The Best Soccer Jerseys Of All Time
From iconic World Cup kits to jerseys wearing the name of favorite players, there is a lot of room for debate over which is the best soccer jersey of all time. But there are certain kits that will always prove popular and for more than team partisanship.
Below are our 13 picks for the best soccer jersey of all times, including those belonging to club and country, and some that are iconic for how incredible they look rather than any team or individual performances while wearing them.
13 Of The Best Soccer Jerseys Of All Time
1. Manchester United Home Jersey
Manchester United have seen a considerable fall from grace since the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson in 2012/13, and they haven’t won anything of note in the past decade. However, they remain one of the three biggest clubs in the world and by some measures, including jersey sales, they could argue they are still the biggest club.
Ideally, if you want a shirt to celebrate the club’s most iconic results, you will want to find a genuine jersey from the 1998/99 season, which is when they won the treble of the Premier League, FA Cup, and Champions League, but these are rare and prices can be very high.
Even the most recent jerseys are quite expensive, but the Manchester United badge and red shirt is recognized throughout the world. This season’s away jersey is green with white stripes, and both shirts are made by Adidas with Team Viewer as the main sponsor.
2. Real Madrid Away Jersey
The Champions League was established in 1955, when it was known as the European Cup. In 1994, it became known as the Champions League and the competition was expanded to include more teams in 1994.
Since 1955, Real Madrid have won the title the most, lifting the cup 14 times. AC Milan are the second most successful Champions League time with 7 titles. Liverpool and Bayern have won the title 6 times, Barcelona 5 times, and Ajax 4 times.
As well as having lifted the title more often than any other team, Real Madrid are the only team to have son successive titles, having been crowned winners in 2015/16, 2016/17, and 2017/18. With the Champions League being considered the most prestigious cup in European football, Real Madrid is a hugely iconic team and The Galacticos have gained a massive following as a result of their successes on the biggest stage.
Any Real kit will show your love of football and the European game as a whole, and the pink away kit is especially notable for what is an unusual color choice in soccer jerseys.
3. Barcelona Jersey
The UEFA Women’s Champions League was established in 2001 and the recent rise in popularity of the women’s game has seen increased interest in the competition. Last year’s winners, Barcelona, are well known throughout the soccer world, and so too is the iconic Barcelona shirt.
While the pattern of the shirt changes every few years, the Barcelona colors remain the same, and while soccer fans will recognize virtually any iteration of those colors, we personally like the checked design of the 2019/20 season. Real Madrid won La Liga that season, and Barcelona were knocked out of the Champions League following an incredible comeback by Liverpool, but if you’re going by looks alone, the jersey is still worth the money.
Alternatively, if you want to mark the most successful seasons in Barcelona’s history, 2008/09 was arguably the best of them all. Per Guardiola’s first season in charge saw them win the treble of La Liga, the Copa del Rey, and the Champions League.
4. Borussia Dortmund Away Kit
Bayern Munich are arguably the biggest team in German soccer, and they offer plenty of reasons to buy one of their iconic club jerseys. But Borussia Dortmund’s black and yellow colors make their shirts a great looking alternative to the current German champions. The home kit is primarily yellow but the away kit, which is still instantly recognizable as belonging to Borussia, reverses the colors. The shirt is mostly black with some yellow accents and it looks sleek and attractive. The club was formed in 1909 and has won 8 top-flight German championships as well as 1 Champions League trophy.
5. Bayern Munich
While Borussia Dortmund do have great looking kits, their support base and general finances pale in comparison to their Bundesliga counterparts, Bayern Munich. Bayern have won 29 league titles despite not even being invited to take part in the first Bundesliga competition in 1963.
Bayern had finished 3rd in the old Oberliga South, behind 1860 Munich and FC Nurenberg. Despite finishing above Eintracht Frankfurt and Karlsruher SC, Bayern were not invited to join the Bundesliga because the league wanted only one club to represent each city and 1860 Munich were chosen because they were champions.
German clubs must abide by a 50+1 ruling, which means 50% of voting shares, plus one share, must remain in the hands of the club members so that the fans retain majority ownership of the club, which makes clubs like Bayern Munich quite unusual in the largely corporate world of club ownership.
6. Juventus
Juventus, known as The Old Lady of Italian football, has more Italian championships than any other club. Their black-and-white striped jerseys are popular throughout the world, although their history is somewhat marred in controversy.
The club was stripped of its 2004/05 title, having been found guilty of conspiring to select favorable match referees. They were automatically relegated to Serie B and had to fight to grain promotion back to the top tier of Italian football.
