December was a bit of a quiet month, just a few nice new additions to the collection.
Once again I started with a vintage Brighton Goalkeepers shirt. This is the 1998-1999 'keepers shirt, of the style worn by the likes of Mark Ormerod and Mark Walton. Manufactured by Super League and sponsored by famous Brighton Italian restaurant, Donatellos.
Then came one of my treasures, with quite a back story to it. This is the 2004 away shirt of former USL side Wimington Hammerheads, and matchworn by Glenn Murray.
I originally bought this shirt from a guy in America in around 2009 as Glenn Murray was playing for my team, Brighton, at the time. Wilmington was Glenn’s first ever professional club, he played just one season there before returning to the UK signing for Carlisle, then Rochdale before moving to Brighton in 2008.
I managed to catch up with Glenn at the last game of the 2010-2011 season, and showed him the shirt, his response was something like ‘blimey, where did you get that from?’, and as you can see he signed it for me. Glenn then turned down a new contract with Brighton and signed for our arch rivals Crystal Palace, I was disappointed to say the least and decided to sell the shirt, it went to a Hammerheads collector in Wilmingto.
And of course Glenn then came back to the Seagulls, re-signing for us in 2016! I made contact with my man in Wilmington and he agreed to sell the shirt back to me, it arrived in December!
Next up is this beauty, Llanfairpwll FC of the Welsh Alliance League, a specially designed home shirt for this season with gratitude to the NHS proudly emblazoned across the front.
The shirt is made by Welsh sportswear manufacturer Teejac Sports. The back of the shirt shows the full name of the famous Welsh town, Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrngogogoch, the longest place name in the UK, and probably the longest football team name in the world.
I won this matchworn Albirex Niigata home shirt from 2007 in an online raffle, they play in the Japanese J1 League.
And then along came another Japanese J1 League shirt, this time it’s a 2008 home shirt of Urawa Red Diamonds, its fully badged up but I think it’s a standard fans replica.
This is the first Topper brand shirt in my collection, a Brazilian brand and this is the 2002 third shirt of Campeonato Brasileiro Serie A side Vitoria.
This is one of my favourite American shirts, this is a modern replica of the USA home shirt as used in the 1994 World Cup Finals. I’ve had a couple of originals of this shirt in the past, but I sold them all, now they sell for silly money so when I saw this recreation I decided to add it to my collection.
This is the 2019-2020 home shirt of amateur soccer club Bateaux FC, based in Eau Claire, they play in the Wisconsin Primary Adult Soccer League, I saw some images of the team, contacted them through Twitter and convinced them to sell me one of their jerseys.
And finally for December, and for 2020, a Christmas present from my brother, this is the 2017-2018 home shirt of Scottish Premiership side Hibernian, a random choice he admitted, but it’s pretty smart.
I think the detail on the club crest is superb, well done Macron.
That’s the lot for December, and for 2020, not sure what’s coming in for January. If you want to look at many more football shirts, why not take a look at my website, www.oldfootballshirt.com.