Germany 6

 

Lukas Podolski (1. FC Köln)
vs. Südafrika (4:2) | Friendly | 2005 in Germany

Naturally, I love Lukas Podolski. He is not just quite exactly my age, he is also from a small town just next to me, which means we did had a couple of common friends and actually met two or three times in my youth. But unlikely my untalented self, Podolski went on to play in the Bundesliga, the national team and later in England, Italy, Turkey, Japan. He still plays in Poland for Gornik Zabrze, just 10 minutes drive from the town he was born in, Gliwice. He did win the Bundesliga once, during his unhappy time at Bayern, and the cup competitions in Germany, England, Japan and Turkey.

But Podolski mostly became a legend for his stupendous goals. Globally, there have been few players that scored screamers so regularly as he did, mostly with his vicious left foot. As a result, Podolski won the "Goal of the Month" trophy in Germany 13 times, more often than any other player. He scored one of the trophy winning goals in a friendly vs. South Africa in 2005, wearing this unusual red away shirt. That was a year before he won the "Youth Player of the World Cup" trophy at the 2006 World Cup, beating some blokes named Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo who got the silver and bronze awards.

The shirt itself is not exactly a beauty, admittedly. It is a template that a couple of national teams used in 2005ish. I own a Japan and a France shirt of the same template myself. Yet, that Podolski basically started his international career in it does make it stand out to me - and so I was happy getting it for about 30€.