Deciding what to include in ‘The Top Five Shirts Added to Showboat This Week’ is no easy task. But we’ve run these articles in the past and they always prove to be really popular with collectors. So here we are. Back at it. Trying to highlight our favourite uploads this week, well aware that there are too many to mention. We could have written 25 of these articles and we’d only be scratching the surface, such is the sheer quality of the thousands of shirts added to Showboat this week.
A special shoutout to our Dutch collectors, too, who have flooded Showboat with classic after classic. It’s great to have so much depth added to the platform, and it only makes our valuations sharper.
That said, if you’re still waiting on your valuations, please bear with us. Since launching in the App Store and on Google Play, we’ve been inundated with shirts. Our valuation tool is something we’re really proud of, but we also take the time to check everything with the human eye, something we believe is still vital. This slows down the process slightly, especially during busy periods. If you’re still waiting on your collection valuation, we hope to have the backlog cleared by early next week.
Now, it’s time for the top five shirts added to Showboat this week…
5. Ajax - 1999/00 - Benchwear
Sometimes you start writing an article about the top five shirts you've seen added to the platform and you see a bit of training kit and you have to pivot. This one ticks a lot of boxes for us. Umbro? Check. 90s? Check. Iconic sponsor? Check.
Ajax were entwined with the ABN-AMRO sponsor during the 90s and so it's wonderful to see a bit of training clobber we aren't all that familiar with.
There's no doubting the rarity of pieces like this and so its £200 valuation feels more than fair considering its excellent condition.
4. Scotland 1982/85 - Away Shirt
Another away shirt and another Umbro one but, blimey, this more than warrants its place on our list of the top five shirts uploaded to Showboat this week. We saw plenty of these in the stands at the World Cup this summer, during Scotland’s very brief appearance at the tournament. But, honestly, it was probably hard to say how many were authentic, given how popular this shirt has become in the knock-off market.
Still, to have an authentic 1982–85 Scotland away shirt is something to treasure, and it comfortably makes our list this week. Our team valued this one at £210.
3. Inter Milan - 1995/96 - Third Shirt
Now, this isn’t a shirt you see every day. Inter Milan played fast and loose with their third shirts in the 90s, often giving the manufacturer a blank canvas to create however they saw fit. As such, Umbro, once again, treated us to a colour combination we hadn’t seen before.
Inter had dabbled with green goalkeeper jerseys in previous seasons and actually released a fourth shirt in 1995/96 that was also green. This one never achieved true iconic status because it wasn’t a particularly golden era for the club on the pitch and came before Ronaldo joined. Still, it’s a beauty. It was released in smaller numbers than the home and away shirts that season and worn by the likes of Roberto Carlos, Javier Zanetti and Paul Ince.
We value this one, in excellent condition, at around the £225 mark.
2. Partizan Belgrade - 1991/92 - Home
Now, this is a special shirt. Made by the long-forgotten Vocado, who manufactured only a handful of kits in the early 90s, this shirt from the also-defunct Yugoslav First League is incredibly rare.
The fact it was worn by the great Predrag Mijatović adds significantly to its value. Mijatović spent three memorable years at Partizan, where he won one league title and one Yugoslav Cup. The cup came in the season of the aforementioned shirt, as did the award for FR Yugoslavia Player of the Year, which he also won that year.
It’s a true piece of football history from a unique club and a unique player, who departed for Valencia before making a big-money move to Real Madrid.
We value this one at £725.
1. Chivas de Guadalajara - 1990/91 - Home
Adidas make their delayed arrival this week, but it’s one very much worth waiting for. Chivas de Guadalajara might not be synonymous with classic football shirts, but they bloody should be.
The club’s late-80s-to-90s run of sponsors set them apart from many of their peers during that period. A simple red-and-white shirt design was offset by a series of iconic brands, including Nissan, Texaco and, finally, Coca-Cola.
This one, from the 1990/91 season, is a match-issued Javier Aguirre shirt. You might not recall Aguirre as a player, but he made headlines this week as Mexico’s national team manager when he politely told Anthony Gordon where to go.
We can’t confirm whether that incident increased the value of this shirt. But we can confirm that it certainly didn’t make it go down.
Our team values this one at £525, and we think it’s worth every penny.
You can log all your shirts on the Showboat app today and you can shop thousands of classic football shirts on the Showboat marketplace here.
