A History Of Manchester United Match Worn
Shirt Styles

See the shirts worn by Legends of the game!

October 2009 Item Of The Month

 OCTOBER 2009

 

 

 

Continuing with the new section of the website, we this month have on show one of the rarest examples of a Manchester United matchworn shirt in recent years for you, yet another beauty!

 


  • This style of shirt with European lettering and numbers and the special arm patch was only ever used in two games, including the World Cup Final v Liga De Quito, the first ever Ecuadorian winners of the prestigious south american Copa Libertadores competiton (click here for more details on this team)

  • This fact, along with a very small number of these shirts being prepared for the competition with most of them having being given as post match player swaps makes it an extremely rare specimen
 
  •  Manchester United have played in 3 'World' Finals (2 Interncontinental Cups and 1 Club World Cup) winning 2 of them, in 2000 v Palmeiras and in 2008 in this competition
 
  •  The other time United disputed the Intercontinental Cup was after the 1968 European Cup triumph when they played a 2 legged game v the Argentinian team of Estudiantes, which infamously turned out to be more of a boxing match than a footballing contest over the 2 games!  Interestingly, that Estudiantes team included a certain Juan Sebastian Veron's father (click here for more information on this tie)

  •  Manchester United are the first and only English and British team to date to have won the Intercontinental Cup/Club World Cup.  Celtic, Liverpool, Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa are the other teams who have had unsuccessful attempts at acheiving victory in this competition previously
 
  •  United were awarded the honour of wearing the '2008 FIFA World Champions' chest badge on their shirts after winning this competition, and United were happy to accept this accolade planning to wear it on both the domestic and european versions of the kit, until the Premier League intervened and banned the club from applying the badge to their domestic competition shirts.  UEFA had no such problem, which saw United adorning their CL shirts with the badge, starting with the 2-0 victory versus Jose Mourinho's Inter Milan at Old Trafford in the 2nd leg of the first knockout round of the 2008/09 competition
 
  • The embroidery on the front of the shirts is done on one machine and the shirts that were prepared were all exactly the same.  Anyone that tries to replicate the embroidery on a different machine from a different swatch will NEVER be able to make it look exactly the same as the originals - a little hint for you there so you can keep an eye out for the fakers who try and 'make up' their own shirts to pass on as authentic 'originals'!