing that. They booked their place after defeating a freshly Maradona-less and already qualified Argentina in the final group match and a penalty shoutout win over Mexico in the 2nd round.

Despite the Germans' shaky start, no-one really expected anything other than yet another semi-final appearance for Deutschland and sure enough, a 47th minute Matthäus penalty put them in the lead. Germany's failure to score a second seemed incidental until a fantastic Stoichkov free kick gave the Bulgarians a sniff of history-making. 3 minutes later, a cross makes its way into the German box. Letchkov escapes his marker and dives for the ball, sending it past the helpless Ilgner. Letchkov's celebration would suggest not even he thought it was going to work, but work it did and the nation of Bulgaria (and pretty much every other nation outside Germany) leaped to their feet with him as they looked forward to the first World Cup semi final without Germany since 1950!


3. 1990 - Maradona Cracks Brazil Open 

Like a nut...a Brazil nut...see!

Despite ultimately reaching the final, Argentina were a shadow of the team that had taken the trophy 4 years earlier in Mexico. Adorned in a rather dated looking Adidas kit, they'd lost their opening match to the totally unfancied Cameroon (an obvious Top 5 moment being Massing's attempted murder of Caniggia), beaten USSR thanks to another piece of Maradona handiwork and drawn with Romania, leaving them in 3rd place and scraping into Round 2.

There they faced Brazil, who conversely had won all of their group matches and were favourites for this all South American tie. A rather turgid game saw relatively few chances, when, with only 10 minutes left, Maradona, in a rare flash of his 86 best, rode several tackles on a run to the edge of the box, before threading a beautiful pass through to Caniggia, who made no mistake in ending the Brazilian dream once more.

Argentina would go on to drain the life out of the remainder of the tournament, playing for penalties in the 1/4 and semi finals, before ironically being defeated from the spot in the Final. Maradona may have ended the tournament in tears, but moments like these just confirmed what could have been.


4. 1990 - ITV Opening Titles & The San Siro!

Ah Italia 90! My first proper World Cup. Home from school on a friday, I sat down to watch the opening match and my mind was about to be blown!

Firstly, Rod Argent's awesome theme tune, Tutti Al Mundo burst onto my screen and I was in love. Cod opera, stirring synth strings and orchestra stabs accompanied bouncing footballs on a map of Italy, all in lovely red, white and green computer graphics. Hello the 90s!

Once the theme tune was over, I was barely recovered when this hoved into view.

This was in the pre-internet days when photos of foreign stadia were like gold dust and the only hint I'd had of what this would look like was my Merlin World Cup 90 sticker album, which only showed it mid construction. The behemoth that is the San Siro remains to this day the ground that has most bowled me over and set off an unhealthy obsession with football grounds that has remained with me ever since. Just look at it! Giant girders, endless spirals, pure brutalist / modernist architecture at its finest. Even now, 23 years later, it still makes me gaze in awe.

Typically, Blogger can't find the youtube clip that exists of the opening titles so it's here instead!


5. 1998 Dennis Bergkamp! Dennis Bergkamp!

This is my favourite memory from 1998, not because of the goal itself (I wanted Argentina to win), but for the Dutch commentary that accompanies it. Obviously, this is a retrospective memory as I wasn't watching this in Holland at the time, but who cares? It's still the 2nd best piece of commentary ever, after the excellence of Bryon Butler for Maradona's 'goal of the Century'.

I'll say nothing more about this...just sit back and enjoy the perfect combination of a sublime goal and raw emotion.

James Taylor's Top 5 World Cup Shirts

There I was all set to create a Top 5 Kits article today and then I received this storming selection from James Campbell Taylor of the excellent site JCT. So sit back and enjoy a feast of kit loveliness!

Italy 1990

This kit will always be special for me, not least because it was the first I ever owned. What's remarkable is that it was the same shirt Italy had worn at the previous World Cup! The only difference that I know of (apart from variations of material based on climate) was that the red and green trim on the collar and cuffs was inverted, with red on the outside. But imagine a World Cup host today not cashing in on the occasion with a brand new kit! Unthinkable. In fact, the Italy shirt barely changed from '81-'91. Purists may opt for the cotton Le Coq Sportif version worn by Bearzot's triumphant '82 side (and it's hard to argue when I think of that Tardelli goal), but for me the "MADE IN ITALY" Diadora shirts were a more stylish fit worthy of the country they represented. This was the last major tournament before names and front numbers appeared on shirts, and the kit has a pure perfection for me. This was also before the FIGC allowed the manufacturer's logo to appear on the kit, a rule that was sadly lifted in 1999. The Azzurri had an excellent team that year too, and trooped out onto the Olimpico turf in dashing tracksuit tops (still trying to get one of these). As perhaps for many people my age, the summer of 1990 was a massive turning point for me in my appreciation of the game and all those other things that come along with it. In Italy they still refer to those World Cup matches as "notti magiche" after the official song of Italia '90.


