Turkmenistan 2

 

Unknown players
vs. China (0:3) | Asian Games Quarter Final | 1998 in Thailand

I am collecting football shirts for quite some time now. Somewhere around 15 years. For many shirts, I barely remember how I got them. But then there are some holy grails that I won't ever forget. My first Turkmenistan shirt was one such case. I still vividly remember how the postman rang my bell on Christmas Eve and made me the best present ever: Handing me over a Turkmenistan football shirt that came straight from the Olympic Committee of Turkmenistan. It took me a year of talking to all three people that are having free internet access in the most suppressive state on earth to get there. Indeed, I even had to send this Olympic Committee guy UFC gloves for his son. It was weird, but it worked and made me happier than ever back then.

There is downside, though. That shirt I got was a bit dodgy. It definitely came from the team, but I did not find a pic of it in use for ages. I loved it, but I would low-key keep searching. Then, one day, suddenly an apparently matchworn and super old Turkmenistan shirt pops up on ebay. It looks very off. It is black, an untypical colour for a team usually wearing green or white. It also had an ancient logo that I did not know. Finally, it was sold as a Belarus shirt, which it definitely is not. I snapped it up, setting me back 120 Euro, though, as I was actually able to find a proof pic of it in use.

It was used as an away shirt in the 1998 Asian Games in Thailand. It was the only time in history that Turkmenistan wore black shirts. Even better, the numbering style seems to fit, too. Thus, I am quite certain that I, indeed, got a matchworn Turkmenistan shirt now, which is something I never thought I would ever say.

Syria 3-4

 

Unknown player in the battle of boring shirts vs. Palestine
obviously 0:0

Unknown player
celebrating that Syria won the boring shirt of the year award

I am packing the home and away Syria shirts of 2019 into one post, as, frankly speaking, they are not exactly exciting shirts. They are red and white, respectively. If you do look closer, though, you will spot a subtle little falcon. That is not much, but still makes this the probably nicest shirts to ever leave a Jako factory, given how boring they all tend to be.

I really did not need those shirts, to be honest, as I do have enough Syria shirts and have little to no connection to the country or its football team. But they came cheap, somewhere around 25€, from a contact and Turkey and thus I could not really not get them either.

Singapore 2

 

Khairul Amri
during unknown match of the 2017 Suzuki Cup

If you know anything about Singapore football, you arguable know Khairul Amri, a man that has 135 international matches under his belt. This man has seen it all, really, and was part of the Singapore squads that lifted the AFF Championship in 2004, 2007 and 2012, respectively. That he did not stop there is proven by this picture - and this shirt. In 2017, five years after his third AFF Championship, he still played in the same tournament, though much less successful.

This shirt is not from that tournament. But it is, apparently, match worn. Amri wore it in a friendly match in 2017. I got it from a Singaporean collector for somewhere around 80 Euro, if I recall correctly. It is a boring shirt and I will not spare more time on describing HOW boring it is. It is red!

Speaking of Singapore, I have actually been there recently. In June 2024, I had a work trip to Indonesia for a conference and had the chance to spend almost 48 hours in the small city state. Of course, I took the opportunity to take a picture of myself in my infamous Tiger Singapore shirt in front of the best known building in town. If you ever have the chance to visit Singapore, go for it. It is beautiful and probably one of my favourite cities now.

Palestine 4

 

Ha! Minutes after telling you that I got enough Palestine shirts, I realised that I actually do have another one. I won't make lofty promises again and am afraid that there might be more later now. I cannot trust a polyester addict (read: me), it seems!

Anyways, this one is a shirt that was presented by the Palestine FA and Romai in 2017 and was available through Romai at the time. It cost me 70 Euro approximately, but given the nice and clean design, I just had to get one. Unfortunately, it was only very rarely worn in matches.

