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.