Brasil 1986

Ironically when I bought my Italy kit in 1990 I'd actually had the intention of buying this shirt, only to find it had been replaced by the '90 version, of which I wasn't quite such a fan. Nineteen years later I finally got my hands on one through an ebay seller located in Malaysia. Sounds fishy, but I know a 100% genuine Topper jersey when I see one. Oddly I think Topper is actually an Argentine company. Like Italy in the same period, the Brazil kit saw minimal changes between '82 and '90, but '86 was always my favourite (although the '82 version could easily be number 3 on this list). Cool badge with the Jules Rimet trophy, great sleek fit and classic numbers too. Even the goalie shirts were great, with "B R A S I L" across the chest. Most of all I love the thought behind the colours themselves. A proper, deep sunshine yellow that darkens with sweat (the shirt is a polyester-cotton blend), forest green trim and shorts a sort of Napoli blue (not royal!) with the little stripes. That's my most consistent gripe with the modern Brazil kits, the yellow is too sterile, the green is too light and the blue is too dark. It's as if Nike's palette doesn't extend beyond the default primary colours that come with whatever primitive computer program they use to design their shirts. Yellow + green + blue = done. So sad.


Argentina 1978

I could have easily gone with the '82 or '86 versions (the less-celebrated '82 kit is probably the nicest if I think about it) but I'm including the '78 version for, well, obvious reasons. This was the last the last World Cup before I was born and I'm not sure if it was the handlebar moustaches, cynical tactics or the political situation in Argentina at the time but no subsequent tournament has been quite as... badass. Amid the ticker tape the hosts wore a now-classic shirt, but this was back when football shirts simply were what they were. I doubt kids in Buenos Aires were salivating at the prospect of what Kempes & Co. would be wearing at El Monumental — they just wanted the team to win. The tight fit, short shorts, long-sleeves and debut of the classic AFA numbers in the second round have sort of made it the model against which all future Argentina shirts have to be compared (I think it's why I liked the long-sleeved techfit version in 2010 so much... man, would I love to own one of those).


Spain 1982

The thing that irritates me most about Spain's recent domination of major tournaments is how suddenly the world is overrun with Spain fans. Where were these people when la Roja used to be routinely knocked out in lacklustre fashion at the quarter-final stage? While the team was less successful, Spain's kits in the '80s were glorious. I used to love the blue shorts (a similar shade to Brazil's actually) and black socks. So cool. I have a hunch that the black socks were a design feature imposed by Franco, which is why they were phased out, but I've never found any hard evidence to support this claim. The navy & navy short-sock combo adopted in the nineties was fine, now more recently they've started wearing red socks. It's just all so... bland and predictable. It's ironic that as kits become more elaborate and detailed so every trace of teams' personalities is being watered down and stripped away. Anyway, going back to happier times: the Le Coq Sportif kits worn in '86 and '90 were lovely, but you cannot beat the Spain '82 kit. I'm sure this outfit would be more fondly remembered by kit lovers had the team not flopped so miserably.


Mexico 1986

I've always been a fan of the Mexico kit, but I'm not sure why. Just always well turned out I suppose, even in recent years (except '98, which isn't so recent now). In 2002 they had a slightly darker green, and the away kit (while not used) was a fantastic burgundy with navy shorts like in 1970. In 2006 they had a cool chevron device on the front (later adopted briefly by Man U unfortunately) and fancy numbers. In 1978 their kit was manufactured by Levi's! Crazy! But if I had to pick one I'd go with '86. While a fairly standard adidas template what elevates the shirt is the wholly unprecedented and totally unnecessary inclusion of the word "MEXICO" above the number (where the player's name would go today). Circa 2005 Nike (then Mexico's kit provider) re-released a "version" of this shirt. There are probably a couple of other reasons why I love this kit. Besides loving that tournament (the long grass, the bright light, the saturated colours) there is also Manuel Negrete's goal against Bulgaria. Or maybe it's because I always think of this song.

