Zambia 7

 

Unknown Player
vs. Angola (0:0) | Friendly | 2012 in Angola

I finally got a matchworn Zambia shirt - and even better, it is from the best time of Zambian football! When the team won the AFCON in 2012, causing one of the biggest upsets in international football, the team did wear this shirt. One of the key players at the time was Chris Katongo, who played in Bielefeld for a few years.

Years later, I got this shirt from a Bielefeld collector for about 80€. It did not quite fit his collection and he thus did knock it off. It does, in turn, perfectly fit my collection and I absolutely love it! To my surprise, the matchworn version does, indeed, have some small differences to the fan version that I already owned. It just is a perfect shirt for me.

Zambia 6

 

Unknown Players
vs. Cameroon (2:2) | World Cup Qualifier | 2017 in Zambia

I won't loose many words on this one. It is a plain orange shirt, but works well, just because the colour of Zambia is always great. I had to get it, as I wanted to have a Mafro shirt of Zambia. It also was quite cheap, setting me back just 20 or 30 Euro at the time.

Zambia 3-5

 

Benedict Chepeshi (Red Arrows)
vs. Tanzania (2:0) | CHAN| 2021 in Cameroon

Clement Mwape (ZESCO United)
vs. Guinea (1:1) | CHAN | 2021 in Cameroon

Clement Mwepe (ZESCO United)
vs. Cameroon (2:0) | Friendly | 2021 in Cameroon

Massive thanks to the Zambian FA for these three incredible shirts! At some point in 2021, I wrote a snail mail letter to the Zambian FA, asking them, if they have any old and potentially used shirts in storage that they could part with for my collection - of course offering to pay for it. They did quickly get in touch to tell me that they don't have any old shirts, but would love to send me their current shirts as a gift. That is really incredily nice of them and so I was more than happy to receive all the current shirts from them weeks later.

The shirts are done by CoPa, which is a company linked to the FA itself, as far as I am aware. It is a brilliant bespoke design for the copper bullets, which I really like, personally. Well done, CoPa!

These are also shirts that I do actually wear quite a lot, as they just fit well, are a great design - and I do have a special place in my heart for Zambia. Having been to Livingstone and seen the natural wonder of the Victoria Falls, but also spending time with a local football club in the quite tough Maramba township, I have great memories of the country. From all the places I have been to, Zambia definitely ranks far up there when it comes to hospitality.

Zimbabwe 4 & 5

 

Kudakwashe Mapira
Homeless World Cup | 2019 in Wales

Kudakwashe Mapira
Homeless World Cup | 2019 in Wales

These two Zimbabwe shirts are quite special, in many ways. First, they are the only shirt from the Homeless World Cup I own, a global tournament that brings together homeless players that compete in a multi-tier tournament against each other. The last pre-COVID edition was held in Cardiff, Wales, in 2019, and it was the first time that Zimbabwe entered both, the men's and the women's competition. I couldn't find the final position of Zimbabwe's women's team, but the men's team took the third place in the third tier of the event (out of 6 tiers), which is not bad at all. In that tournament, Zimbabwe made some headlines, as they fielded Kudakwashe Mapira, nicknamed terminator, the first disabled player to ever play at the Homeless World Cup. Kedakwashe came close to professional football in Zimbabwe repeatedly, as he is incredibly gifted, but due to his disability never really got the chance to make it to the top level. At the Homeless World Cup, however, he did not just play, but excel, being crowned the man of the match award against both, Chile and the USA.

Secondly, this shirt was done by Leyburn sport, an incredible small company from the UK, that used to equip quite a number of mostly African teams around 2018 to 2020. I knew Ross, their owner and founder, quite well and absolutely loved his work and was able to link him up to Matabeleland, which he equipped for a while, too. It is a shame that the company seems to not exist anymore, but it was surely one of these small brands that went beyond just making cash and tried to add a social value to their work.

Zimbabwe 2 & 3

 

Unknown Players
vs. Senegal (0:1) | AFCON | 2021 in Cameroon

Unknown Players
vs. Guinea (2:1) | AFCON | 2021 in Cameroon

Should you actually follow this blog and read it in chronological order, you will notice that we are moving continents. I have now uploaded hundreds of shirts I got over the last few years and just have Africa to do - which is the continent I got the most new shirts from!

We will kick Africa off with these two incredible Zimbabwe shirts by Umbro, produced by the Umbro South Africa bit of the company. The home shirt, the yellow one, is absolutely incredible and I totally love the flag inspired design! The away one, on the other hand, is just wild. I have no clue what it tries to tell me and for that reason alone, I don't fully love it. Yet, overall, I am very happy with the two additions, which I got for about 60€ combined. Nice catches, for sure!

Afghanistan 5

 

Unknown Player
vs. India (0:0) | World Cup Qualifier | 2024 in Saudi Arabia

And another Afghanistan shirt. One I cannot tell you any great or obscure stories about, but just the latest Afghanistan shirt by Six5Six, which I really love. I paid about 50€ for this, which is fair enough, and it is a decent enough design, though nothing extraordinary exciting either.

Afghanistan 4

 

Unknown Player
vs. Sri Lanka (3:1) | SAFF Championship | 2011 in India

To most of you, this Afghanistan shirt will look like just another Hummel template shirt the team used. And on first sight, it is just that. Actually, it was used by the players as just another template.

However, this particular one is of outstanding rarity and collective value. Not because of that weird fake Arab/Pashto/Dari script on the back, which should be a crime. But rather because of the heat pressed print on the front, which has been carefully peeled off. And it surely was not just worn off, but peeled off for a reason!

In 2011, Afghanistan got new kits from Hummel and decided to heat press the Afghanistan state emblem (aka coat of arms) all over the front of the kit. It was a white print, as the only existing example of this shirt I have ever seen shows. But, FIFA quickly intervened. The Coat of Arms of Afghanistan, at the very top, has the Shahada written on it. It is small and quickly evades the eye, but it triggered FIFA to ban the shirt for "religious propaganda". 

It is a curious case and one that can only be explained by the weakness of Afghanistan within the FIFA system. I mean we have seen giant crosses over shirts quite a lot (looking at you, Malta), we have seen shirts with religious symbols (fun fact: The SAINT George's cross, e.g., is a religious symbol) and flags with the Shahada, like the Afghan or Saudi Arabian flags, are flown during FIFA matches and printed on the shirts of the respective national teams. Yet, somehow, printing the COAT OF ARMS, a state rather than a religious symbol, on the Afghanistan national team shirt seemed to cross the line of the 2007 ban on religious symbolism in football (which technically forbids praying when entering the pitch or after scoring, too). 

Now, I find that decision ridicolous, but I am over the moon owning this piece of history.

Bangladesh 2

 

Unknown Player
vs. India (1:1) | World Cup Qualification | 2019 in India

I only ever had that dodgy Bangladesh shirt that was briefly worn on a tour to the OK. While that is incredible, as it does look like a thrash metal shirt, it is also very much a one-off. So I was always looking for a new, second, Bangladesh shirt. One that has actually been used in tournaments or at least qualifiers.

At some point a few years ago, this one then became available. I cannot recall who offered it to me, but I paid about 40€ for this unbranded, in-house, beauty. While I do love the front of it with the great shades of green and the red tiger slashes that remind me of Cameroon, I absolutely hate the back of it. The tiger print just looks cheap, imho. It is just a bit too much. But who am I to complain. I got another Bangladesh shirt and really, that is all I could ask for!

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!