Laos 2

 

Unknown Player
vs. Cambodia (2:1) | AFF Championship | 2004 in Vietnam

This is a bit of a curious shirt. I got my hands on this for just 35€, but am not sure about its authenticity. It is manufactured by the company King Tiger, which I think is the Laotian brand of Tiger beer - which also manufacturer Singapore shirts once. Seeing that and drawing that connection immediately peaked my interest, which is why I snapped it up.

Since then, I could indeed confirm that the Laotian national team used to wear shirts of King Tiger, using exactly that logo, too. However, I was unable to find a picture of this exact shirt in use. If you ever see one, please do give me a shout! So long, I will keep my fingers crossed and hope for it to be legit!

Maldives 3 & 4

 

Unknown Player
vs. Malaysia (0:3) | Friendly | 2022 in Malaysia

Unknown Player
vs. Singapore (1:3) | Friendly | 2022 in Singapore

Following my two boring red Adidas templates with a Maldives patch, I finally got some new Maldives shirt. Another plain red shirt with a badge - and admittedly a tiny little detail at the arms and the collar - and the blue counterpart. Nothing about it does really excite me, apart from the brand. They are made by Captain International, a brand that I think never equipped any other team. So, I am happy adding another manufacturer, at least.

Maldives 2

 

Unknown Player
vs. Turkmenistan (1:3) | AFC Challenge Cup | 2012 in Turkmenistan

My first Maldives shirt was an absolutely terribly boring red Adidas template with a badge. This one, in contrast, is exactly the same. So really, I cannot say anything about it, other than that. It bores me just to think about it...

Nepal 3

 

Unknown Player
vs. Mauritius (1:0) | Friendly | 2022 in Nepal

On my photograph, this might look like a hi-vis vest of your local garbage collector - but it is actually a Nepal national team shirt by the small Kathmandu based brand "KTM CTY", which I can only assume stands for Kathmandu City. That brand alone, of course, makes this shirt super appealing to me. You know of my weird love for obscure brands by now.

But this shirt actually has a few more nice features: For one, it is super rare, as it was only sold in Kathmandu. I got mine from a tourist who went to Nepal in 2022, when the national team briefly used the brand, for about 40€. Secondly, it does indeed have hi vis elements, which makes you perfectly safe when riding home on your bike after training. Just in case, I guess. And only from the front, of course. And lastly, it does have the outline of the Sagarmatha on the front, the highest mountain on earth. Overall, it is just a brilliant design and I would have wished KTM CTY would have gotten a second shirt in equipping Nepal - or any team, really.

North Korea 3

 

Now this is my third North Korea shirt and it is a bit dubious. It was sold to me as a matchworn shirt of Jong Tae Se, the "North Korean Rooney" that once played in my city Cologne. However, I fail to find any proof that North Korea ever actually sported this design. That doesn't have to rule out it's authenticity, though, as North Korea played in a bunch of weird makeshift shirts for a single match at some point. They even played in Venezuela shirts with duct tape over the Venezuela badge once.

I will not say it is a matchworn North Korea shirt, but I cannot say it isn't either. Either way, it is a nice longsleeve shirt and a nice memory of Jong Tae Se, who once was seen as a massive talent and then brutally failed in his time in Germany.

North Korea 2

 

Unknown Player
vs. Saudi Arabia (1:1) | Friendly | 2007 in Saudi Arabia

It used to be quite hard - and particularly expensive - to somehow get hold of a North Korea shirts. It also was troublesome. Paypal blocked me three times for buying a North Korea shirt on classic football shirt. The checkout system on cfs just wrote "North Korea" in the reference line, which caused Paypal to block me. I had lengthy debates on this with cfs, which refused to somehow find a solution for that - making it virtually impossible to buy these shirts off them.

But at some point, I did manage to get one, finally. Now, I even got a second one, the 2006/07 Hummel shirt the team posted. I mostly wanted to get it, as it is red and thus the opposite colour of the other shirt I own. An added bonus is that all North Korean shirts are a bid dodgy, as the North Korean FA of course never sanctioned the sale of replicas. Thus, having two dubious shirts makes it a bit more likely that at least one of them is kind of legit.

Pakistan 4

 

Unknown Player
vs. Jordan (0:3) | World Cup Qualifier | 2024 in Pakistan

 If you are into obscure football shirt suppliers, as I am, you just have to love Pakistan! Following my shirts from Vision and Joshila, I now got their latest one, produced by Gym Armour. It is once again a very nice and bespoke design for the Pakistanis, which sticks out with the great dark green and gold colour combination. Well done, Gym Armour!