So there you have it. I deliberately stuck to kits from the modern era, those pre-1970 didn't really change enough and are obviously too perfect in their simplicity. But surprisingly my choices represent a golden span of a mere twelve years. What's most interesting is that I've included the host nation for all four World Cups from that period! Proof that the hosts are always well-dressed I suppose — although that sequence came to an abrupt end in 1994. The hardest part was separating my appreciation for the kit itself from fondness for the team or era... I could have easily included Italy '94 or Brasil '82, and I am still grappling internally with my inexplicable exclusion of France's '78, '82 and '86 kits. So apologies that these choices are a little safe and hardly obscure. Maybe I should do an alternate list — the B-sides, if you will.


As I was compiling this list I realised that a lot of my favourite international kits are from European Championships. I feel another top five list coming on...

Huge thanks to James for a fine selection there...if you'd like to choose your Top 5 World Cup Kits (or any other tournament for that matter), drop us a line and let us know to admin [at] thefootballattic [dot] com...

More Top 5 World Cup Shirt lists as chosen by other people...

Chris O
Rich J
Al Gordon
Ed Carter
Rich Nelson
Steve Gabb

Solved! The Mystery of the 96-97 Argentina Shirt

OK, so most of you reading this will a) not be aware there's any kind of mystery around a certain mid-90s Argentina shirt and b) not give a toss, but I DO!

For the past few years, I have been seeing this Argentina shirt all over eBay and it's usually described as the 96-97 shirt. I know this to be inaccurate as I am a complete nerd when it comes to Argentina kits and I happen to know that, between World Cups 94 and 98, AFA had only one other style of shirt... although even that appeared in about 4 different versions!

A few weeks ago, I stumbled upon an excellent site, bursting with Argentina-Kit-Nerd-Porn (yeah, I'm uber-niche!) and learned such awesome facts as in 1991, the AFA Youth side wore kits almost identical to the "one off" away outfits the senior side wore against England at Mexico 86!

Perusing that site last night, what lay before me, but that 96-97 shirt! At last I thought, an answer! Except i was on my mobile so couldn't translate it... hours later and my PC screen reveals the truth.

I was right! It never was an official AFA shirt! Turns out it was a proposal Adidas put forward for the 1994 kit, but which was rejected due to the navy pinstripes, the AFA insisting there would be no colour other than the blue and white (4 years later, they finally allowed black detailing on the shirts worn at World Cup 98). So, not only was it not a shirt ever worn by the Argentina side, but had the AFA not been so prickly about a 3rd colour on the shirt, this could have been the outfit worn by Maradona in his last ever match for his country. Personally, I think they made the right call and the one eventually chosen for USA 94 was very classy.

88? Really?

So now you know... and probably still don't care ;-)

Just this one to solve now...

You can read the full article here. And in case you were wondering, I use Google Chrome, which translates it all for me...

Great Tracksuits of Our Time: No.9

Argentina (1978):

A special occasion sometimes requires a special outfit to wear and as hosts of the 1978 World Cup, Argentina certainly got it in the form of this fetching sky blue tracksuit by Adidas.

As you can see, it's main feature was a navy blue panel across the shoulders (front and back) that pointed slightly downwards in a chevron style. Look carefully, however, and you'll also see a natty winged collar too - very 70's. Along the sleeves were the three Adidas stripes in navy blue, a colour also used for the cuffs.

For extra decoration, there was some navy blue piping that curved in from the sides by way of a vague tribute to Admiral's 'tramlines' motif, and the partial waist band was dark in colour too.

Here was some official teamwear that could truly be worn on and off the pitch, so smart was the overall effect. For anyone wanting the complete ensemble, it came complete with some matching sky blue trousers (flared, naturally) featuring the trademark Adidas stripes down the sides of the legs. Just the thing if you found yourself sitting on a drafty team bench in Rosario.

There really is nothing else to add, except sometimes, on very rare occasions, the Argentinian squad found itself short of stitch-on badges. Here we see the alternative version normally reserved for the suited dignitaries of the Argentinian Football Association. Imagine how much that'd be worth on eBay if it still exists...

Seen any great tracksuits from football's rich and illustrious past? Tell us all about them by dropping us a line to admin [at] thefootballattic [dot] com. We could feature your words on our website!