Palestine 3

 

Palestine in 2004

When I started collecting football shirts a whopping 15 years or so ago, it was close to impossible to get a Palestine shirt. While tons of fakes and "Free Palestine" shirts were floating around ebay and alike, almost no genuine shirts were ever traded anywhere. One of the few that actually were on sale a few times is this ridiculous flag shirt from the brand Training. I never got it, though, as it was just too pricey for me. Instead, I asked a player for a shirt, who did actually send me one (thanks again - and see Palestine 1 for more info on that!). Later, I bought a very old design off ebay - a shirt I was offered 1000 USD for now (but did not sell for the love of polyester). Now, I finally got this Training shirt, too, from my mate Eric. I think this might well be my last Palestine shirt, as I don't think it can get much better than the ones I have now.

The story behind this shirt is quite special. The Chilean club "CD Palestino", founded in the 1920 by Palestinian in Chile, used a similar design by the brand Training at the time. One of their players at the time, Edgar Abdala (see picture below) was a Chilean with Palestinian roots. Thus, he was eligible to play for Palestine and started to do so from 2003 onwards. Apparently, Palestine did not have proper kits at the time and no contacts to a manufacturer themselves, so Edgar Abdala asked his club Palestino to help out. Weeks later, the Palestine FA had a deal with Training, thanks to the Chilean club and Abdala.

Oman 3

 

Zahir Al-Aghbari (Al-Khaldiya, Bahrain)
vs. China (2:0) | World Cup Qualifier | 2022 in Oman

 

Oman is a stunning little Sultanate on the South East tip of the Arabian Peninsula that is not as small as one might think. It is actually about 1.3 times the size of the UK, but is home to just a bit over 4.5 million Omanis. It has a small border to neighboring UAE, but is mostly bordering Saudi Arabia and Yemen and thus is in a bit of troubled neighborhood, one could say. Yet, Oman itself is not just very safe, but also just a pleasant place to be in. While certainly not a democracy, it's Sultan has turned the country into a very welcoming and easy-going place compared to Saudi Arabia and even most of the Emirates.

As I got a chance to write about Oman again, finally, let me point to two oddities the country can come up with: First, Oman does have an exclave surrounded by the UAE called Musandam. Musandam again is seperated into two disconnected pieces of territory. In the Southern bit of it, Mahda, there is again a UAE exclave, called Nahwa, trapped in it. To go from Nahwa to any other place in the UAE, you thus have to cross through Mahda and thus get past an Omani border control. It is one of the few so-called second-order exclaves in the world.

Secondly, did you know that there is a jungle on the Arabian Peninsula? Every year, the region close to the Yemeni capital and surrounding Omans second city of Salalah turns into a dense jungle for 3 months, thanks to a weather phenomena called "Salalah monsoon". While we might usually run away from rain, it is very welcome in the dusty and otherwise deserted country and turned Salalah into a major tourism hub.

Omani football is not quite as successful as the country is in other domains. Indeed, it is so bad that they even lost to Germany a few days before the Qatar World Cup in 2022. But it is not terrible, either. Oman has won the Gulf Cup twice with the last silverware coming in in 2017 when they beat the UAE in the final. In the most recent edition, in 2023, they just lost to Iraq in the final.

This shirt is in use since 2022ish. It is the first that was made available easily via the manufacturer Jako. It was still not easy to get it, but at least some were sold to collectors, such as this one. It did set me back 40 Euro and at the time, I also got the white counterpart, which I traded in for another shirt later.

North Korea

 

 

 

Mun In-Guk (April 25)
vs. Portugal (0:7) | World Cup | 2010 in South Africa

I FINALLY GOT A NORTH KOREA FOOTBALL SHIRT!!!

Well, if you only ever read this blog, this must be shocking news for you. If you do actually know me, you might have heard somewhere that I actually have multiple North Korean shirts by now (I will upload them all one beautiful day).

Anyways, getting a North Korea shirt has been incredibly painful. Over the years, there was always a single North Korea shirt on Classic Football Shirts, which never was on offer for less than 150 GBP. I saved up to buy it three times over the last decade - and never got the shirt. Paypal simply froze my account each time, as "North Korea" appeared in the item description. This happened again and again. Classic Football Shirts did not really offer any alternative payment services for non-British customers most of the times, which means I was a bit stuck. I tried to contact the shop, but they insisted that this is an issue impossible to solve and that I will just not be able to buy the shirt (which is a funny customer service of a company I otherwise love).

