If you're looking to kit out your Sunday league teammates in something extremely cool and World Cup-themed, try these 11 masterpieces. No, you won't look like a team, and yes, you probably will bottle out of 50-50 challenges to protect your pristine 1990 Soviet Union home kit, but a 6-0 hammering is a small price to pay for style.
Denmark, 1998
Their 1986 kit might be the coolest thing ever to grace a football pitch (especially on Michael Laudrup), but how can we deny Peter Schmeichel and his ravey garms?
England, 1982
There’s been a lot of dross (we’re looking at you 2002), but there’s been some gold, too. Recent kits aren’t as hideous as they could be, but nothing bests this tricolour Admiral number.
Germany, 1990
The meticulously Teutonic sweep of the flag, the Bauhaus brutality of the colour blocking, and those enormous wings. Pure Germanic brilliance.
Argentina, 1994
It was too painful to include the Maradona 1986 “Hand of God” strip, so here’s the one from the equally iconic ’94 tournament, when everything went a bit... Colombian.
Croatia, 1998
Everyone’s “second” team, there isn’t a soul — not one — who doesn’t love the red-and-white chequers of Croatia. And this could even be their year! (It won’t be.)
Cameroon, 2002
Some people hate the vest, we happen to think it should be hung in the annals of football shirt history, but not if it has the Comic Sans squad numbers. That’s going too far.
Mexico, 1994
We thought about including one of Jorge Campos’ insane goalkeeper shirts, but they’re a bit on the wild side. So here’s the shirt that graced the shoulders of Mexican great Hugo Sánchez.
France, 1998
Amazingly, France’s second-best kit came just four years ago at the last tournament in Brazil, but like the team itself, you simply cannot beat the 1998 home shirt.
Nigeria, 1994
It’s the mid-Nineties, Definitely Maybe is about to be released and Jay-Jay Okocha is hurtling through midfield in this emerald number. What a time to be alive.
Soviet Union, 1990
How you achieve that mottled, spattered red paint effect we don’t know (and we’re not going to ask), but it’s a thing of beauty nonetheless.
Brazil, 2002
So many variations on the yellow and green, and the various blues are mega too. But this came accompanied with that tuft of hair on Ronaldo’s head, so how could it be overlooked?
All shirts, plus many others, available at classicfootballshirts.co.uk
