Cape Verde

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Cape Verde – Away – 2015

 It’s been a while since I added a Cape Verde shirt to the collection. I had initially been attempting to get hold of a bunch of these through notoriously difficult to contact Portuguese manufacturers Lacatoni. My usual contact in Portugal let me down, but the shirts were available through Classic Football Shirts in their sale. Unfortunately I missed out on one of the home shirts.

The 2015 tournament was their second appearance at the African Cup of Nations. Unfortunately they were unable to match their quarter final spot that they achieved in 2013 after drawing all 3 matches at the group stage.


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Uganda

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Uganda – Home – 2017

So the Uganda Cranes finally realised some of their potential by qualifying for the 2017 African Cup of Nations. In a tight group with just 6 goals in the 6 games Uganda finished bottom behind Ghana, Egypt and Mali. Ghana and Egypt went on to make the semi-finals.

Uganda have chopped and changed shirts suppliers so much over the past decade, and have now returned to an official supplier in Errea. It is worth noting that they have also played some matches in a copy of the Errea design, but they did wear the official shirts at the African Cup of Nations tournament. A small number of Uganda shirts are now available in the Football Shirt World online shop.

Vanuatu

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Vanuatu – Away – 2017

Vanuatu stunned the footballing world by qualifying for the 2017 U20 World Cup in South Korea. Now, there’s only 14 teams in the OFC region, and 2 of them get a spot at the U20 World Cup. Vanuatu lost to fellow qualifiers New Zealand in the final of the qualification tournament so it was actually their 94th minute winner in added time against the Solomon Islands that sealed their place – becoming the 5th team to represent OFC at the tournament (after Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Tahiti).

What is impressive though is that they more than held their own against some of the top countries in the world. their opening game against Mexico saw them level after being 2-0 down, eventually losing 3-2 to a cruel goal in the 94th minute. They also took on Germany who seem to be storming every tournament at every level. Vanuatu found themselves 3-0 down, but pulled 2 goals back via stunning freekicks from star player Bong Kalo.

The 7-0 defeat by Venezuela was more like what we were expecting, but Venezuela went on to reach the final before finally losing to eventual champions England. Bong Kalo has since been offered a trial in Germany for Hannover 96,so we may well be seeing more of him in the future.

Official Vanuatu shirts made by Pasifika, the official suppliers of the OFC region, are available in the Football Shirt World online shop, but these are in extremely limited numbers.

Ethiopia

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Ethiopia – Away – 2017

Ethiopia has always been one of the hardest shirts in Africa to get hold of. Official replicas have never been made available, and the market has been flooded with copies – mainly thanks to their huge following and their appearance at the 2013 African Cup of Nations in 2013.

I have finally managed to get my hands on a set of Ethiopia shirts, and have a limited number available through the Football Shirt World online shop.

Despite this being a new shirt, the national team have now used 3 different badges on this design, finally settling for the circular design which was worn in the most recent set of World Cup qualifiers, a 5-0 defeat to Ghana.

St Kitts and Nevis

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St Kitts & Nevis – Home – 2016

For those following my football shirt project you will be well aware that I consider the Sugar Boyz to be my second team. In fact I possessed a St Kitts & Nevis shirt back in 2004 long before this project even started. Little did I know that a St Kitts & Nevis shirt would be one of the hardest to obtain, certainly one of the rarest in the Americas.

In recent years the Sugar Boyz have climbed up the FIFA world rankings making use of local players as well as several players from the English lower leagues. As of March 2017 they occupy 77th spot, above regional powerhouses Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago, and above China – the world’s most populous nation. Not bad for the smallest country in the western hemisphere.

After a few years with L-Sporto and later bland Adidas templates SKN have been supplied by Canadian sportswear manufacturers Lika Sports who also kitted out the Dominica national team, making shirts available through the Lika Sports webpage. Unfortunately the bespoke St Kitts & Nevis shirts were not made available in the same way (that would be far too easy). As luck would have it my wife’s parents went on a cruise to the Caribbean and I was able to give brief instructions on how to find the SKNFA headquarters. To my delight they purchased both the home and away jerseys.