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My First Football Shirt: My Old Man Said
We caught up with David Michael of Aston Villa blog, My old man said for our My First Football Shirt series. Whether he was swapping his Aston Villa shirt for a curly wurly, playing subbuteo or watching Eder scoring wonder goals for Brazil, David has some great football memories.
What was your first football shirt?
Aston Villa won Division One in 1980/81 using just 14 players.
— Football Remind (@FootballRemind) December 24, 2021
7 players played all 42 league matches. What an effort! 🏆👏 #AVFC pic.twitter.com/Lf0tBMBpo6
It was the 1980/81 Aston Villa home shirt. I swapped it at school for a Curly Wurly and a Mars bar. I never used to get pocket money, never mind football shirts brought for me as a kid, but there was this kid at school in the year above who used to wear the Villa shirt.
One day I struck up a conversation with him about Villa and it turned out he was actually a Liverpool fan (as most people were in those days). He proposed the swap, which must go down as one of my better business ventures!
What is your favourite football shirt?
Jupp Heynckes (West Germany) and Luís Pereira (Brazil)
— tphoto (@tphoto2005) February 12, 2020
West Germany vs Brazil0-1 at Olympic Stadium
in Berlin on 16 June 1973
Photo by Masahide Tomikoshi / TOMIKOSHI PHOTOGRAPHY pic.twitter.com/7KPE012i2q
I like the Brazil shirt of the early 1980’s and it was my first subbuteo team I purchased as a result.
The Denmark Hummel kit of the 1986 World Cup was also a classic, Villa carried a similar design in the following season. Favourite Villa shirt? I always had a soft spot for the Le Coq Sportif home jersey circa 1983-85.
What is your favourite goal?
#Brazil v #USSR at #WC1982 pic.twitter.com/rxA2hgDCkZ
— OldFootballPhotos (@OldFootball11) April 25, 2019
My favourite goal has to be by Eder for Brazil against USSR in a 2-1 win in the group stages of the 1982 World Cup. In many ways, 1982 was my favourite footballing year. Villa had won the European Cup and the 1982 World Cup was the first I remember watching as a kid. The Brazil team of that year played football like the Harlem Globetrotters did basketball. Strolling around with the ball as if disinterested before bursting into action in clinical and rapier-like fashion. The often under-rated Eder was the epitome of that and often even his misses were better than most players’ goals.
Socrates’ nonchalant step over dummy is pure class. Then Eder flicks it up with his left foot before volleying it in emphatic style with the same foot without breaking stride. The icing on the cake of the goal is the reaction of of Rinat Dasaev the USSR goalkeeper, regarded as the best goalkeeper in the world during the 1980’s. His broken man ‘Oh FFS’ reaction is a classic. Dasaev had a style that always seems to elevate goals. His ‘I’m in an earthquake’ reaction to Marco Van Basten’s incredible volley in the 1988 European Final, again made the goal so much better.
If you want to read more about the football memories of players, writers, and more you can buy the full Your First Football Shirt book. Discover Alan Shearer's first ever football shirt, Carl Anka's most cherished shirt and more. All proceeds go to the charities CALM and Willow.
You can also browse our Aston Villa shirts as part of our Premier League collection. See the full store here.
