Why La Liga teams will play in retro shirts this weekend
La Liga is the first of Europe's five major football leagues to introduce a co-ordinated retro shirt campaign, but other sports such as Australia's National Rugby League and the Australian Football League have held retro rounds. The kit that Atletico Madrid, which was founded in 1903, will wear this weekend La Liga director Jaime Blanco says the occasion is a unique way of tapping into the history and traditions of its clubs. "It allows us to bring the past into the present while continuing to build experiences and strengthen the legacy that emotionally connects with supporters," he said.
"Presenting this collection during Spain's leading fashion week is the perfect platform to project that identity beyond the field and position soccer at the heart of the cultural and creative conversation," he added. The retro kit of Girona, which is part of the The City Football Group that also includes Premier League side Manchester City's parent company Several retro kits will be on display on La Liga pitches this weekend This is not the first time this season that club history has been celebrated by football teams. Italian club Juventus recently revealed their fourth kit during their 2-0 home defeat to Como, a joint collaboration with Adidas and Studio Sgura that is inspired by a 1996-97 season jersey.
Back in March, Liverpool released a retro jersey collection, which include shirts inspired from as far back as the 1960s as well as their 2005 home shirt, beloved because of its association with the famous Champions League victory in Istanbul. Arsenal's famous 1991-1992 'banana' kit was reinterpreted for their 2019-20 away kit. Nike have recently relaunched their T90 collection, and Adidas' 2026 World Cup away jerseys have the Adidas original Trefoil badge on the chest after 36 years, a re-interpretation of the classic '90s look.
The general rise of retro football shirts has been reported to now be a near £40m business empire by the Classic Football Shirts company. Jordan Clarke, the founder of Footballerfits, an Instagram platform that explores the link between behind football and fashion culture, says it is not just football fans that are obsessed with nostalgia. "I think nostalgia is something in society not just in football.
A lot of people look back fondly at times during their lives, when they were maybe younger, and there was less worry in the world. They look back and dream of returning to those times. "Football is just a microcosm of how society feels in the world that we are living in nowadays.