Ivory Coast – Home – 2017
Despite being African Champions in 1992, and again reaching the semi-finals of the African Cup of Nations in 1994, Ivory Coast (or Cote D’Ivoire) didn’t reach the World Cup Finals until 2006, they have since qualified every time, but have yet to make it out of the group stages. I already have a few Ivory Coast shirts in the collection including this fantastic 1994 home shirt. However, when a player you know tells you he has a match worn Wilfred Zaha shirt from the 2017 African Cup of Nations in Gabon you’re not going to say no.
The shirt differs significantly from the replica shirts, with lots of rubber strips that make it a pain in the arse to get on and off the mannequin and presumably pull on your chest hair. None of the badges are embroidered either. For some reason this shirt features two ‘celebrate Africa’ patches, and does not have the Gabon 2017 patch that photos from the match show. The shirt has clearly been worn, so my conclusion is that Zaha wore different shirts for the first and second halves, If anyone can clarify this then please get in touch.
