Tag: White

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European International Tops Uncategorized

Thierry Henry – 2006 – Scotland vs France

The Euro 2008 qualifying campaign is a tough one to look back on as a Scotland fan, imagine getting your hopes up beating France twice before throwing it all away in the second last game against Georgia leaving it down to beating World Champion’s Italy on the last day of qualifying.

With that disappointment in the past now, we have some fond memories to look back on now including both historic victories against France, Home and Away.

This jersey comes from the home game at Hampden where Gary Caldwell netted the only goal of the game, in front of 57,000 fans, from a Paul Hartley corner in the 67th minute. For me this top is an absolute winner and one of the best French kits produced this side of the millennium. My favourite thing about it has to be the badge with the teams and date embroidered underneath is just a sheer touch of class by adidas.

Thierry Henry lined up along side fellow compatriots Eric Abidal, Frank Ribery, Claude Makelele, Lillian Thuram and Patrick Vieira but all this firepower couldn’t force its way through the defence of Caldwell and Weir.

The ex Arsenal and Barcelona forward gained 123 caps for France where he ranks 3rd on the al time appearance list, behind Hugo Lloris and Lilian Thuram. Henry also holds the record for most goals for France at 51 goals scored.

The club career of Thierry Henry is also outstanding, having played at the very top for most of his career with Juventus, Barcelona, Monaco and most notably Arsenal. It is at Arsenal where Henry really peaked, winning two Premier Leagues (one invincible) and two FA Cup’s, finishing runner up in the 2003 Ballon D’or, just behind Juventus star Pavel Nedved.

Thierry would win the Champions League at the second time of asking after his first ended in a 2-1 defeat to Barcelona in 2006 with an 81st minute goal from Belletti sealed their fate. Two years later he would arrive at the Nou Camp and a year later getting to the final in Rome where Henry would call back the years to terrorise Manchester United once again.

In all, Thierry Henry is one of the best to ever do it with 360 goals in 789 games, a World Cup, European Championship, Champions League, multiple league winning medals and golden boots. He will also go down as one of my favourite players which isn’t as much of an achievement compared to the other awards listed.

Shout out to Graeme Alexander for lending me his collection of tops. Some more icons of the game coming soon.

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The Weird and Wonderful World of Motherwell Football Collectibles Volume 1

As a Motherwell fan and a collector of random Motherwell memorabilia nothing comes close to this book by Matt Johnstone. Collecting different pieces from collectors in and around North Lanarkshire including the likes of jerseys, programmes and pendants from the footballing side of the book but also it looks into Motherwell fans trainer collecting habit and everyone’s favourite football game, Subbuteo.

A solid 258 page read takes you through the history of Motherwell Football Club starting off with the formation, ground and colours and travelling through the years and bouncing around European teams the mighty well have come up against.

If you like the sound of the book you can buy it using the link here: The Weird and Wonderful World of Motherwell Football Collectibles Volume

However it’s not just the book we’re covering today as we have been so kindly been given some Daft Laddie merch to coincide with the launch of the book. A take on the classic Admiral Welsh kit of 76′ that features the two stripes arching around with claret and white replacing the green and yellow of the original. It wouldn’t be complete without the Daft Laddie logo and Daft Laddie Apparel badge.

If you want to have a look at the Daft Laddie merch shop for T-shirts and Matt’s other book “Saturday is Service Day” you can here: https://daftladdie.bigcartel.com/

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Club Tops European

Fiorentina Christmas Jumper

It wouldn’t be Christmas without a tacky Christmas jumper and here at The Kit Rail we’ve scoped out the best one from Classic Football Shirts.

Their take on the 1999/2000 is a winner in my eyes as it features the print of Batistuta in the pattern along with Buon Natale (Merry Christmas in Italian) just goes together brilliantly along with the famous ‘Viola’ colour that Fiorentina have made so famous over the years. The Nintendo logo featured in the middle of the jersey has also been replaced with a festive Ho Ho Ho.

On the back we’ve obviously got none other than ‘Batistuta 9’ who was Fiorentina’s talisman for the 99/00 season as he bagged 23 goals in the Serie A and 5 goals in 10 appearances in the Champions league, scoring in games against both Arsenal and Manchester United.

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British Club Tops

Super Richard Tait

Richard Tait arrived at Motherwell, aged 26, having just won Grimsby promotion into League Two from the National League via the playoffs after beating Forrest Green Rovers 3-1 at Wembley. The arrival of Tait wasn’t the only signing made from the English lower leagues as Ben Heneghan arrived from Chester, Carl McHugh from Plymouth Argyle and Ryan Bowman from Gateshead.

