Nowadays, every World Cup has that one surprising African nation. But before Cameroon in 1990, Senegal in 2002 and Ghana in 2006, one African nation had to start this all. It was Zaire, today called Congo, in the 1974 World Cup. Of course, their level at the time made their participation in the most important football tournament look like a “Jamaica below zero” sort of venture. This squad is responsible for putting in the history of the cups of one its funniest moments. Not to mention the 9-0 defeat against Yugoslavia.

Nonetheless, their jerseys were classic. Even though colorful jerseys are not my favorites, Zaire’s 1974 is one of the coolest jerseys in the history of national teams. And on top of that, usually, jerseys of non-existent countries are really cool. Take a closer look here

But it’s not that they came up with cool jerseys in 74. During the 1973 qualifying, the jerseys were already nice, although I wonder why they dropped the red for the cup. Look:

The funny campaign, plus the cool jerseys and players who really seemed to belong to a reggae band turned this squad in a cult in shirts like this. The good old days when people were allowed to smoke on the airplanes.

In Brazil, there’s a popular saying among football lovers that (badly) translates like, “for a guy to be a goalie he has either to be crazy or gay”. Macho attitude aside, there’s one thing that it is clear: goalies are different characters on the pitch. And not only because they’re allowed to use their hands. Goalies are the only ones with unique jerseys on the pitch. This is so powerful that today’s post is about a man who got his nickname in football because of his jersey.

Of course, I’m talking about the “Black Spider”, Russian-Soviet goalkeeper Lev Yashin. Yashin won the 1960 Eurocup and the 1956 Olympics with the Soviet Union. But his performances landed him a place in history as one of the best goalkeepers in history. He, for instance, denied over 150 penalties in his career. That’s where the “Spider” comes from. He played like he had 8 arms, always protecting his net.

The Black part came from the color of his uniforms. With the potential of choosing any color, Yashin made his position look classy. The black uniform turned him almost in a cold secret agent of KGB. His mission was to deny goals. With that cold look, Yashin was like a Matrix agent in charge of waking people up from the illusions of a goal celebration. Never a shirt color made so much sense to a position.

Cool replica here:

The first post about an old school jersey had to be about the best. Not the best jersey, as this is a subjective matter. But the jersey to dress the best squad to ever step on the world – the Brazilian side in the 1970 World Cup. That side was pure magic. With the reunion of great talents in the midfield and attack made it impossible for the rivals to even think about winning that cup. Clodoaldo, Gerson, Rivellino, Tostao, Jairzinho and Pele. 6 matches, 6 victories. And a 4-1 in the final against Italy.

The Brazilian campaign also had Brazil 4 – 1 Czechoslovakia, Brazil 1 – 0 England, Brazil 3 – 2 Romania, Brazil 4 – 2 Peru and Brazil 3 – 1 Uruguay.

This cup made the yellow shirt a Brazilian symbol. Sure, this was the 3rd Brazilian title (and the one who took home for good the Jules Rimet Cup), but one factor made it even more part of history. Not only the squad was unforgettable, but also this was the first cup widely broadcast in color. This combination of factors turned part of a game into part of a culture.

The number 10 worn by Pele is still today of the priciest jerseys around. On March 28th, It was sold for £157,750 (or $225,841) at an auction in London. The man who pocketed this money is Roberto Rosato, an Italian player who traded shirts with Pele after the game. And this number 10 is pricey for many reasons. Besides belonging to the king of football and worn in a World Cup final, the 1970 was the last cup played by Pele. And the one he was at his best. Therefore, the person who bought this shirt, bought the last shirt Pele ever used in a Wold Cup. I think there’s enough reasons there for this price.

And this shirt is so cool and classy that pretty much every outlet selling retro shirts carries a copy of it.

Get a taste of it here and notice how Pele appears without his shirt right after the game.

If you’re not a fan, these are the 2009 jerseys of Brazil and Portugal. Besides the colors and the badges, see any differences? This is exactly where I wanted to get. Football (and excuse me for not using the word soccer) has become a big business. The romantic era when players played because they loved a club is long gone. But not only the players seem to have become knights in service of pure capitalism. The current jerseys reflect that as well. Kits produced by big names like Nike have the exact same design, with the obvious differences in colors and jerseys. All Nikes look the same. And this applies to Adidas, Puma, Reebok…

With these jerseys invading the pitches all around the globe, something has been lost. By looking exactly the same, as a product of mass production, they lost personality. They lost their soul. And this could be used to describe the game of football itself, which nowadays has series of robots charged in full physical power pretending to be players. Therefore, this blog will talk about old jerseys for everything they represent. They represent an era which there was more passion about simple things. And this rule applied to many fields in the world. So here, it is the place to remember the great jerseys of football and the great moments which they have been involved. The whistle has been blown.