Ukraine 6

 

Viktor Kovalenko (Shakhtar)
vs. Kosovo (3:0) | World Cup Qualifier | 2016 in Poland

And another Ukraine matchworn shirt, my fourth, if I counted correctly. More than any shirt ever could, this shirt shows how politics are able to make a complete clusterfuck out of European football, at times. For one, this shirt is from the 2018 World Cup qualification, a tournament Ukraine never really wanted to travel to, given the country was already at war with the host of the tournament, Russia. In case you forgot, Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and militarily supported seperatists in Donetsk and Lugansk, who were both basically Russian occupied at the time. Yet, Ukraine did obviously play the qualifiers and did genuinely want to go to the World Cup, of course.

To make things even more complicated, this shirt was from a match vs. Kosovo, a state that Ukraine (until today, btw) does not recognise as such and considers to be a part of Serbia. Partly to be in line with the clear opposition to secession in Donetsk, Lugansk or Crimea, Ukraine always had a strong position against the possibility to unilaterally seceed and thus never recognised Kosovo, consequently. For the qualifier match, that meant that the Ukraine government did not permit the Kosovo national team to travel into Ukraine and raise a Kosovar flag there. To somehow pull of the match, it was thus moved to Krakow in Poland, a country Ukraine had some serious issues with at the time, too. The result was a match almost behind closed doors, as the Ukrainian FAs and the Krakow City Council were afraid of unrest of Ukrainian fans, Kosovar fans and Polish hooligans alike.

Surprisingly, at least to me, the shirt does however feature the Kosovo flag on the chest. There is no regulation that forces teams to have match details at all, so I was surprised to see that the Ukraine FA did put the flag on there - which could be seen as a sign of respect from the Ukrainian FA towards Kosovo, after all.

Anyways, the match happened and Ukraine wore this beautiful shirt in it. Even better, the shirt is worn by Artem Kravets, who was at loan in Stuttgart at the time and scored one of the 3 goals in the match.

Ukraine 5

 

Oleksandr Romanchuk (Metalist Kharkiv)
vs. Netherlands (1:1) | Friendly | 2010 in Netherlands

Another Ukraine national team shirt and one with a bit of a special story. In March 2022, shortly after Russia assaulted Ukraine, invading parts of the country, an absolute football legend got in touch with me directly: Marius Stankevicius, the Lithuanian record national team player, sent me a message on Facebook, where we were friends as Marius once played for Padania in the CONIFA World Football Cup 2018 in London, which I helped organising. Marius set up a charity for Ukraine, selling off some of the shirts he collected during his long career. I immediately bid 125 Euro on this shirt and won it, getting it just weeks later. While that is surely slightly overpriced, I am more than happy helping Marius in his effort to raise funds - and even happier to help Ukraine, even if just a tiny bit.

The shirt was worn by Vasyl Kobin, a former Shakhtar player who is now a coach in Ukraine. It is not the most exciting shirt - but it was for a good cause and of course is still a matchworn Ukraine shirt, which I am very pleased with. Thanks, Marius for contacting me back then - and much importantly, for the important work you have done helping Ukraine!

Ukraine 4

 

Olha Boichenko (in back, Zhytoblud-1)
vs. Northern Ireland (0:2) | Euros Qualifier | 2021 in Northern Ireland

This is an absolutely historic shirt! It is a matchworn shirt of Olha Boichenko from the Euros 2022 qualifier playoffs vs. Northern Ireland, which Ukraine lost 1:4 in aggregrate, narrowly losing out on qualifying for a women's Euros for a second time in their history. Even better, it was worn by Boichenko, one of the few Ukrainian players that already played in the only Euros tournament Ukraine featured in - the 2007 edition in Finland, where they went out in the group stage, beating just the winner of their group and host Finland.

