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My First Football Shirt: Jack Lang
As any long-term football shirt fan will likely know, the first shirt you ever pick-up will come as part of a full kit. While it might be a faux-pas now, we'll allow a pass for under-12s. Jack Lang, our latest chat for the My First Football Shirt series, was one of the recipients of a full kit, as he received a Manchester United kit from 1996.
We caught up with Jack, a writer for The Athletic, to talk about ageing Manchester United shirts, France World Cup shirts and Ronaldinho scoring optical illusions for Barcelona.
What was your first football shirt?
I was given the full Manchester United 1996/97 home strip for my birthday as a kid. The shirt hasn’t aged very well… the ‘Theatre of Dreams’ text right in the middle at the bottom seems especially odd. Plus, there was a button on the collar that used to dig into your skin when you controlled the ball with your chest. Not ideal.
What is your favourite football shirt?
Nike have no chill and I love it. 😅😅
— Phil Delves (@phildelves) February 11, 2020
Rumours are swirling that the new France shirt will be heavily based on the very adidas 1998 shirt, itself a design inspired by the classic adidas 1984 shirt. pic.twitter.com/NujKqavobV
I’ve got a huge soft spot for France's kit at the 1998 World Cup, but I think they actually perfected the formula a year or two later with this number. The bold red line is still there but there’s a lot less clutter on the front with those white lines removed. The collar is done well, too, which I think is where loads of football shirts fall down.
What is your favourite goal?
16 years since THAT Ronaldinho goal for Barcelona against Chelsea 🤤pic.twitter.com/TbzPH38iDz
— GOAL (@goal) March 8, 2021
Ronaldinho for Barcelona against Chelsea. Not because it’s especially beautiful, but because it actually took a replay or two to work out what he’d done. It was almost an optical illusion of a goal… and it’s no wonder Carlo Cudicini couldn’t save it if TV audiences could barely understand it.
Thanks to Jack for speaking with us!
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