Bhutan 4 & 5

 

Celebrating team
vs. Nepal (5:0) | WAFF Championship | 2022 in Nepal

Unknown Player
vs. Saudi Arabia (3:3) | Friendly | 2022 in Saudi Arabia

This is the 2022 design of Nivia for Bhutan, apparently. Though, a couple of variations of Nivia Bhutan shirts do exist from this period, so I am not sure what was meant to be used when exactly. It is the last Nivia shirt that does feature the full-on dragon, though, and one I wholeheartedly love.

I am not sure if it was ever worn by the men's A national team, but that is just a great excuse to give the Dragon Ladies, as the women's national team is nicknamed, some credit. Unlike the men's team, they are actually reasonably successful in regional tournaments - making the semi finals of the South Asian  Championships in 2022 and 2024. They beat Sri Lanka on the way on both occassions and absolutely thrashed the Maldives (13:0) in 2024, which is remarkable, given Bhutan isn't a massive country itself. The women's national team of Bhutan was also the first to ever travel to Saudi Arabia to give their newly formed national team a test in 2022 - and they drew the country that just started its women's football programs, but already invested 16 million $ into it in the first year and hired one of the best coaches from Germany. Not bad at all!

Bhutan 3

 

Chencho Gyeltshen (Machhindra FA | NEP)
vs. Lebanon (1:4) | SAFF Championship | 2023 in India

This is the second time Nivia equipped the Bhutanese national team and the first time they did not go for the usual dragon design all-over the shirt, which surely is among the best designs in international football history. This one is a more subtle, but still very pleasing to the eye. It still does feature dragons and it just overall is quite nice.

In the picture above you can see Chencho Gyeltshen, aptly named CG7, was he apparently playes like Cristiano Ronaldo. Though, he so far only played in Bhutan, India, Nepal, Thailand and Indonesia and didn't quite make it anywhere close to the Ballon d'Or. Yet, for a small football nation like Bhutan, he really is a gem - and the first and so far only full professional player of his country.

Guam 2 & 3

 

Dane Agustin (San Antonio FC | USA)
vs. Singapore (0:1) | World Cup Qualifier | 2023 in Guam

My first Guam shirt is somehow a bit dodgy, mostly as the badge is not in the right position. So I was always on the lookout for another Guam shirt and when Macron took over the production for Guam, finally one became available. I immediately snapped up the home and away shirt for about 80€ each, directly from the Guam FA. I was unable to find a picture of the home version in use, but I am sure it was used at some point.

While the away version is nice, the home one sticks out. It has the Coat of Arms of Guam all over the side of the shirt. This, together with the nice colour combination of dark blue and dark red, it does work very well.

India 5

 

Sunil Chhetri (Bengaluru FC)
vs. Lebanon (2:0) | Intercontinental Cup | 2023 in India

There really is not a lot to say about this shirt - it is basically the second home shirt of Six5Six, the Indian company I already owned 2 shirts of. It was used, among other games, in the Intercontinental Cup in India 2023, which was a really weird tournament that featured three Asian teams and Vanuatu to somehow make it Intercontinental, I guess. India won the tournament and Sunil Chhetri was the top scorer, again. If you haven't heard of Chhetri, google him: After Ronaldo, Messi and Ali Daei, he is the fourth most successful international goalscorer, netting 95 times (and counting) for the Indian national team.

India 3 & 4

 

Subhasish Bose (Mohun Bagan)
vs. Bangladesh (1:1) | SAFF Championship | 2021 in Maldives

Lalengmawia Ralte (Mumbai City)
vs. Maldives (3:1) | SAFF Championship | 2021 in Maldives

Both my previous India shirts were, optically, not exactly exciting. So when Six5Six, an Indian company, got a deal with AIFF to equip the national team, I just had to get one. They are decent designs, they are from a company largely unknown outside India and they have been widely available, too. Even better, they just set me back 60€ combined, which is more than fair. It was first used in the 2021 SAFF Championship - which India also won for the eight time in 2021.

Iran 5

 

Rasoul Khatibi (Hamburger SV | GER)
vs. Palestine (1:1) | King Hussein Cup | 2000 in Jordan

This is the opposite design, and thus the away match, of the 2000 Shekari Iran shirts. Unlike the home shirt I own, this one is actually matchworn by whoever wore #14 back then. I also got this from eBay for about 100€, whcih again is a fair price, I think.

What I personally quite like is the numbering. It is not only a special font, but Shekari also imprinted their logo into each number on the back. Nice detail, especially for 2000.

Iran 4

 

Mehrdad Minavand (Sturm Graz | AUT)
vs. South Korea (1:2) | Asian Cup | 2020 in Lebanon

I don't have a lot of love for the regime in Iran, but I certainly do love the Iranian national team and their kits. In particular, I love the Iran-made shirts, such as those made by Shekari, a company that did equip the Iranian national team again and again. One of the latest designs Shekari made for Iran is this 2000 home shirt, worn during the Asian Cup in Lebanon 2000. 

I got this shirt off eBay, if I recall correctly, and paid about 60€ for it. Which is definitely a fair price for a vintage, Iran-made, jersey. 

One side-note: Mehrdad Minavand, the player pictured above, who played almost 70 matches for Strum Graz, died from COVID in 2021. May he rest in peace.

Iraq 2

 

This shirt is simply ridiculous. It looks completely off for Iraq, which mostly had very plain and basic shirts throughout its history. Apart from this, obviously. It was the second design Givova did for the Iraqis and it has a massive lion as an imprint, as well as cuneiform scripts all over the shirt.Given that I have actually been to Iraqi-Kurdistan for a vacation in 2021, seeing cuneiform in remote abandoned aqueducts, I was immediately fond of this shirt and thus got it shortly after its release, paying 60€ish for it at the time.

Now comes the sad part: This design was presented in 2020, when suddenly COVID kicked in and plenty of the Iraqi matches were cancelled. Before they could actually wear it, the FA decided to move on to Umbro, who gave them a perfectly boring plain template again. In other words: They never actually wore this beauty, unfortunately. Yet, I do love the shirt and am more than pleased to add it to the collection - only if just as a little memory of my trip to see cuneiform in the wild.

Laos 4 & 5

 

vs. Brunei (3:0) | SEA Games | 2019 in Philippines

vs. Cambodia (0:3) | AFF Championship | 2021 in Singapore

 

 

 

While Laos is a relatively small country with a semi-successful national team, their shirts have long been available, mostly thanks to Weston, a brilliant Singapore-based football shop that sells almost all of the South East Asian kits. Yet, I was never really thrilled by any of the shirts and thus never really bought a lot of them.

The 2020 home one, the red one above, however, is actually nice. It is a bit bold, but I like that. It definitely sticks out for a Laos shirt. It is produced by GrandSport, who always have been a powerhouse in that region and when it came online on Weston, I simply had to get myself one. As I was already on the shop, I snapped up the away one, too, setting me back a combined 80€ approximately.

Laos 3

 

Unknown Player
vs. Cambodia (2:1) | AFF Championship | 2004 in Vietnam

This is a bit of a curious shirt. I got my hands on this for just 35€, but am not sure about its authenticity. It is manufactured by the company King Tiger, which I think is the Laotian brand of Tiger beer - which also manufacturer Singapore shirts once. Seeing that and drawing that connection immediately peaked my interest, which is why I snapped it up.

Since then, I could indeed confirm that the Laotian national team used to wear shirts of King Tiger, using exactly that logo, too. However, I was unable to find a picture of this exact shirt in use. If you ever see one, please do give me a shout! So long, I will keep my fingers crossed and hope for it to be legit!