Other Great Tracksuits of Our Time:

• No.8: Derby County (1978)
• No.7: Coventry City (1978)
• No.6: Brighton & Hove Albion (1983)
• No.5: Arsenal (1989)
• No.4: John Bond special
• No.3: Leeds United (1974)
• No.2: Liverpool (1977)
• No.1: Slovan Bratislava (1976)

Le Coq Sportif

We love football kits here at the Attic and it's with great pleasure we present another fantastic guest post from Al Gordon of God, Charlton & Punk Rock charting the French manufacturer's assorted attire down the years. 

As each new football season starts, the topic of kit design is high up on the agenda for supporters worldwide. Every fan has, as a minimum, a passing interest in their club's attire. Many of course will be parting with, what is this day and age, a small fortune to own a replica and with most clubs now only keeping a shirt for one season, this debate raises itself more often than ever before.

My club, Charlton Athletic, have switched to Nike but as I look back I fondly remember one of my favourites being supplied by French manufacturer le coq sportif.  More of that later, it’s the designs from three decades ago that I want to concentrate on.

The 1970’s were a bleak time in Britain and apart from some zany efforts from Admiral, the football kits worn up and down the country mirrored this. Mainly made from cotton, they were heavy and very basic in design, more often than not one plain colour with a large winged collar. The tramlines Admiral used for the likes of Wales and Coventry will always be heralded as classics, as will the West Ham shirt of the late seventies they also produced, but a revolution was just around the corner!

The natural materials used gave way to man-made artificial fibres in the Eighties allowing for far more detail to be added to the shirts. It wasn’t just adverting and sponsorship names that arrived, but pinstripes, shadow stripes, and just about any kind of fine detailing you could possibly imagine. It really was a whole new blank canvas just waiting for a splash of creativity.

The market for these new shirts was also bigger than ever before as we moved into the 1980’s, the country was on the up, people even had disposable income to purchase team shirts and assorted  football memorabilia for their children. Children like me had a huge appetite for everything and anything football.
Umbro, Adidas, Admiral, these were all steadfast football kit supplying stalwarts to the British game but there were new kids on the block, a new wave of kit manufacturer ready to give these established firms a run for their money and keeping them very much on their toes. At the forefront of this innovation was Le Coq Sportif.

A French company, they had been around for a century producing sports equipment, clothing and shoes although their now famous cockerel crest had only been used since they started manufacturing again after the Second World War.

Tottenham Hotspur were one of their first British clients. A shiny new polyester shirt with a v-neck, central club crest on the chest and Le Coq motifs on the sleeves, to this day the sleekest Spurs shirt of all time, in my opinion. It was, of course, famously worn in the Cup final win over Manchester City when a certain bearded Argentinian scored a goal of some note. It also showed up Umbro’s very dated sky blue City shirt also worn that day. How old fashioned did that cotton number look against this more stylish attire from London? Tottenham would continue to be the style icons of the Eighties as they would progress from Le Coq Sportif to Danish company Hummel with their chevrons, another of the new wave, as the decade wore on.

Close behind Spurs were champions Aston Villa. Who said templates were new? Villa’s kit to embark on a European Cup adventure was from the same page in the catalogue as Tottenham’s. The crests were all in the same place, the collar was the same, but the French had produced one masterstroke. The sky blue on the sleeves had now crept inward giving the shirt blue sides as well. Still standing firm in tradition, yet twisted by radical interpretation of it. Genius. The best Umbro had managed to do before them was a claret and blue striped wing collar. Fine when it was introduced in '74; very dated by 1981.

Aston Villa would also stay with the French manufacturer for half a decade, their second Le Coq shirt sporting the now infamous ‘Le Coq collar’. Who else could come up with a v-neck and a round neck on the same shirt! Chelsea and Everton would both follow suit with this template by 1984. Shadow stripes were common place by now, both on the very slim fitting shirts and the rather short shorts, plus Le Coq weren’t afraid to add a dose of colour when they deemed necessary (or they thought they could get away with it), especially to the away shirts.

Villa’s white away kit with ‘the’ collar had wonderful claret and yellow hooped pinstripes, spaced a good few inches apart. Chelsea’s was identical except it was a yellow shirt with red and blue pinstripes. Very bold it may have been, but this was the early Eighties and bashful colours were certainly in. The Londoners home kit of the time was equally bizarre and fresh, two different shades of blue interspersed with red and white horizontal pinstripes, all finished off with the obligatory collar. The likes of Kerry Dixon and Pat Nevin set the game alight wearing this certifying it for all time as one of the benchmark kits.