Boichenko is an interesting player, too. She left Ukraine towards Russia aged 21 in 2010, playing five years for Zvezda Perm in the highest Russian league, winning the league even in 2014 and 2015 and making it to the Champions League quarter final with the club in her first season in 2011. She then moved to WFC Rossiyanka, still in Russia, the then reigning champion. After failing to defend the title, she moved on to Ryazan-VDV to lift the Russian title a third time. She then ended her career, aged just 28, and did not play professional football for a couple of years, before restarting her career in Ukraine for Zhytoblud-1 in 2020. She immediately won the Ukrainian league then, scoring 19 goals in her 21 matches, before moving to Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih and becoming Ukrainian runners-up with that club. Since 2023, now aged 36, she is playing at SeaSters Odesa, a second divison club, where she is standing at 46 goals in 22 matches at the time of writing. What a career!

Now, I got this shirt for as little as 40 Euro somewhere on a small ads site and am quite sure that it is legit and genuinely matchworn. While Ukraine wasn't on the winning side of the playoff this shirt was worn in, I am over the moon with this one, given the importance of the match.

Wales 5

 

Unknown Players
vs. Northern Ireland (2:2) | Euros Qualifier | 2019 in Wales

I got another Wales matchworn shirt - this time from the women's national team and their 2022 (meant to be 2021) European Championship campaign and probably worn in the draw vs. Northern Ireland pictured above. If that is true, it is actually bench worn, as Ella Powell, the player that had the #22 in the match, was not subbed in during the match. Anyways, it is definitely a player version with all the right badges and as the Welsh national team got new shirts briefly after the start of the qualifier campaign, it was not worn with those badges too often.

I got this shirt off ebay for about 40€ and am very pleased with it. It might just be a very plain template shirt, but it got badges that I did not have on other shirts, as far as I recall. On top of that, I absolutely fell in love with women's football over the last year - so much so that I actually am running a podcast and a blog on women's football history. While the podcast is in Germany, feel free to check out Forgotten Heroines, the blog, if you are interested in women's football history!

Now, Welsh women's football was never exactly a powerhouse in women's football. Not too long ago, in 1994, they still lost 0:12 to Germany in qualifiers - twice! But now, 2025, they finally made it. After an overtime victory over Slovakia, they did qualify and will play their first ever major tournament this summer - the Euros in Switzerland. I cannot wait to see how they are competing and will now have the right shirt to wear for the event.

Wales 4

 

John Collison (West Ham United, ENG)
vs. Netherlands (0:2) | Friendly | 2008 in Netherlands

In my Wales 2 & 3 article, I did try to argue how I ended up looking for Wales shirts online. And surely, one of the main ideas was finally getting a matchworn shirt of Wales. And I found one! This yellow Kappa shirt, worn only a very few matches in 2008, was the away shirt of the team for less than a year. It does have the same stunning design as the red home shirt at the time - featuring a massive dragon subtly printed into the fabric. In my opinion, it is even better visible on this away version.

I am not sure who wore this shirt, but it might have been Craig Morgan, who usually wore the #5 and just moved from Peterborough to the MK Dons, a move I guess was largely unpopular with the Posh fans, given the rivalry between the teams. 

This shirt ticks off Wales for me, owning a matchworn shirt from the non-country means there is nothing to aim for with the Welsh, really. Though, I do own one more, which I will add next...

Wales 2 & 3

 

Gareth Bale (Tottenham Hotspur, ENG)
vs. Azerbaijan (1:0) | World Cup Qualification | 2008 in Wales

Jack Collison (West Ham United, ENG)
vs. Denmark (0:1) | Friendly | 2008 in Wales

Look, I would genuinely love to give you any good reason why I randomly bought two 2008 Wales shirts, but I genuinely can't. I remember I sat down and looked at countries of which I only have one shirt and was slightly bothered that I only owned a single Wales shirt. So, I changed that. I saw that Champion did produce their shirts once, a brand I had no shirt of, yet, and thus bid a tenner of two Champion shirts - and happened to win both. They are not exciting, but they are adding a new manufacturer and are not worse than my previous Wales shirt, I guess. So, while this clearly was a purchase out of a lack of self-control, I am actually quite pleased getting both for a tenner each.

American Samoa 2

 

Unknown Players
vs. Northern Mariana Islands (0:4) | Pacific Games | 2023 in Solomon Islands

This 2023 American Samoa away shirt by Capelli cannot really compete with the New Caledonia 2 shirt I just posted, but it is at least a tad nicer than the first American Samoa shirt I had. And of course, it is another American Samoa shirt, which is a reason to celebrate in itself. The American Samoan national team has become a global favourite following the documentary "Next Goal Wins" and the Hollywood movie that since re-enacted the story of the team. If you haven't watched either, you should, although I very much prefer the documentary myself.

