Voy Por Ustedes

As well as my love of comfortable lounge wear I'm also becoming somewhat of a sports joisey connoisseur. Without really meaning to I appear to have accumulated many many joiseys from many many different sports.

Mostly 'mercan sports; hockey and "football" jerseys; but a collection of others from all over the sporting shop. I even have a Geelong Aussie rules jersey - which bizarrely they call a Guernsey - some sort of Channel Islands naming going on I don't yet understand.

This is almost a vest though, so I only have one along with the lone basketball vest, a Knicks one. This is because my arms are up to 65% too weedy for this style of sporting apparel.

So anyway yes, this has come about because I like to sport clothing you can't really buy in this country and the teams I happen to follow for one reason or another all happen to sport exceptionally cool kits/jerseys/uniforms.

It was this passion for relatively rare shirts that led me to pay £300 for a long-sleeved Arsenal 'banana' kit worn by the Super Swede Anders Limpar - not available in the shops, must be game worn. A cracking investment, it's probably worth millions in today's moneys.

Arsenal of course wear the classiest football kits - or at least their home kit anyway (with the exception of this season's which is very boarder line breaking with tradition) - I think it was Herbert Chapman who demanded Arsenal play in red shirts with white sleeves; "So you'll know it's the Arsenal from t'back and front lad."


The Chicago Blackhawks sport possibly the coolest uniforms in the history of any sport anywhere and the Yankees and Redskins are obviously the classiest looking uniforms in their respective sports.

Now then, I chose to follow the Mexican national team some six years ago when I became frustrated with the England team. By this time Arsenal had long since divorced themselves from any investment in English players so I found it increasingly difficult to summon up any genuine support for a team consisting entirely of players I had a disproportionate and some might say rather juvenile hatred for.

So, if I was to have any interest in International football and the 2006 World Cup in particular, I needed to adopt a new national team. I chose "El Tri" for many reasons. First and foremost it was one of the few teams that had no players in its squad who played for Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham; I felt Spanish was a language I could master at short notice so I could read about them and sing their national anthem in the pub irritatingly loudly should they happen to play England; I also like Mexican food and crucially their kit was quite cool.

Not nearly as cool as this new effort though. Mexico's World Cup away shirt is not out yet I've just found out, but I shall definitely be sporting this cheeky black number in the summer almost every day in fact, no matter how intense its aroma becomes. I've got the home version too so I shouldn't lose too many friends.

I've actually developed a genuine interest in the Mexican team now as it goes and as a bonus they have a Gooner in their squad now - Carlos Vela and I fancy they have a chance of at least a quarter final place, which is possibly one round further than England will finish.

This gives me at least three weeks of excuses to wear the shirts, die my hair black and sport an appalling fake tan and if they happen to play England - and possibly even knock them out if that's possible - I'll proudly walk the streets of Witney at chucking out time in my cool shirt and be knocked out myself! It's gold, I can barely wait.

** Just had a quick look at the draw. If England and Mexico both win their groups they'll have easy games in the last 16 and thus meet in the Quarter Finals. A delicious prospect.

:

Labels: Football, Random Post, Sport