My first football shirt: Jason McAteer

We spoke to former Liverpool and Ireland midfielder, Jason McAteer. We spoke about his first Liverpool kit, Brazil classics and goals against The Netherlands. This interview was done as part of our My First Football Shirt series.

What was your first football shirt?

A Liverpool shirt, obviously! But it was no ordinary shirt. When I was growing up my family didn’t have the sort of money needed to buy me a kit, so my mum made me one. I remember her sitting there with her material and sewing machine and, while it wasn’t perfect, I was thrilled with it.

It was the full Liverpool kit – though the badge on it wasn’t the proper one. She sewed on a European Cup badge – it must have been all she could find – and while I didn’t love that, the kit was amazing.

What was your favourite football shirt?

There can only be one: Brazil. Yellow shirts, blue shorts. I loved watching the great Brazil teams and their players, the likes of Carlos Alberto and Zico.

They really lit up all the major football tournaments. I love the 1970 shirt, but that was from before I was born so I’ll go with 1982. The shirts seemed like part of the way they played football: bright, bold and brilliant.

What was your favourite goal?

My favourite that I scored was the one for Ireland against Holland in the World Cup qualifier in 2001. It was the only goal of the game and one of the crucial results in the campaign to qualify for the World Cup in Japan.

The way I see it there are two types of footballers. The ones that carry the bricks to the building site and the ones that lay the bricks. The layers get the credit for the end product. I was a carrier – but that was my moment to be a layer and remains my favourite goal because of what it meant.

Our store is full of Liverpool classics, just like the ones Jason McAteer wore. View the full collection here.