Everton’s take on the collar was a much simpler blue shirt (with shadow striping of course) and a white ‘V’ around the neck. Probably the most famous Everton shirt of all time, they won the FA Cup in it one year and were then losing finalists the next. So revered was it in the blue half of Merseyside, it made a comeback in 2009 as Le Coq Sportif once again had Everton as their clientele. The white v-neck was elongated a little as the manufacturer put a modern twist on things allowing Marouane Fellaini to try and recreate the look of John Bailey twenty-five years earlier with his black curls.

Another infamous Le Coq shirt was only worn for one season by Everton. This reverted back to a regular v-neck collar, but the chest consisted of a large white panel which took over the whole top half of the front of the shirt. I thought it looked very smart but Evertonian’s begged to differ as it went one step too far from the traditional plain blue shirt.

Le Coq Sportif had also managed to offend supporters of Sunderland just a couple of years earlier. After very traditional offerings from Umbro, the Black Cats took the field for the 1981-82 season wearing predominantly white shirts with fine red pinstriping. By placing two pinstripes side by side they tried to almost make it look like a ‘real’ red stripe but the fans weren’t taken in. As if that wasn’t enough of a misdemeanour, they abolished the traditional black shorts for red ones. I remember collecting Panini’s Football 82 sticker album, all players’ pictures being in a circle, and a young Ally McCoist looking very swish in this shirt. As a neutral it was innovative, classy and modern. As an eleven-year-old kid, tradition hadn’t yet become a priority to me.

It wasn’t just domestic and European success that came Le Coq’s way. 1986 was to produce their defining moment on the world stage. At the beginning of the Eighties they were the supplier to Italy, it always makes me smile that a country steeped in fashion and with so many clothing manufacturers would go elsewhere for their national team to be kitted out. Then a few years later Spain adorned the now famous cockerel albeit long before they were really good on the world stage.

It was Argentina, the brand's longest link in international football that brought the glory. The World Cup in Mexico back in 1986 not only saw Maradona’s ‘hand of God’ goal against England whilst wearing a smart blue Le Coq shirt, but also saw the Argentinian in the prime of his career lift the most prized trophy in the game adorned in the famous light blue and white striped shirt with the  Le Coq motif in plain view. Forever recorded in history, it was without doubt the brand's most famous moment.

I said at the beginning about Le Coq Sportif’s short association with Charlton. After wearing a kit from Quaser for the successful 97-98 season Charlton reached Wembley in the Division 1 play-off final where they faced Sunderland. As became the norm at the time, a club would showcase their new kit for the following season in their final match of the current one. Mark Kinsella led Charlton onto the hallowed turf in North West London wearing a very smart design from France. A buttoned white collar similar to a polo shirt, repetitions of the cockerel emblem down both sleeves and thin white panels running up each side of the body, carrying on to the underside of the sleeve.

The game of course is one of the greatest moments in Charlton folklore, images of Clive Mendonca scoring probably the greatest hat-trick the old Wembley ever saw and posing after his penalty shoot-out strike are now iconic at the club.

Unfortunately only a last ditch attempt by Danny Mills at Villa Park to stave off relegation for another week gives the awful ecru away kit of the same season any credibility.

If I thought the French company had come up with this delicious bespoke kit just for us I was in for a shock. Birmingham City’s away kit of the same season was identical except for the club crest and sponsor. We’ll never get away from templates.

Eighties football has a huge place in my heart, as do the kits from Le Coq Sportif of that time. Some people loved them, some people hated them, no one could ignore them.

Rich J's Favourite 5... World Cup Shirts

Following on from Chris' Top 5 World Cup Shirts, I present my choices. Just missing out were Denmark '86 (Home) as Chris had chosen the away so I thought I'd find an alternative and West Germany 1990 (Away). A great shirt from a classic design, but just didn't quite make the cut... so, here they are:

1. Argentina (1986, Home)

It’s obvious Mexico 86 would rear its (none too) ugly head with anything I do, but this kit has been more than just a shirt to me - it’s been a lifelong quest. In the same way I spent most of my youth and adulthood trying to track down a Subbuteo World Cup Trophy, a parallel quest was to own this, or more likely, a replica of this shirt – a quest that has mostly been achieved.

