19 Replies to “Soccer Scene Catalogue 89-90

  1. This is like nostalgia pron! For many years in the late 80s I nearly got one of those Reusch goalie tops for xmas…could never make up my mind which colour to have though! Also interesting to see (well it is for me anyway), the Euro 88 kits and the lack of certain details that mark them out as ‘replica’ kits.

  2. Never knew that Arsenal’s training top looked like Germany’s Home!
    Also the sponsor on Hibs’ shirts seems to have a sash for some reason.

  3. Good spot Amir – I always thought that particular adidas style was just for the German national team but come to think of it I do know remember Michael Knighton (who was planning to buy Man Utd) parading around Old Trafford in the Utd version.

    You’re right – the logo on the Hibs away shirt does seem to be green and black.

  4. some nice shirts on there,notably juventus,napoli and sampdoria and some bad ones,the dutch,germany 2nd and the russia shirts,all adidas!! i was at old trafford when knighton came running on the pitch v arsenal in 1989,just glad he didnt go the whole hog and wear the home shirt too!! wonder where he is now?

    also a mention for the best football ever in my opinion,the adidas tango.

  5. Knighton did end up buying Carlisle United and infamously boasted he would get the club back in the top flight within 10 years, but he was an unmitigated disaster.

    With what happened at Brunton Park during the Knighton years, imagine what could have happened at Old Trafford had his backers not gradually pulled out of his proposed takeover.

    As for Rich’s comment about replicas, it was quite common at the time for some kits to be noticeably different to the players’ versions at the time.

    Take the Dutch shirt for instance – the most common Dutch replica shirt of the time looked like this:_

    http://www.oldfootballshirts.com/img/season_shirts/holland-home-football-shirt-1987-s_1379_1.jpg

    As you can see from the link, the adidas logo is larger than on the players’ version, and the lion badge is totally different, and doesn’t have the KNVB text underneath.

    The version in the Soccer Scene catalogue is different in that it does feature the correct KNVB lion (with text underneath), but has a plain white v-neck collar as opposed to the wrapover collar with orange trim.

    The (West) Germany away shirt is also a lot different to the players’ version – check this picture out from a match-worn shirt…

    http://www.oldfootballshirts.com/img/season_shirts/germany-away-football-shirt-1989-1990-s_8716_1.jpg

    Not just is the shade of green darker and more towards the blue spectrum, but the DFB badge is white with no background, not black on a white background.

    Even the USSR shirt is different to the one worn at Euro 88…

    http://cache3.asset-cache.net/xc/79651909.jpg?v=1&c=NewsMaker&k=2&d=77BFBA49EF8789215AB089EE596C658859A855D44037A701D4A37410E313DBEA35CB1F9E15E0E46F

    It has a white adidas logo and fold-over collar!

    It’s quite staggering how different the replica national team shirts made by Adidas were when put next to the shirts worn by the players.

  6. What Jon said… 🙂 It’s details like this that really bug me on places like eBay…people claiming they have a match worn shirt that clearly differs from reality. Still, caveat emptor I guess. I have read somewhere that adidas never officially produced an official replica of the Holland shirt, though my friend had one. Maybe what was meant was they never produced a ‘proper’ replica, hence why trying to work out what is official and what isn’t is such a nightmare. another example of this is the Argentina shirt from 1990. Prior to 1990, one couldn’t even buy an Argentina replica shirt here (though, to be fair, not many people wanted one 😉 ). When the first replicas started to appear, they were very basic and the collar was missing the 2 narrow lines running through it. Small details, but these things matter….to me anyway. Anyone else care that much?

  7. I have a couple of Coventry shirts from this season that are shown on the oldfootballshirts website. One is matchworn and the other replica. The usual differences can be seen on these – the replica has the felt embossed badge whereas the match shirt has the detailed embroidered Coventry City badge. The replica is shown on page 3 of the Soccer Scene mag above.

  8. What goes round comes round! The Rangers home shirt for 2009-10 is basically a remake of the 1989/90 shirt and the Rangers away from 1989/90 was used in 2006/07. The away shirt I have from 1989/90 shown in the Soccer Scene mag is very rare as umbro issued a batch of shirts with the sleeves stitched on the wrong way round!! The Rangers shop asked me at the time if I wanted to return it but I’m glad to say I kept it and it is shown here –

    http://www.oldfootballshirts.com/en/teams/r/rangers/old-rangers-football-shirt-s1777.html

  9. My first ever cov shirt (86/87) had a very cheap badge. Not even embossed like the usual replicas of the time. The following years’ (the fantastic hummel one) had an embossed badge, but again, many washes put paid to it. When I bought the England top from 88, I deliberately went for a Youth size, rather than small men’s purely because the smaller size had a proper embroidered badge, whereas the mens one had only the embossed version.

  10. Forgot to say…john b, agree that the adidas tango was a top football. Bought one recently from JJB. Still looks fantastic!

  11. Some great shirts there, love the Asics Norwich kit, that club rarely has good kits given it’s palette, but that one is superb.

    The Arsenal track top, I have one of those sans the cannons, bought it in Munich. That was a great design, in my opinion the West Germany home shirt is one of the finest ever used.

    As for the Holland shirt, adidas re-released a version in 2008 but oddly the pattern was upside down. Very odd.

  12. Rich – my first Liverpool shirt (Umbro 1980 ish) had a flock badge that peeled off bit by bit. The next one had a transfer style which faded eventually in the wash. The only replica badges that seemed to last were embroidered ones.

    Les, I remember that Holland shirt being re-released (didn’t they only wear the original in Euro 88?)

  13. Rick – does anyone else care that much? Yes, yes and yes! I plan on posting in greater detail at a later stage on this site, but the pronounced differences between replicas and players shirts was a grave disappointment to my young self back in the mid-90s – the badge embroidery and logos that weren’t fully embossed!

  14. John – I’m not sure how they managed to mix the sleeves up. From what I remember I pre-ordered the shirt so I received mine from the first batch supplied to Rangers so however many were supplied at the time came like this!

  15. Nick, glad to see it’s not just me. Totally agree re the embroidered / embossed badge debacle. The kit versions seemed to harmonise in the mid to late 90s, but now, with super technology versions for the players shirts now, it looks like we may never get equality again…unless one is prepared to fork out £100 every time!

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