Later, in 2018, I then went a step further and asked a North Korean national team player for help. I mean, I actually met one, in person, and asked him. That player was An Yok-Hak, one of two so-called "Zainichi Koreans" that played the World Cup 2010 in South Africa for North Korea. Like "People's Rooney" and later Cologne player Jong Tae-Se, An Yok Hak was born and raised in Japan. He is a third generation Korean in Japan. The first generation overwhelmingly came to Japan in the 1940s as forced workers during World War II, as the entire Korean peninsula was occupied by Japan. As Korea split later, the Koreans in Japan are not descendents of anyone that has lived in either country or system. As Japan does not grant them Japanese citizenship, even in the third generation, they are just getting the citizenship based on the birth place of the grandparents birth place. If your granddad was once born in North Korea, you are North Korean. This is the case for An Yok-Hak, who lived and played football in Japan and South Korea all of his life, but did play for North Korea internationally. Many moons later, in 2018, An Yok-Hak managed a team of "Zainichi Koreans", called "United Koreans of Japan", which played in CONIFA tournament. In particular, in the 2018 World Football Cup in London, which I co-organised. Long story short, I had my chance to ask a North Korean former national team player for a national team shirt. He promised to try and get one when he is in North Korea again - but it never happened, unfortunately.

Now, how did I get it then? Well, I asked someone to buy it for me on Classic Football Shirt and ship it on. That worked. But that would have been a boring story alone.

Nepal 2

 

This is a football national team shirt blog. Hence, I do not have to tell you about the only non-rectangular flag in the world. Of course you know. Heck, you probably have even read all the incredibly funny jokes about this shirt on Joe's blog, haven't you? If not, you should. Now! 

Now that you are up to speed with Mumm Ra and all that, let me just say that this is a stunningly beautiful Nepal shirt. Given the beauty of Bhutan and Tibet shirts out there, this might still be just my third favourite Himalayan football shirt - but it definitely beats China and India by a huge margin, something we rarely would see on an actual football pitch. I am not sure the red shirt was the best choice. In hindsight, I might have prefered the blue one. But anyways, I am happy I got it and can now chuck away the ugly and boring blue shirt I previously had. Thanks Kelme for this - and thanks Mount Triglav in Slovenia for inspiring shirt companies to print mountain outlines on shirts!

Myanmar 2

 

Unknown Players
vs. Cambodia (3:2) | AFF Championship | 2008 in Indonesia

Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, is a country that is in a number of troubles all at once. Ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya People, several military coups and at least 3 areas that are under the control of different "rebel groups" is the status quo as I am writing this. Myanmar is a failed state in constant chaos, slowly becoming the Somalia of South East Asia.

If that is too heavy for you, do not read on, as I briefly introduce you to Zam Zamb, the President of the Myanmar Football Association since 2005 when he left the Myanmar Tennis Federation, which he presided over previously. Of course, he is also the Vice President of AFC today, as FIFA loves people who somehow stay in power for 20 years and are obscenely rich. Zaw Zaw is just that. He is the son of the "man who brought Pepsi to Myanmar", apparently, and briefly worked in Japan in his youth. When he returned, he started to sell Japanese cars in Myanmar, cuddling up with the military junta at the same time. He got so popular with the military leaders that "Max Myanmar", the consortium he runs (and coincidentally also his son's name), became one of the largest companies Myanmar has ever seen. When the military junta fell and Nobel Prize Laureate Aung Ssang Su Kyi came to power, he obviously offered her to be her economical mastermind of change. When the military junta returned, of course, he turned sides again. Today, he is almost behind every building in Myanmar and is very much the main financial backer of the brutal military junta. A UN report identifies him as one of the main sponsors of the Rohingya genocide, e.g.. The US, who long blacklisted him for corruption and sponsoring of terrorism has removed him from the embargo list for some reason - maybe being one of the 10 most powerful men in football helped?