Otherwise, Pakistan is obviously not doing great in football, most of the time. Their FA keeps getting banned by FIFA again and again, mostly due to corruption, internal fights within the Federation or government interference, which often is the FIFA phrase for legal proceedings against corrupt officials. 

For this shirt, I even had the option to get a name and number print on it. Still, it cost me just 30€ - quite a good overall deal, I guess! I cannot wait for the next obsure supplier to equip Pakistan!

Palestine 5

 

Unknown Player
vs. China (0:2) | Friendly | 2023 in China

I guess I have enough Palestine shirts by now. I really. But, I still find it hard to resist buying Palestine shirts, as they got so many beautiful and often weirdly special shirts. This one, e.g., has a subtle fishbone Keffiyah print all over the fabric, which just makes it stick out. A design feature that really works spectacularly well, imho.

I got this shirt straight from Tempo for about 50€ at some point and it is actually a shirt that I do sometimes wear for sports. Tempo, a Portuguese company more known for equipping Cabo Verde, is a bit of an odd choice for Palestine. But given the great design, I won't complain!

Philippines 3 & 4

 

The Philippines are arguably one of the least loyal nations out there when it comes to shirt suppliers. Following a longer stint with local brand LGR, they moved to Kelme, Chinese company Cronos, JerseyBird and now Puma since 2021. Now that is a bit annoying, but obviously great for a collector like me, who values the smaller suppliers. And JerseyBird is a very special one, too!

JerseyBird is basically a bunch of guys that love designing fantasy football shirts. They did run a bit of a series on social media, in which they redesigned shirts for some random teams. One day, they also redesigned the Philippines shirt and got some incredible traction on this post. It was brought to the attention of the Philippines FA and finally, they contracted JerseyBird to indeed equip them.

Unfortunately, JerseyBird wasn't quite prepared for that. After all, they never actually produced football shirts, really, but just did design mockups. They still delivered, but the shirt design and quality marginally changed in each production run. They also sold the shirts, but again, every batch of sold shirts was a tiny bit different. As fakes popped up online, too, it became kind of impossible to differentiate the real deal from the fakes.

I got mine straight from the Philippines. A shop there sold them online. They are a bit different than any other JerseyBird shirts I have seen - which all are a bit different to each other, too, though. So I would consider these dubious, but I don't think that they are straight fakes, either.

These are two of the three goalkeeper shirt JerseyBird offered. I couldn't find pics of it in use, but as JerseyBird were only sported for a few matches that isn't trivial, obviously. They are vastly different designs, but both nice in their own right. I particularly dig the black one with the colourful feathers. It is in line with the home shirt at the time, which also featured feathers, and just looks like 90s rave shirt - which is great, of course.

(side note: I do have the home shirt, too, but somehow forgot photographing it. I will add this at some point - promised)

Philippines 2

 

Stephan Schröck (United City FC)
vs. Kyrgyzstan (1:3) | Asian Cup | 2019 in UAE

I finally got a second Philippines shirt! It is by far not as incredible as my first Philippines shirt, which was sent to me by a player, but it is from an internationally rather unknown local manufacturer - LGT - which I love. I got this from a credible shop for about 40€. If I recall correctly, it came from Weston, the best online shop in Asia. Now, I finally got a shirt from the Philippines to wear, when I feel like it.

Saudi Arabia 3

 

Unknown Player
vs. France (0:4) | World Cup | 1998 in France

When France first played in the Parc de Prince at the 1998, they welcomed Saudi Arabia in their second group match - and they comfortable beat them 4:0, with Thierry Henry scoring twice. In that match, and the entire World Cup, of course, Saudi Arabia played in a typical 1990s football shirt. Oversized and with some quirky useless little print on it. That shirt was produced by Shamel, who only seemed to exist for about 5 years and only ever equipped Saudi Arabia on the biggest stage, as well as Tunisian Club Africain and Saudi club Al-Hilal. I was not able to find out how they got the deal or if the company is actually Saudi, which I assume, but I love that shirt.

I was searching for this shirt for almost a decade - mostly, because Saudi shirts otherwise are very dull and boring, but also because Shamel obviously caters for my interest in obscure manufacturers. When I finally found one that is legit, I spent 80€ on it, which is fair enough, I guess.

Singapore 3

 

Unknown Player
vs. Brunei (5:1) | Friendly | 2015 in Singapore

Honestly,  am not sure what to write about this shirt. It is a rather simple, plain, red Nike shirt. The colar isn't terrible and at least it has a pre-printed sweat stain on its chest. That is not nothing, but it isn't very appealing either. I did still get this, as it came for just 20€ from ebay, and it is actually a Singapore shirt I can wear.