Over the years I’ve owned a fair few football shirts (ever since getting the Evening Gazette Boro shirt for Christmas as a kid). When I started travelling and following other teams I resolved to collect at least one from each of them. So I thought it was time to start documenting them on here. Consider this a rare bonus feature.

Let’s begin with this beautiful Tokyo Verdy number (also known as Tokyo Nippon Verdy and Yomiuri Nippon FC amongst other names). Made by Mizuno for the 1993 season and boasting an impressive gradiated green colour scheme (made possible by advances in football shirt printing – hence the sheer number of gaudy kits released in the 90s), this shirt is one of my favourites.

One of the reasons why this shirt is iconic for Verdy was that it was arguably worn when the team was at its peak. 1993 was a championship winning year for the club, winning both the league and playoffs. Key sporter of this shirt was legendary Japanese striker Kazu Miura, who also won player of the season that year and scored more than a goal a game for the Tokyo team.

Yes the Coca-Cola sponsorship is a bit much, but this is a beautiful shirt nonetheless.