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The Best England Shirts of All Time | Classic England shirts
There’s something about England shirts that hits differently. Maybe it’s the simplicity. Maybe it’s the tournaments they carry in their stitching. Or maybe it’s because, unlike club kits, England shirts tend to be tied to moments that everyone remembers at the same time — penalties, heartbreak, summers that felt endless.
From Admiral’s slightly awkward early efforts to Umbro absolutely nailing the 90s, England shirts have always been about more than design. They’re first loves. First tournaments. First times football really got you. Here are some of the very best, chosen not by marketing departments, but by fans, writers, players and people who still remember exactly where they were when it all happened.
What are the greatest England shirts of all time?
1996 England Third Shirt (Umbro) – Euro 96
Chosen by: Bantams Banter
“My favourite ever football shirt is probably more for sentimental reasons than for its beautiful design.”
The grey England third shirt from Euro ’96 is divisive — and that’s exactly why it matters. For some, it’s ugly. For others, it’s perfect. This one isn’t about clean lines or classic white. It’s about everything Euro 96 represented.
Shearer banging them in. Gazza doing that goal. Pearce’s redemption. Tears, joy, limbs everywhere. As Bantams Banter puts it, this shirt “holds all of this within its chunky threads.” If football shirts are memory containers, this one is absolutely overflowing.
1996 England Home Shirt (Umbro) – Euro 96
Chosen by: Michael Cox
“I don’t think it has been beaten in the subsequent years.”
The white England home shirt from Euro ’96 is as close as England get to a universally loved kit. Clean Umbro template. Subtle crest detailing. No nonsense. It looks exactly how England should look.
Michael Cox sums it up perfectly: first shirt, right shirt, and still unbeaten decades later. It’s the shirt you picture when someone says “classic England”. No gimmicks. Just football.
Early 80s England Shirt (Admiral) - Pre-World Cup 1982
Chosen by: Mark Ogden
“It wasn’t the best looking kit in the world… but it’s the one which started me off.”
Admiral kits were never about elegance. They were about being there at the start. For Mark Ogden, this England shirt wasn’t about design at all. It was about ignition.
This is the shirt that quietly starts collections. Bought for you. Worn without context. Remembered forever. Slightly awkward, slightly forgettable on paper but utterly irreplaceable because it was first.
1998 England Home Shirt (Umbro) - World Cup ’98
Chosen by: Chris Mann
“I insisted that ‘Ince 4’ be put on the back. God knows why.”
Ah, France ’98. Red card. Penalties. Pain. But also one of Umbro’s cleanest England designs. The ’98 home shirt is peak late-90s international football: simple, sharp, and worn during a tournament that defined a generation of England fans.
Everyone remembers their first name-on-the-back decision. Chris Mann went with Paul Ince. No regrets. (Okay, maybe one.)
1990 England Home Shirt (Umbro) - Italia ’90
Chosen by: Josh Widdicombe
“It couldn’t really go any better than that.”
Italia ’90 sits in a special place in English football culture — and the shirt is inseparable from it. The Umbro crest. The “Italia 90” embroidery. Gascoigne, Lineker, Pearce. It’s football romance, stitched.
Josh Widdicombe’s story makes it even better: lending it out, never getting it back, and carrying that heartbreak ever since. Proof that losing a great football shirt hurts in ways other things don’t.
2008 England Shirt – England Under-17s
Chosen by: Lucy Bronze
“It’s still got Ribena stains on it.”
Not all iconic England shirts come from men’s tournaments or senior sides. Lucy Bronze’s favourite England shirt is the first one she wore — a reminder that England shirts are about personal journeys as much as national ones.
Ribena stains included. Framed, cherished, and more meaningful than any perfectly preserved collector’s piece.
2002 England Away Shirt (Umbro) – World Cup 2002
Chosen by: Fans’ Favourite
“It was being worn when Beckham scored that penalty.”
Design-wise, the 2002 away shirt might not top many lists. Emotionally? It absolutely does. Beckham. Argentina. Redemption. That penalty.
1966 England Home Shirt – World Cup Winners
Chosen by: Football History (and everyone else, really)
There are England shirts people love, and then there’s the one that sits above debate entirely.
The 1966 World Cup shirt isn’t just England’s most important kit — it’s one of the most important football shirts ever made. Plain red. Long sleeves. No sponsor. No fuss. Just Bobby Moore lifting the trophy at Wembley and England doing the one thing we’ll be dining out on forever.
By modern standards, it’s almost aggressively simple. But that’s the point. This shirt predates branding, hype cycles and “drops”. It exists purely as a symbol of winning — something every England shirt since has been quietly chasing.
You don’t buy this shirt because of how it looks. You buy it because of what it is. The reference point. The original. The only England shirt with a World Cup stitched into its history.
1990 England Third Shirt (Umbro) – World in Motion Era
Chosen by: Cult Status Alone
The Italia ’90 home shirt gets all the glory but the third shirt is where things get interesting.
This is peak Umbro experimentation: sky blue base, sharp geometric detailing, and a look that felt bold even by 1990 standards. It barely saw the pitch, but it made its mark somewhere just as important — the World in Motion video.
Worn by New Order, John Barnes and the squad during one of the most iconic football songs ever recorded, this shirt is forever tied to England’s coolest cultural crossover. Rap verses, sun-drenched vibes, and a tournament that made the nation believe again. All wrapped up in one gloriously offbeat kit.
Like the song itself, the shirt sits slightly outside the traditional England canon. But that’s exactly why collectors love it. Confident, different, and inseparable from the mood of Italia ’90, this is an England shirt that transcended football and became part of pop culture history.
Where can I get a classic England shirt?
If reading this has sent you down a nostalgia spiral (it happens), you can browse authentic vintage England shirts right here at Football Shirt Collective.
We source original, guaranteed-authentic England kits from across eras. Admiral, Umbro, Nike and beyond, with detailed photos and no guesswork. No fakes. No dodgy reproductions. Just the real shirts that carried real moments.
Whether you’re chasing your first England shirt, replacing one you’ll never forgive yourself for lending out, or adding another chapter to the collection, you’ll find them with us.
Browse vintage England football shirts at Football Shirt Collective
