1992 was a special year.
It’s a personal favourite for purely selfish reasons, given I was born in 1992, but it was also the best year there’s ever been for football kits.
So get your Walkman in your ears, put your Nokia 1011 on silent and walk down memory lane with me. It’s time to get shirty.
The best kit ever designed
Where better to start than what is, in my opinion, the best football kit ever produced.
Equally fit for a football pitch or a modern art gallery, PSG’s 1992/93 away kit can’t be beaten.
From the vintage Nike tick to the geometrical patterns on the side, if the kit was released today it would be snapped up by Hypebeasts in seconds.
Did I mention that it was worn by George Weah and David Ginola?
A close second
What do you get when you mix purple and lemonade? If you’re from Houston then you’re probably going to say Lean.
But outside of the Magnolia City you get Fiorentina’s 1992/93 kit, which saw Lotto and 7 Up combine with spectacular results.
It’s a good job that it was a beauty because, even with Dunga, Stefan Effenburg and Gabriel Batistuta, Fiorentina could only finish 15th in Serie A.
Who really cares when you look this good?
Milan Fashion Week < 1992 European Cup final
Wembley, 1992. Sampdoria took on Barcelona in the European Cup final.
But there was more at stake than just European honours. Sampdoria’s classic blue, white, red and black kit went head to head with Barcelona’s orange number.
In the end it was Barcelona who triumphed thanks to Ronald Koeman, who was orange-topped in more ways than one.
No such thing as copy and paste
These days, unless you’re one of the elite clubs in world football, your kit is likely to be a copy and paste job.
There was no such thing as a CTRL + C, CTRL + V job in 1992 though. No matter if you were Coventry or Hull, you were still guaranteed a flair kit.
They might not have been to everyone’s tastes, but at least they weren’t boring imitations.
Euro 1992
Only eight teams competed in Euro 1992, but every nation had something special about their kit.
My personal favourite was France’s adidas number, complete with red and white stripes on the shoulder, although Scotland and Germany pushed it close.
In the end it was Denmark, wearing domestic brand Hummel, who shocked world football to win.
But fashion was the real winner.
Last but not least
Unless you’re an avid fan you’d struggle to name a single member of Atalanta’s 1992/93 squad.
Uruguayan centre-back Paolo Motero, who went on to play with distinction for Juventus, was probably the most recognisable of the lot.
What you wouldn’t fail to do is pick them out of a crowd when wearing their away kit. For me, that’s all that matters.
