Chameria

 

 

This shirt is a bit of an oddity. It comes straight from the Chameria FA. Their president sent it to me around 2019/2020ish as a gift. Yet, I still have to find a picture of it in use. It is, obviously, a fake Adidas shirt and came with obvious fake tags and labels and all. While fake shirts usually suggest that you just didn't get the right shirt, this is no qualifier here, though. Throughout the CONIFA European Football Cup 2019 in Artsakh, the only ever CONIFA tournament Chameria played in, they did wear very similar Adidas fakes. That said, I guess this one was either meant to be used in future matches, which never happened, or was just bought as a bit of a misunderstanding, as it is really similar to the one they did use before. As it did come as a gift, though, I obviously won't complain - thanks Arben for sending it over!

In case you have no clue what Chameria is, as I did when they first texted me, let me fill you in: Chameria is a coastal region in the South of Albania and North of Greece that was traditionally and still partly is inhabited by the Cham, a subgroup of the Albanian people that speak a local dialect. The flag, the name Chameria and other symbols of Chameria are thus usually used by Cham Albanians who seek a representation of the region, the Cham people or even more, the Albanian minority in Greece. The national team, expressedly, tried to do that, too.

Before ending this blurb on Chameria, I think you deserve to know that the best players of Chameria are two brothers: Marko and Frank Çema. Marko, the better of the two brothers, played in the Albanian Premier League during most of his career and had as few caps for the Albanian U21, before ending up in the Chameria squad as an adult. The reason those two are kind of known in niche football circles is that they are not actually named Mark and Frank, although they have asked to change their names to that in the officiall players passport in UEFA and Albania. They were born with the name Markovanbasten and Frankrajkard Çema. Yes, like the Dutch footballers. Yes, with the typo in Frank Rijkards name. And yes, it is all one first name. Apparently, their father was a die hard Dutch football fan.