He would make his debut on the first day of the season in a 2-1 win away from home against Killie at Rugby Park. It would take Tait until the end of October to score his first goal in a 4-1 victory against Ross County. In March of his first season at the club, manager Mark McGhee was sacked and up stepped Stephen Robinson.

We all remember Robinson’s first full season, memorable cup final runs where we would see defeat at the hands of Celtic both times but that’s after the memories this team would give us such as Moult’s brace against Rangers, Curtis Main’s goal against Aberdeen or even Carl McHugh’s late strike against Hearts in the quarter final at Fir Park.

This top comes from Tait’s last season at the club in which he helped Motherwell qualify for the Europa League as they finished the league in third place, only bettered by the two Glasgow sides.

Tait was mainly utilised as a right back/right wing back but was often asked to fill out on the left hand side of defence where he would be played when Cadden was used as a right wing back.

A great full back and a top professional, Richard Tait will go down as a Motherwell player to remember. After all he was better than Cafu…..

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British Club Tops

C. I. S. Insurance Cup Final 04-05

Motherwell’s first cup final since the well remembered Scottish Cup final of 1991 would see them kick off against Rangers, in the so called “Davie Cooper Final”, at Hampden on the 20th of Match 2005. Unfortunately it wasn’t to be for the steelmen as the gers ran riot on the day putting five past Motherwell goalkeeper Gordon Marshall. This would be Marshall’s last season in football after he retired at the grand age of 39.

This Marshall top comes from the semi-final game at Easter Road against Hearts where Motherwell had put up a good performance by giving themselves a two goal lead but then seen it slip in the last 5 minutes after conceding twice, taking the game into extra time. With all Motherwell fans on the edge of their seat and with penalties on the horizon up steps Fitzpatrick to fire the Well’ to Hampden.

Marshall started in the final at Hampden alongside players such as Phil O’Donnell, Steven Hammell, Stephen Craigan, Martyn Corrigan, Scott McDonald and Kevin McBride with the latter being who’s top we also have here.

Starting at right midfield of a 4-4-2, McBride would play majority of the match before coming off as a substitute in the 83rd minute for Paul Quinn. After his original loan spell from Celtic, McBride would join the Steelmen on a permanent basis on a two year deal before leaving on a free in 2007.

Since then, Motherwell have featured in another three finals. The first being the 2011 Scottish Cup and the next two coming in the same season in the 17/18 after an impressive season from Stephen Robinson’s men. All of which have unfortunately been played against Celtic at Hampden.

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British Club Tops

Motherwell 76 & 81

On todays feature we’re showing off two pretty unique Motherwell tops with one coming from the late 70’s and the other from the early 80’s.

The first being Admiral’s first away kit worn by the well but as you can see there is no badge on this top and instead the Admiral badge is on the white side of the top instead of on the stripe. It wouldn’t be until later in the season when the badge was introduced.

The first time this top was ever worn was in the Scottish Cup Semi Final against Rangers in 1976 where Motherwell would go 2-0 up after an hour into the game before crumbling to the Gers and losing 3-2 with the last coming in the 85th minute. Joe Wark and Willie Pettigrew both played with the latter scoring Motherwell’s second that night.

Motherwell finished a respectable 4th, 3 points off Hibernian who would claim the second UEFA Cup spot that season.

The second top being showcased is an Adidas number from the 81/82 when Motherwell were promoted back into the top division after beating Killie to the title by ten points. They also managed a +56 goal difference after scoring 92 goals. During the season, they eventually changed this top to a darker yellow top with a tighter neck.

This top was worn by Junior Burns who only started a few games for the well but did manage to score a winning goal at Ibrox which resulted in John Greig resigning from the Gers.

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British Club Tops

James Tavernier

Signing from Wigan in 2015 for £200,000, with teammate Martyn Waghorn, Tavernier would start his Rangers career in the Scottish Championship. Scoring a free kick on his debut in a 6-2 victory against Hibernian in the first round of the Scottish Challenge Cup, Tav would also score his first league goal against Alloa Athletic in a 3-0 victory.

A free scoring right back who has racked up a very impressive 18 goals in 46 games while also assisting 11 last season (20/21). Not only an attacking threat but also a defensively sound player as he was part of the defence who conceded 13 goals in the league last season.

Also worth noting that he was the man to captain Rangers to their first league title since 2010/11 and stopping city rivals Celtic from winning the coveted 10 in a row.

This is the first kit made by British manufacturer Castore who signed a five year deal with the club. The first thing you notice is badge that features the five stars to symbolise their fifty league titles. The league badges on the sleeves also match up with the tops colours red, white and blue. A small message reading “follow follow” can be found behind the collar.

There is also faint diagonal lines running through the top in a darker blue to the royal blue that is used for the main body of the top.

