Luxembourg 3

 

Ben Payal (F91 Düdelingen)
vs. Scotland | Friendly | 2012 in Luxembourg

For a very brief time, I was a Luxembourg Ultra. Well, not really, but a regular visitor and fan. Somewhere around 2012ish, I used to drive the three hours from my home town Cologne to Luxembourg for home matches of the Luxembourgish national team to watch them regularly, usually in the home stands. I have fond memories of thousands of Turkish or Ukrainian fans absolutely freaking in the Grand Duchy, while 20 puzzled Luxembourg "Ultras" desperately tried to figure out how to light a flare in the opposite stand. It was a bit weird, but also great. They were all just really nice and welcoming. My favourite bit, however, was always the post-match party. When you get back to the parking garage opposite to the stadiums, the Turkish or Ukrainian fans would just block the entry, blast loud music from their cars and dance to celebrate their victory. While I had no chance to join the celebrations, I could see the Luxembourg players coming over to the garage an hour or so later and just joining it, too. International football as it could and possibly should be, I guess.

Now this shirt isn't too exciting. But it does have a nice little detail in the hem. All the group stages opponents of the World Cup 2014 qualification are printed on the inside of them hem, along with the header "Way to Brasil 2014". That proved to be a bit too optimistic, but is still a lovely little detail.

I got the shirt from my mate Chris, who sadly stopped collecting and sold off much of his collection. I did pay about 30€ for it. You can still see the details on his blog, which is still online.