I got into Italian football by way of a video entitled 110 Goals Italia Style – From Season 88~89. It wasn’t just the quality of football that drew me in, but also an aesthetic. First, there were the stadiums, many of which were uncovered or covered on just one side, which you couldn’t see because that was invariably where the camera was positioned. Then there were the jerseys, often supplied by companies I was vaguely aware of, such as Kappa and Uhlsport, or sometimes not at all, like ABM and NR. Collars were ubiquitous, badges sewn on, micropatterning minimal, the sponsors mysterious. Ultimately, football shirts in Italy would go the way of football shirts in Britain, but from the 1980s through to the early 1990s they were something else.
INTERNAZIONALE, 1988-89
It was Inter who first caught my attention. This was partly to do with Nicola Berti and Ramon Diaz, but mostly because they wore the best shirts. I say best shirts – plural – because it was hard to choose between home and away. Uhlsport were responsible and crafted two jerseys of modernist simplicity. Other details were fortuitous: the uppercase font of the sponsor, MISURA, incorporating two red dots; Inter’s badge, featuring the profile of a snake; the stylised U of Uhlsport’s own logo. Ostensibly, the club wore the same strip for three consecutive seasons, except in 1989 they got rid of the snake and reverted to their traditional ensign, which was bland by comparison – hence the 1988-89 version stands alone as Inter’s best ever.
As modelled by: Giuseppe Bergomi, Riccardo Ferri, Andreas Brehme, Lothar Matthaus, Nicola Berti, Aldo Serena, Ramon Diaz.
Inter in 1988-89: Serie A – 1st; Coppa Italia – Group Stage; UEFA Cup – Third Round.
SAMPDORIA, 1988-89
Sampdoria‘s shirt deserves its reputation, and there are many examples as to why. NR did a good job in the mid ‘80s, as did ASICS in the early ‘90s, but it was Kappa who really nailed it. The coccarda helped – a roundel stitched upon the left breast, reward for winning the previous season’s Coppa Italia – and Sampdoria’s badge was transposed onto the left shoulder to accommodate it. And it is a very good badge. The Baciccia, as it is known, depicts the silhouetted profile of a bearded sailor smoking a pipe. Such was the regularity with which the club seemed to win the Coppa Italia back then, I still expect to see it on the shoulder to this day.
Sampdoria wore this shirt for two consecutive years, although there were minor adaptations in between. In 1988-89 the numbers on the reverse were printed in black against a white, square background, in 1989-90 they were white against blue. The coccarda was also modified: red outer ring and green bullseye in the first instance, the reverse in the next. Either edition will do.
As modelled by: Roberto Mancini, Gianluca Vialli, Toninho Cerezo, Pietro Vierchowod, Luca Pellegrini.
Sampdoria in 1988-89: Serie A – 5th; Coppa Italia – Winners; European Cup Winners’ Cup – Runners-up.
FIORENTINA, 1989-90
Initially, despite liking Fiorentina‘s name, I wasn’t taken with their kit. Then in 1989 they switched from purple shorts and white socks to white shorts and purple socks. (The sponsor changed too, from Crodino to La Nazione.) Suddenly, Fiorentina’s shirt was my favourite. Oblivious to the furore it had caused with the club’s fans when it was introduced in 1980, I thought the circular badge, with the stylised letter F in the middle, was one of the coolest things ever. I also liked ABM’s insignia and the way it was repeated vertically within the weave of the shirt; micropatterning took longer to catch on in Italy than it did elsewhere, so it really stood out. Finally, there was Roberto Baggio, who wore the shirt with aplomb.
In 1990, Fiorentina went back to wearing purple shorts, added white trim to the neckline, and Baggio was sold to Juventus, which I was upset about.
As modelled by: Roberto Baggio, Dunga, Oscar Dertycia, Luboš Kubík, Stefano Pioli.
Fiorentina in 1989-90: Serie A – 12th; Coppa Italia – First Round; UEFA Cup – Runners-up.
JUVENTUS, 1991-92
I can never bring myself to root for Juventus, probably because I have a natural empathy for the underdog. That said, in the late 1980s and early ‘90s, Juventus were far from being the dominant force in Italian football they had been before and would later become (which is odd considering the quality of player they routinely signed).
In any case, for a while Juventus’s shirt was a guilty pleasure of mine. I liked the collar, the sinuous neckline, the barely perceptible micropatterning, and the sponsor, Upim. But what really did it for me was Kappa’s logo embroidered in emerald green – an ingenious way to brighten up an overwise monochrome jersey. (The 1990-91 iteration also featured the coccarda, but I think this shirt looked better without it.)
In 1992, Juventus bolstered their already potent attack with the acquisition of Gianluca Vialli from Juventus and Fabrizio Ravanelli from Reggiana, Danone took over from Upim. and Kappa tinkered with the neckline.
As modelled by: Roberto Baggio, Salvatore Schillaci, Pierluigi Casiraghi, Luigi De Agostini, Stefan Reuter, Jürgen Kohler, Júlio César, Antonio Conte.
Juventus in 1991-92: Serie A – 2nd; Coppa Italia – Runners-up.
TORINO, 1992-93
By 1992, Inter had switched to Umbro, Fiorentina to Lotto, and ASCIS had added drawstrings to the neckline of Sampdoria’s shirt. I despaired. Fortunately, I had a soft spot for Torino, who were wearing ABM for a third season in a row. Nothing much changed during their tenure, apart from the sponsor in ‘91 (from Indesit to Beretta) and the introduction of a pop-studded collar in ’92. I actually prefer Indesit’s typeface to Beretta’s, but the collar makes the real difference.
Unlike with the jerseys they’d supplied for Fiorentina, Pescara and Piacenza, ABM didn’t micropattern Torino’s and it was better off for it, maybe because of the colour – a deep burgundy.
As modelled by: Enzo Scifo, Luca Fusi, Walter Casagrande, Carlos Aguilera, Pasquale Bruno, Daniele Fortunato.
Torino in 1992-93: Serie A – 9th; Coppa Italia – Winners; UEFA Cup – Second Round.
