Bienvenidos a La Liga: Part One
Written by Chris T. Ketcham   
Sunday, 23 March 2008 09:17

Chris Ketcham As a hapless American growing up in Washington, DC and playing youth league soccer in the suburbs, my introduction to the wider world of football came in small drops. I knew that the sport originated in England, Italians played it, and down on the (National) Mall I’d see various embassy teams. While us Americans could usually catch the World Cup, international domestic leagues hardy merited a mention in the mainstream press unless some washed-up European with an alcohol problem found his way over to our shores to cash in on the tail end of his career in the North American Soccer League. We all knew about Pele. In DC I knew Johan Cruyff played for us (for one season) on the Washington Diplomats. If one scrolls down the list of notable players on the Wikipedia link above, along with North Americans, there are plenty of players from England, Scotland, Brazil, a few other South Americans, and then a smaller group of players from other European and international countries. I only see one player from Spain, Carmelo Cedrún, a goalkeeper.

The point of my ramblings is that I never knew of Spain’s prominent place in World football until the past decade. Some of that that obviously has to do with the frosty relations between the United States and Spain under Franco, another part of it is likely because of the strong (historical) Italian and (more recent) Latin American immigrant populations that have imprinted their own particular regional bias on the game in the US. Not many Spaniards made it over here—or maybe they just weren’t as vocal as other groups. Thanks to satellites and cable television I began to realize what I was missing. I also learned some of the back story courtesy of one of my favorite football related books, “Morbo” by Phil Ball. He’s also a columnist for Soccernet.

Anyways, here are the uniform reviews. I’m not going to rank them this time because there aren’t any that I really love. I like Osasuna’s and probably Getafe’s the most.

 

Almería are pretty new to La Liga, having only been formed in 1989. A shot of all kits is here. Their home kits look have the same ‘three red stripes in front’ look like those of Atlético Madrid, but since their kit sponsor, Joma, is different the uniforms have a bit of a different air about them. As they are another team with red vertical stripes there is only so much that inspires my rapier wit. I like the dark away kits. What is that weird little symbol? If you superimpose it with the big sun dial thing on Racing Santander’s kit does it open the gate to some other dimension? The crest is simple and not all that interesting, but it’s not gross, so it easily gets a passing grade.

 

Athletic Bilbao. The club history for Bilbao is quite rich. I laud their policy of using home-grown talent but lately the lure of big money from other clubs seems to have depleted the stocks and Bilbao has been struggling above the drop zone in recent seasons. Anyone who knows what England’s Sunderland kits look like will appreciate the classic Bilbao home uniforms. The second kits are fun. That lion head looks like a modified Transformers Autobots logo.

 

Atlético Madrid. As the story goes the team was founded by Athletic Bilbao fans in Madrid, who went on to become their own entity. There are different accounts of how they came to have the red and white stripes. Whether the original kits came from mattress cloth or Sunderland FC, I still think it looks fairly sharp. Brought to us by Nike, the little blue accents on the neck and sleeves are great.  Atlético's away kits aren’t so bad, I like the blue a little more, but I like their away kits from a few years ago more. I love the team crest —it coincidentally resembles elements of a vertical American flag, but it has a bear standing on its hind legs to get berries off a tree. Now that’s just flat-out awesome. Points deducted for being sponsored by Kia motorcars. Pretty sure there is no way in hell Kia will ever get even close to being cool.

 

Barcelona. If you’ve read my previous columns you’ll know that I’m a sucker for uniforms that are slightly more elaborate with color selections and whatnot. When one combines a slick corporate uniform making company, like Nike, with some long-heralded color choices, like the blue and maroon, then a cool uniform is bound to happen. The same cannot be said for their away kits . Eesh. Where does that color come from? It’s better than the fluorescent yellow kits of last year, but not by much. I have this vision of a smooth talking polyester twine salesman making a small fortune dumping his stock of gross yellow, blue and orange thread across the world on unsuspecting Barça fans. I like the team shield. They, of course, have to have the Catalan flag, the cross of St George from their past, and then the old style football and team colors underneath. Good job. Ever the Catalan contrarians, they refuse to wear a sponsor but rather choose to wear UNICEF logos. I’m not going to mess with UNICEF.

 

Deportivo La Coruña. another kit brought to us by Canturbury. The home uniform has the classic vertical blue and white stripes with a bit of gold trim. The all black away kit is saved from banality by the gold trim and three little dots that Canturbury likes to use (forgivable, with Adidas’s three strip craziness precedent). I also like how the team’s crest shows up, front and center on the black. The team’s crest is a bit strange. A crown? No big deal. The nifty little flag with a purple cross one extra little stripe and a crown? Not so bad—but what’s with that circle belt thing? Weird.

 

Espanyol. Another team from Barcelona. The team is sponsored by Uhlsport—which I mainly associate with goalkeeper gloves. Their home kits have a somewhat common theme: vertical blue and white stripes. Not altogether awful, but nothing striking either. The away kits …I don’t know why including the color pink is ever considered a good idea. They have nothing on the Italian club Palermo, or the horrific third jersey of Sevilla , but come on…this is not a great idea. “Unique” yes, but eesh! The team crest is not very interesting, but I like the font and the simple crown, so it gets points for well-stated restraint.

 

Getafe. I like the uniforms from this team—a suburban commuter/industrial town outside of Madrid. Yet another team sponsored by Joma. The home kit is mostly blue with a couple of nice stripes of red and white across the chest. Not to mess with a good design, the away kit reverses the placement of the red and blue. While I am not all that impressed with the team's crest, it certainly is a great combo: the left is the sacred heart of Jesus. The left? Getafe’s favorite industry: airplanes—so maybe that is kind of cool after all. I don’t think too many of the other teams of La Liga have such and interesting combination of themes.

 

Levante. I always feel sorry for the newly promoted team that ends up being the whipping boy of the top flight clubs. Levante is doing even worse than the recently promoted Real Murcia and will soon be bounced back to the second division. The home kit is just like fellow Catalans, Barcelona. The away kit (this is either their B team, or youth squad) is a gross green color. Not as bad as Murcia’s, but close. The crest? The team also hails from Valencia, hence the bat, just like their bigger, cross town rivals Valencia. It does not have the same coolness to it, which is too bad; it’s a waste of a perfectly good bat.

 

Mallorca. I think it’s pretty cool that the islands of Spain get to participate—but Sicilian teams get to do the same thing, so it’s not that special. Oh well. Any way, the uniforms are sponsored (I think) by Reial—which appears to be a Spanish (or even Mallorcan?) company. We have our old friend “the red jersey” home kit. I like the black highlights. I like the odd gray away kits. The red trim make it pretty slick. As for the team crest, I’m quickly learning that crowns on crests are quite common. I like it okay—but it appears to have a similar font to Real Madrid’s so it loses originality points.

 

Osasuna. This kit is not half bad. The club is having a bit of an off season, but I will not blame their home kit . Nothing too fancy for a red shirt, but the darker red stripes make it more interesting. The away kit is cool too. Slate gray with some orange highlights—not too shabby Osasuna. Too bad your team is not higher up in the standings. The crest is also really sweet. It just pops for me, that’s the best way to put it. A cool lion, a floaty crown, some red and blue and a nice font.


Kit Aesthetics is a column by Chris Ketcham about football kits - the good, the bad and the (very) ugly.