In the documentary, one of the main characters is surely Jaiyah Saelua, who is not just a great defender, but also a referee and a coach at the same time. Truly, a key person of football in American Samoa in many ways. Sadly, Jaiyah ended her active playing career in 2019, though, while staying a coach and referee.

New Caledonia 2

 

Cassidy Cawa (AS Wetr)
vs. Papua New Guinea (8:0) | OFC U19 Championship | 2019 in Cook Islands

And another Oceania banger! It seems we are getting somewhere in Oceania, finally! This in-house design made and produced by the New Caledonian FA features an incredibly flèche faîtière in grey, a typical New Caledonian carved roundhouse top, and has a cracking red and white striped design overall. It is colourful and typical Kanaky at the same time. Really, it cannot get any better, imho.

Thanks for Andy, who I think sorted this out. It set me back a bit over 50€, IIRC, but that was definitely worth it!

Tonga 2 & 3

 

Squad picture

Unkown Player
vs. Cook Islands (3:1) | World Cup Qualifiers | 2024 in Samoa

Finally an Oceanian shirt that I do truly like. It is made by Custom Apparel, which means I can add a new manufacturer to the collection, and was presented in 2024 for the Tonga national team. Unlike most of my OFC member shirts, this one does come with a cracking design, featuring some Polynesian pattern all over the shirt on the home version and a pattern over the sleeves for the away version. Even better, it was possible to buy it with a name and number print. I decided to get a print of Hemaloto Polovili, the current captain of the Tongan team. 

I cannot fully remember where I got these shirts, but they did cost about 40€ each, which is more than fair for a finally decent Oceania shirt. Whoever sorted this one out - thanks!

Vanuatu 3

 

Following the super boring yellow Vanuatu shirts from Lotto and their successor, an equally dull shirt by Veto, Vanuatu went batshit crazy! They changed kit manufacturers every year, getting dull yellow template shirts from Nike, Best Promotions and Pasifika, before KPI got a shot at it. And KPI, as you can see, revolutionised the idea of a Vanuatu shirt: They added black arms and two shades of dull yellow. Hooray! That was apparently so successful that Macron, their successor as a manufacturer, copied that, adding a bit of weird texture to the yellow with black arms.

Once again, I owe Adam for sorting out this kit. He got it straight from KPI, another virtually unknown Australian sports brand. It cost me just somewhere around 30€, IIRC, and is marginally less boring than my previous two Vanuatu shirts.

Vanuatu 2

 

Unknown Player
vs. New Zealand (1:2) | U17 match | 2013 in Vanuatu

I do have all OFC shirts and that is huge, as they are still hard to get. Oceania is arguably the only continent that is still full of teams that hate to sell football shirts. Likewise, designers seem to hate football shirts for OFC members, as almost all shirts I have from the continent are boring as hell. So when I got a chance to get a second shirt from any of the Oceanian teams, Vanuatu to be precise, I jumped on. It only cost about 40€, too, thanks to a group order my mate Adam sorted out.

The shirt is from Veto, a manufacturer from Australia that was entire unknown to me. Adding them to my collection was an argument to get this shirt, too. Unfortunately, however, I have to say that this shirt is not an inch better than the previous Lotto shirt I owned. It is as plain and yellow as the old one, really. I am still glad I got it, of course, and my thanks do go out to Adam for this!

Uruguay 3

 

Unknown Players
vs. Germany (1:4) | Friendly | 1992 in Uruguay

I don't like Uruguay football and wrote two blog posts about that, so I will spare you that here. Let's instead talk about this absolutely stunning Ennere shirt! It was sold to me as matchworn for 100€, though I won't ever know if it actually is worn. It definitely is an original Ennere shirt, though, as I could verify by comparing with other collectors. It is my first Ennere shirt and thus ticks off another manufacturer, which always is a big plus for me. Apart from that, it is arguably the best ever effort to combine sky blue and white, while not looking like Argentina. Kudos to Ennere for this beauty!