It is also worth noting that Rangers re-released a special edition to mark their historic league win that featured a golden badge and Castore badge with some embroidery reading “Champions 55, 20/21”.

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British Club Tops

Fulham – 02/03

For this post we are throwing it back to the early 2000’s with a Fulham top from their time in the FA Barclaycard Premiership. This season would be a regular season for the lily whites as they finished the season in 14th position, one place lower than the season previous.

Looking at that team now you would probably have placed them a lot higher as they had brilliant players such as Edwin Van Der Sar, Louis Saha and Steed Malbranque. This poor season would see manager Jean Tigana sacked in the April of 2003 with recently retired Welsh Defender Chris Coleman taking over who would guide the team into the top half of the division in 9th in the 03/04 season.

This jersey is from Scotland midfielder John Collins who played 65 games for Fulham before retiring in 2004. Before playing for Fulham, Collins would play in the Premier League with Everton and also played in France with Monaco. He is mainly remembered for his time at Celtic where he won the Scottish Cup in 1995.

Collins played 58 times for Scotland, scoring 12 goals with one of them coming on the opening day of the 98′ World Cup in France with a penalty against Brazil. Unfortunately Scotland never made it past the groups and still never have made it past the groups in any major tournament.

Made by Adidas, this Fulham top uses their famous lily white as the main body with the contrasting black used for the thick collar, side of the top and inside of the arms. The red in the badge is also used at the front of the neck. This was Adidas’ last kit with Fulham from that deal but Fulham brought back Adidas strips and have been with them since 2013 after moving from Puma, Airness, Nike and Kappa.

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British Club Tops

Aberdeen – 99/00

The 99/00 season was a bit of a mixed one for Aberdeen fans. Finishing bottom of the league is certainly not something to celebrate but reaching two cup finals that season is an unbelievable feat but unfortunately it was the two old firm sides who stole the silverware at both League Cup and Scottish Cup finals.

This jersey comes from Cato Guntveit who started for Aberdeen in the League Cup Final at Hampden Park. The Norwegian was brought off at half time after being 1-0 down to Celtic. During the second half, fellow Norwegian Thomas Solberg was sent off and that was the end for Aberdeen.

Guntveit joined Aberdeen at the start of the 99/00 season having arrived from Brann where he would return in 2002 after 69 appearances The Don’s.

During Aberdeen’s run to the League Cup Final, they eliminated teams such as Livingston, Falkirk, Rangers and Dundee United with the last two being a fairly respectable achievement for Aberdeen.

Only avoiding relegation due to Falkirk’s stadium not being up to SPL standards, meaning they would not play their playoff game against Aberdeen. They also managed to qualify for that seasons UEFA Cup Qualifying due to finishing runners up in the Scottish Cup to league champions Rangers.

Coming from Puma, this kit is a classic late 90’s/early 00’s with the tidy white collar that is complimented by a small V-neck. The thick band of Puma badges running down the arms gives it retro vibes, especially with that CIS Cup Final Badge plastered on top of it. Whoever wanted them to be so large should get a pat on the back because they look fantastic as they match the top very well.

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British Club Tops

Fabrizio Ravanelli

From winning league titles with Juventus and Lazio to being relegated with Middlesbrough and Derby, the career of Fabrizio Ravanelli has had its highs and lows.

Starting his career in Italy, 1986, with Perugia before making moves to Avellino, Casertana and Reggiana. It would be in 1992 where Fabrizio would gain his big money move to Juventus and become a cult hero after scoring in Juventus’ 95/96 Champions League final win, in Rome.

After playing over 100 times for The Old Lady, Ravanelli got a move to England but not for one of the big 6, instead it was a £7million bid from Middlesbrough. Unfortunately Boro were relegated however Ravanelli was one of the leagues top scorers and also took Middlesbrough to both League Cup and FA Cup Finals where they were beaten by Leicester and Chelsea.

A brief stint in France saw the Italian finish second in Ligue 1 with Olympique De Marseille before moving back to Italy and winning another Scudetto with Lazio and adding a Coppa Italia winners medal to his collection. Then moving back to England for a brief time with Derby and another relegation followed.

The strangest move on this list however is when he made a move up north to Scotland to play for Dundee. Only playing a total of 5 games for the Dee, scoring a hat-trick against Clyde in the League Cup. Ravanelli was sacked alongside other top earners after the club were no longer able to pay their wages.

Luckily I’ve managed to get my hands one of those 5 jerseys and what a jersey this is to be honest. I’m all for XARA jerseys and this can get added to that pile. Unfortunately the Magners sponsor patch ruins it which is no fault to XARA as they make up for it by using a neat collar and a sash along the chest to match.