In 2018, the Italian giants signed Christiano Ronaldo, widely considered, along with Lionel Messi, to be one of the best of this generation’s football players. Juventus last won the Champions League in 1995/96 although they came close in 2014/15 but lost out in the final to Barcelona.
8. Brazil Jersey
Before Christiano Ronaldo was the Brazilian Ronaldo. In his club career, Ronaldo played for PSV, Barcelona, Inter Milan, Real Madrid, and AC Milan, representing some of the biggest clubs in world football. Other massive names to have donned the Brazilian shirt include Ronaldinho, Zico, Romario, Rivaldo, and, of course, Pele.
Little wonder that Brazil has won more World Cups than any other country, collecting the title five times. Germany and Italy have lifted the trophy four times each with Argentina just behind on three.
The yellow of the Brazilian shirt has become one of the most widely recognized in world soccer and the color is so entrenched in the Brazilian soccer ethos that it is highly unlikely to ever change.
9. USA 2012
The USA men’s team have some way to go before they are considered one of the world’s best, currently ranked 11th in the world. Their highest finish was the third place they were awarded in 1986, when they drew with Yugoslavia but were granted the third place by FIFA.
However, the women’s team is a different story. Women’s rankings started in 2003 and, since then, the USA have been at the top of the pile for a combined total of 13 years. They have won four World Cups, four Olympic Gold Medals, and nine CONCACAF Gold Cups, although their elimination by Sweden in the 2023 World Cup is seen as a low for the team and is the only time the women’s team have not received a medal at a World Cup event.
The most iconic USA jersey is the 2012 national jersey, which was worn by the men’s and women’s teams and became known as The Waldo because of its similarity to the jersey worn in Where’s Waldo comics. The modern team jersey is more of a plain white.
10. Croatia Soccer Jersey
Croatia are considered serial underdogs in most world tournaments. They have entered six World Cup tournaments and got a top-three finish three times, having lost out to France in the 2018 World Cup Final. They finished third in 1998 and 2022: not bad for a country with one of the smallest populations of competing nations.
While they may not have won the tournament, they hold the record for being involved in the most penalty shootouts, and winning the most penalty shootouts, having won all four of the four they have competed in.
As well as being many people’s second favorite nation at World Cups, Croatia also arguably has the coolest looking kit, being blessed with a red and white checkerboard coat of arms on their flag that looks especially good when converted to a football jersey. Even their away kits which are blue or black have the same checkerboard design.
11. France
France was one of the founding members of the World Cup in 1930 and have appeared in 16 tournament finals, winng on home soil in 1998 and again in Russia in 2018, finishing runners up in 2022 when they lost to winners Argentina.
They are one of only 6 teams to have won the competition twice and actually only one of 8 teams to have won the tournament at all. Their current most famous player is Kylian Mbappe, while Zinedine Zidane is widely considered the best French player in history, although the likes of Thierry Henry might disagree while Eric Cantona holds a place in many fans’ hearts.
The jersey is a relatively simple design, although the blue has changed hue over the years with the modern blue being a deeper one than the original.
12. Argentina
Argentina’s national team kit is highly recognizable thanks to its light blue and white striping or banding, and also because Argentina has one of the most successful teams in World Cup history. The Argentines have won the competition three times, in 1978, 1986, and, most recently, in 2022. They have finished runners up three times and have taken part in 18 tournaments, making them one of the most successful teams ever. Only Brazil and Germany have played in more finals.
Diego Maradona is considered one of the most exciting and skillful players to have ever graced a football pitch and played for Argentina, helping them lift the 1986 World Cup, the year when his infamous Hand of God goal helped eliminate England. From the tournament.
More recently, Lionel Messi has competed with Ronaldo to be considered the greatest player of the modern game, and he eventually lifted the World Cup trophy with Argentina in 2022.
13. Netherlands
When it comes to iconic kits, perhaps the most iconic is that of the Netherlands national team’s bright orange kit. A big factor that has helped make it so recognizable is the sea of orange created in stadiums when the national team’s fans wear their kit to show their support.
The Netherlands are considered the greatest national team to have never won the World Cup, despite having played in three finals, in 1974, 1978, and 2010. They did win the European Championships in 1988, beating West Germany in the final. The orange Netherlands football jersey is instantly recognizable, and you should expect fans, globally, to recognize it.
Best Soccer Jersey’s Of All Time – Conclusion
Football jerseys are a great way to show your love, support, or affiliation to a particular club or national team. Official jerseys can be difficult to get hold of, especially those from history, but you can find replica and retro replica shirts from some of the biggest names and biggest games in history. Above are 13 of the most iconic and best soccer jerseys from the world of football, but these really do only represent a small number that are available.
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