There are several things about this shirt that set it above all other Argentina outfits. The centre stripe is white... big deal you say, but Argentina always have the centre stripe blue (I am deliberately ignoring Adidas’ shameless attempt to ape this iconic design at the 2010 World Cup). Big deal, I hear you repeat, but that’s me - I like the small details of these things.



Secondly, the shirt was made in that tea-bag material so common at the time and reminiscent of the airtex shirts worn by England in 1970, both times brought about by the stifling Mexican heat and the need to play games at midday for European TV audiences.
Last, but not least, it just looked so good in the blazing sunshine, with the contrasting black shorts and white socks... a fine ensemble.

As a final point: I nearly went for the change shirt worn against England, which could almost be referred to as a 3rd shirt, given it was a one off, but the home shirt just edged it as it made the final look so colourful with West Germany in their green away shirts.

2. Italy (2006, Home)

I’ll say it here and now: despite blue being my favourite colour, I have just never liked Italy shirts. Not quite sure why, but they’ve just never done it for me. That all changed however, in 2006. The gorgeous blue, contrasting with the dark side panels just seemed to really work. Add in the gold numbering / logos and that was it... SOLD! And sold it was as it was the first ‘new’ football kit I’d bought for years (I’d been buying mostly older ones off eBay until then) and one which sparked an avalanche of kit buying.

One huge downside of this shirt was that, when worn in matches, because of the design which was supposed to wick sweat away from the players, within seconds of the match starting, the players all looked like they were in a wet t-shirt contest...only one where they were doused with sweat...men’s sweat. Grim.

Italy went on to have another great shirt combining blue and gold at Euro 2008, a fascinating light blue one with brown shirts at the 2009 Confederations Cup, then ruined it with the robot face abomination at WC2010. Their Euro 2012 shirt was also rubbish. So there.

3. Argentina (1998, Away)

Though this is one of my favourite kits of all time, I was originally going to go for the Yugoslavia home kit from the same world cup as it’s in the same style and I was trying to avoid two kits from the same country, but when I saw this one again, I just had to choose it.

Again it’s the details I like with this one. Argentina have long worn blue away shirts and these have mostly been in a dark shade, which can often lead to them being rather drab looking with some bordering on black. This one however is lightened by its two key features:

1) A classic v-neck. For me, there’s no better neck on a shirt than a good old V. Crossover V’s are good, but just a classic, joined in the middle is better and this one sets off the dark blue of the shirt perfectly, finished in sky blue with white trim.

2) The side panels. White side panels with two sky blue stripes (oh wait, it’s an Adidas shirt so that’s basically light blue side panels with three white stripes) running from the base of the shirt to the sleeves.

This was worn of course, in the match against England in which two stars effectively showed two different career paths with Owen shining brightly only to fade away and Beckham going from effigy No.1 to all time great (and then fading out as well). Oh, and Ian Wright sulked on national TV afterwards...

4. Ireland (1994, Away)

One cannot see this shirt without also picturing a furious John Aldridge threatening to take on the whole of the USA if he wasn’t allowed on that ‘damn’ pitch, Jackie Charlton having handbags with the 4th official alongside him. The shirt itself was a masterpiece in away design in that it retained the usual colour scheme of the away shirt, thereby not straying too far from tradition, but did something interesting with them instead. Three stripes (on an Adidas shirt???) in green with orange pinstripe borders that faded out halfway down the shirt.

I’m sure this will be a controversial choice, but may I also remind you that this was a World Cup when approximately 97.3% of the teams present had the same identikit Adidas design with the three truncated stripes rising diagonally from either side of the kit, so to see something with a touch of originality was rather refreshing.

5. Brazil (1986, Home)

Brazil’s kits never really used to change, did they, save for a slightly different collar. Nowadays, there’s all manner of crap invading what is essentially an all time classic shirt, the low points of this being Umbro’s 94 shirt with large shadow pattern badges across the thing and 2002’s craptacular Nike effort with thin triangles of green forming some kind of frame... ugh!

But back in 1986, there were still all about the classic look. Made by Topper it was, as stated, a simple affair. Plain yellow, no shadow patterns, no flashes of green, just plain yellow. Dark green cuffs and matching collar, but not a round one like '70 and '82, a v-neck with collar flaps.

Finishing this all off nicely was their badge, which had replaced the usual CBF crest with one featuring the Jules Rimet Trophy, celebrating the three World Cup wins. Showcased in the quarter final against France, one of the best matches at a World Cup Finals, this shirt is a true classic. Also, Socrates wore it and he was a dude!