Macedonia 9

 

This might be my ninth Macedonia shirt already, but it is clearly a very special one. It was designed for the Euros 2020, played in 2021 due to COVID and the first ever major football tournament Macedonia ever qualified for. It was meant to replace a design, also by Jako, that the team had to wear from 2016 until mid-2021, making it one of the longest in use in recent UEFA history already. The shirt was designed by a Macedonian designer, in collaboration with JAKO, and features the rare Balkan lynx, which is a national symbol of Macedonia. The idea was to raise awareness of the danger the lynx is in through the prominent feature of the animal on the biggest European football stage.

But, it never happened. The fans went absolutely crazy, when the Macedonian FA presented the shirt together with JAKO mid-2021. There were public protests in Skopje and open letters from all kind of fan organisation. The reason was simple: The shirt is burgundy, not red, and thus does not feature the colours of the Macedonian flag. Such things happen and usually the fans will get over their initial frustration. But not in Macedonia. Macedonia did immediately request UEFA to please wear their old shirts in the Euros and publicly apologized for the "mistake" in an open letter themselves. UEFA accepted the request, which meant that this burgundy beauty was never used (and neither have been the away or third shirts). The previous JAKO design, through that, was worn from 2016 to 2023, a whopping seven years, non-stop.

Still, I got hold of this shirt via a contact at somewhere in the JAKO supply chain. He set one of the shirts produced aside and sold it to me for a very modest 30€, including the shipping. While it is a shirt that was never used, it is surely a shirt with a very special history.