Uganda

Geoffrey Massa testing the fabric

Geoffrey Massa (Baroka FC | South Africa)
vs. Burkina Faso (0:0) | AFCON 2017 qualifier | 2016 in Uganda

This is number 206 of 211 from the FIFA list - 5 to go now only!
I am more than close to finish this journey after nearly 6 year at some point soon and start to think about how to continue... opening a museum? Going on tour to exhibit? Selling them all? Donating them? Replacing the odd ones? Hard to tell now!But we all know that 5 more can need 5 more years in this business!

The Uganda Cranes had plenty of amazing shirts over the last year, including the most amazing "Crane shirt", which has a gigantic crane all over it. This one, in comparison, is rather dull, but it was available through Nick and I thus absolutely had to grab it. The issue with the many other Ugandan shirts on ebay is that around 94% (rough estimation) are poor fakes, who are often sold on the streets of Kampala. This errea beauty, however, came direct from the Spain supplier to Nick - and then to me - and thus is 100% legit.

The Cranes did qualify for the first AFCON for a while in 2017, but unfortunately performed quite poorly. However, the team is known for great upsets in all kind of qualifiers. Still, they never managed to have a proper shirt sale available, even though their shirt seem to be the 6th or 7th most popular on ebay.

But now, let us speak about Geoffrey Massa, finally. Not only does that chap now play in Northern Cyprus and might thus be the only player with over 50 international caps who decided playing in a non-recognized country would be a great next step in your career, but he must also be the most photogenic guy international football ever saw. In only a single match two pictures of him were taken, the only ones I found of him in that very shirt. One of them shows im doing the Mo Farah McDonalds-M celebration, often mistaken for a heart, while the other shows himself transforming his shirt into a hijab. I am not sure if he did pose deliberately, but he surely knows how to make the cameramen happy.

Niger

Unknown Player
vs. South Africa (unknown result or match)

Finally, I can tick off another country from the list, once again thanks to my mate Nick, who found this spare shirt of the Mena from equipper Tovio. The shirt, which even has my size, is a flag shirt featuring the Nigrienne flag in a waving fashion all over it. As every friend of football shirts and vexilology, I do obviously love flag shirts the most and thus am more than pleased with this one!
Tovio is a very dodgy supplier from Burkina Faso, which used to offer some fine designed shirts of various Western African countries. They did offer to sell the shirts, but they only spoke colloquial French, answered once a month and after two messages asked me to WesternUnion to some individual in Burkina Faso.
Well, I was sceptical and skipped that. Nick did not, but wired the money indeed. They never confirmed them that they received the money or answered any of his mails and messages - but some 9 months later, he suddenly had the shirt in his post box. I am so happy he went through that, also for my benefit. I love it, thanks Nick!

Guinea 3

vs. Burkina Faso (1:2) | Jeux de la Francophony 2017 in Ivory Coast

 This is the opposite to my Guinea 2 shirt, also from Sindio. Unfortunately, I struggled to find an in-game picture of the match vs. Burkina Faso,but at least I got that single picture of the team leaving the pitch after losing narrowly to the Burkinabe.

Guinea 2

Unknown Player
vs. Ivory Coast (3:2) | Jeux de la Francophony 2017 in Ivory Coast

Another shirt supplier making its debut in my collection: Sindio Sports! Sindio is a small company founded and run by a Senegalese in Belgium. He is doing an amazing job on the design front and, unlike many of his African competitors, the shirts are well available online. Unfortunately, though, they are experiencing the hassles of equipping African teams and several of them, like Liberia, decided to never wear their shirts.
Guinea, though, decided to give it a try and equipped the Syli that played the Francophony Games in Ivory Coast earlier this year. The team did not make it out of the group stage in this bizarre tournament of French-speaking countries, but they were surely one of the best suited!
Thanks to Sindio and their great CEO for selling this shirt to me without the "GUINEE" print on the front (as it is offered on the webshop) - I really appreciate it a lot and love my new Guinea kit, especially as the Sily were always my favorite team in Africa, as you can read on the post of my first Guinea shirt.

Ethiopia 2

Seyoum Tesfaye (Dedebit FC)
vs. Ghana (0:5) | AFCON 2019 qualifier | 2017 in Ghana

Finally, finally, finally! Finally, I do own a definitely fully legit Ethiopia shirt! I never understood why exactly it is so hard to get hold of a shirt of one of the largest, most-developed and historically rich countries of the African continent. I have even been to Addis Ababa, well only to switch planes, and shockingly, they were not for sale at the airport either. Well, to be fair, the whole airport was the worst airport I have ever seen in my life and the next one on that journey was in Zimbabwe!

Anyways, I am getting distracted. This shirt of Spanish outfitter Errea is a wonderful design, as most of the past Ethiopian shirt were. And somehow, my dear friend Nick Warrick managed to get hold of them and is still selling some spares on his webshop. The shirt was worn in the still ongoing AFCON 2019 qualifier campaign, where Ethiopia is not very likely to make the cut, unfortunately.
Now, I can leave the airport in Addis Ababa next time without feeling ashamed of wearing a probable fake.So, thanks again Nick!

Skaneland

vs. Southern Sleswig (0:0) | friendly 2013 in Southern Sleswig

It would be a bit too optimistic to call this shirt overly spectacular or beautiful, but it is a rare one, indeed. This very shirt was worn in the only international fixture Skaneland, a proud CONIFA member, ever had. In 2013, shortly after the Skaneland FA was founded, the team travelled to Denmark to play Southern Sleswig,
Unfortunately, this sporting highlight is not a match the masses will remember for long, as it ended in a very dull 0:0 draw.
The most interesting fact for the collector here is the brand Max, which I never ever heard of before. So, another brand giving its debut within my small collection :)

I owe my thanks to the president of the Skaneland FA, Keyo Ghettson, who sold off those matchworn shirts to raise funds for the FA to actually revive it. Thanks Keyo!