Anyways, enough tough talk. This is a Myanmar shirt, after all, and a nice one, too. It was sold to me as matchworn for around 80 Euro. I doubt it was matchworn, as I think I have seen this shirt being sold to others, too, but I don't mind it too much either. It is just a nice shirt with a nice name and number.

Malaysia 2

 

Indra Putra Mahayuddin (right, Pahang)
vs. China (1:5) | Asian Cup | 2007 in Malaysia

Malaysia is surely an incredible country, but not exactly known for its national football team. The Harimau Malaya (Malayan Tigers) very regularly fail to qualify for major events and have recently fallen behind other South East Asian teams like Vietnam or Thailand, which both are slowly going up the ranks. It is unlikely that we see Malaysia in a World Cup anytime soon, but one can only hope that the huge country, which is full of passionate football shirt collectors, does at least clearly rise above Singapore, a city state to its South, soon.

 This shirt is a bit of an historic one. It is from the 2007 Asian Cup, which was co-hosted by Malaysia. It was the only Asian Cup Malaysia played in since 1980 and it was only in 2023 that Malaysia qualified again, finally. It is also a nice design, an striped design rather unusual for national teams - and very much resembling Borussia Dortmund. I am happy with the shirt, which unlike my first Malaysia shirt is not a kids sized, but a proper adult football shirt. I got it for somewhere between 30 and 40 Euro off eBay, if I recall correctly.

Chinese Taipei 2

 

Unknown Players
vs. Vietnam | Friendly | 2017 in Chinese Taipei

Let's call a spade and a spade and speak of Taiwan in the following. With the exception of the Western Sahara, Taiwan is the only unrecognised country I have not yet been to, while it probably is also the most visited and easiest to get to unrecognised state in the world. It has a weird status in the world, as it does have embassies in almost every country, but they are not allowed to be called embassies and are instead "friendship centers", "cultural contact points" or similar. The reason for that is the (People's Republic of) China and its "one China policy", which demands that every state in the world shall only recognise either the People's Republic or Taiwan as "China". Given the economic power of the People's Republic, almost all states thus do recognise that.

In football politics, Taiwan and China had a troublesome past, too.  Initially, Taiwan has been a member of the AFC under its official name, which is "Republic of China". That annoyed the PR China and led to the later exclusion of Taiwan from AFC, as the PR flexed its muscles in an AFC meeting in Iran. Taiwan subsequently moved to Oceania, joining the OFC shortly after being kicked out of Asia. It just took two years, until Australia refused to play a team named "Republic of China". They demanded that they play under a different name and that matches are not played in Taiwan, but rather on neutral soil (in Fiji), as Australia does not recognise the state of Taiwan. In the end, Taiwan was booted from OFC as well after this, as Australia was just more powerful within OFC (and was unsuccessful in moving to Asia just a year prior). It took years, until some committee of FIFA came up with the idea of renaming Taiwan to "Chinese Taipei" and thus allowing them to re-enter OFC and later even moving back to Asia and join AFC in 1989.

When it comes to football shirts, Taiwan is one of the few countries that are wearing local brands for decades. In particular, Tor, a sub-company of much bigger and bettter-known Asics. This 2017 is probably one of their finest and, while I already had a beautiful Tor-Taiwan-shirt, I just had to get this one, when the opportunity arose. I cannot remember where, how and for how much I got it, but I am certainly very happy with it.

China 2

 

Unknown Players
vs. Paraguay (2:1) | Friendly | 2014 in Paraguay

 

I already had a China national team shirt, which was mostly red, with a hint of white, and from Adidas. Now, I am the proud owner of a second China shirt, which is has an added hint of a dragon skin over a weirdly random part of the chest. Hooray.

 Jokes aside, I had to get this shirt, as I always found my first China shirt a bit dodgy. I still believe it is legit, but do have my doubts about it. So I am actually quite pleased to finally and doubtlessly tick of China again.