Top 100 Football Shirts of 2020/21 - (Part Two: 90-81)
This is Part 2 of 10. Explore the rest of the countdown:
100-91 | 90-81 | 80-71 | 70-61 | 60-51 | 50-41 | 40-31 | 30-21 | 20-11 | 10-1
90. Bristol City - Away
At FOOTY.COM, we like to reward bravery. Purple and lime green is about as brave as it gets. The Robins have had a fantastic year in partnership with hummel and they’ve made this colour combo work, somehow.
Faded chevron detailing appears to help when it comes to avoiding any uber-garishness, but would I wear it myself? No. Will Bristol City fans still be pulling this out of the wardrobe in 25 years’ time? Absolutely.
- Kevan Thorpe, FOOTY.COM.
89. Galatasaray - Home
Galatasaray shirts are always something special, thanks to the club's sumptuous amber and maroon (or rather, 'vivid orange' and 'pepper red'....ahem) colourway and this new Nike outfit is no exception.
Perhaps with more than a nod to the artistic themes employed by adidas for their Euro 2020 international strips, the shirt once again continues the halved approach favoured by Nike, this time bordered by painterly brushstrokes of maroon blending into the amber segment. The look is inspired by the fiery passion of their supporters, according to Nike's PR.
There's little doubt this is a stunning jersey that manages to not be spoilt by the logo of incoming sponsors car rental firm Sixt, who signed a two-year deal with the Turkish giants this August.
- John Devlin, True Colours Kits.
Welcome to Hell, a sort of good Hell? You can almost feel the screaming, fiery stands of the Türk Telekom Stadium when you stare into this. One of the Sarı-Kırmızılılar’s most memorable shirts from recent memory, a wonderful leaky watercolour twist on a standard halves design.
- Kevan Thorpe, FOOTY.COM.
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88. Cambridge United - Home
To the surprise of absolutely nobody, hummel have got things spot on once again for Cambridge United. Last year I fell in love with their incredible away shirt, but this time it’s all about this terrific home design. I’ve got nothing against Oxford United, but it’s fair to say Cambridge have won The Shirt Race this season.
Alongside hummel’s trademark chevrons, the stripes simply look fantastic. Having the club’s motto “United in Endeavour” included again is a really nice touch, but this time their lovely shirts are being matched by some cracking performances out on the pitch. Maybe this design won’t be the peak of their season, after all.
- Ben Hyde, FOOTY.COM.
87. Club Tijuana - Away
This is Xolos’ new away shirt and it is a beauty! The colours work really well and I’m a big fan of the off-white used for most of the shirt. It adds an elegant look and it really helps the red and black on the collars, cuffs and logos to really stand out.
But let’s be honest - the colours are great but they’re not what grabs our attention, that’s reserved for the massive ‘X” which stretches across the left of the shirt and continues onto the back. The ‘X’ is made up of various symbols, such as money signs, athletes, globes, numbers, and I have no idea how they are connected to the club. But that doesn’t matter when it looks so fantastic.
This shirt is a great example of elegance working well with a little bit of chaos. Great work from Charly.
86. Celtic - Third
Breath was bated all around the east of Glasgow when adidas were announced as the Bhoys' new kit supplier in July 2020 with a deal lauded as 'the biggest kit sponsorship ever to be announced across Scottish sport'.
Fans weren't disappointed with the gradual unveiling of a set of three splendid strips for their first season at Parkhead. The all-black third shirt (based on adidas' latest Condivo template) is a real peach and features a bright green hue picking out the various design decorations. Three-stripe trim runs down each side of the jersey and neat twin bands of green and white are featured on each cuff.
The real talking point however is the bespoke clover badge design replacing the regular Celtic crest which, when considered alongside adidas' marketing campaign for the jersey with its 'for the disco lights...' strapline, reflects the emphasis, yet again, on the shirt's leisure wear potential rather than matchday use.
- John Devlin, True Colours Kits.
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85. Fiorentina - Home
This was a highly anticipated shirt. When Kappa announced that they were partnering up with the Florence-based side, I think a lot of our inner Football Italia alarms began to ring. This is a pretty solid design, and the white cuffs are an interesting addition, one that adds a bit of design variety. It has a bit of a retro vibe to it too and the sponsor placement has been lifted a bit higher than previous seasons.
- The Kitsman.
The powerful purple of La Viola’s home kit needs no introduction. When it’s applied to a SKIN FIT Kappa template, with white trims and a split collar; this shirt is a worthy entrant. To be fair, it’s got to work incredibly hard to make Franck Ribéry look remotely dashing - it's good, but not quite that good.
- Kevan Thorpe, FOOTY.COM.
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84. Sporting Lisbon - Away
I’m really not sure about this, to be honest. The idea is pretty cool, but if you’re going to rip the design open with lion claws, then it just seems like you really need to go for it. Sporting’s classic green and white stripes are poking out sheepishly from the shoulder, and I just wish Macron had been brave enough to go a little bigger.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think this deserves some of the hate it’s received, but I’m also not convinced it deserves a place on this list. Next year I want to see a shirt which looks like it’s been completely ravaged by Mufasa, not the kind of lame shoulder tattoo you instantly regret getting.
- Ben Hyde, FOOTY.COM.
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83. Arsenal - Home
There are going to be traditionalists who’ll not be a fan of the zigzags embedded within the body of Arsenal’s red home shirts. That would be a fair opinion, as usually such experimentation is reserved for away/third kits, so perhaps adidas should have toned it done just a little.
But time is a healer. It is usually the way that we grow accustomed to even the most wild of designs, so critics’ ire will pass and this will be a shirt fondly-remembered by fans, especially since the Gunners have already won something in it…
- Kit Crimes.
Just sticking my head in to say adidas have done a terrific job of freshening up Arsenal’s look here. Oh, and as a Manchester United fan, I’m also insanely jealous of the shirts they’ve been getting over the past two seasons. I’ll just sit here quietly in my abstract zebra print.
- Ben Hyde, FOOTY.COM.
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82. Millwall - Away
Cards on the table…. I am a Millwall fan, the following will be a balanced view on this kit! This kit is wonderfully fantastic, taking inspiration from the classic Asics away kit of 1995/96 with its green and white halves.
The modern interpretation of this kit is to be admired, not just reproducing the same shirt again but introducing some new elements within the use of a round-necked collar, with matching cuffs and also the way the green/white meet in the middle of the shirt - creating a centre stripe which still gives nice symmetry to the shirt.
I also want to call out the sponsor here. For me, it works and helps with the overall balance of the shirt and is one of the best change kits in The Championship, not to mention a worthy entry in this top 100 shirts (again, no biased views here) Now then, long sleeve or short sleeve? Yep, long-sleeved for me, please!
- Gavin Hope, Football Kit Geek.
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81. VFB Stuttgart - Away
This Stuttgart kit is sorely underrated. If this was made by pretty much anyone other than Jako, we’d see this much higher up the list. Don’t sleep on it too though.
We’ve seen maps on shirts many times before, but few map-based kits have been as aesthetically pleasing as this. It feels to me like a dissection of a hooped shirt, as if we’ve peeled away layers of a kit to reveal the intricate, inner workings of a well-oiled machine. It makes me want to look closer, which is a very good sign in the world of shirts.
- Phil Delves.
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This is Part 2 of 10. More of the countdown will be revealed TOMORROW...
100-91 | 90-81 | 80-71 | 70-61 | 60-51 | 50-41 | 40-31 | 30-21 | 20-11 | 10-1
