I’ve just added some iconic club shirts so thought it was about time to go back to my bread and butter with a great international shirt. Luckily it was just delivered by the postman so I can bring it to you here now!
Ivory Coast, or Cote D’Ivoire for any French readers, are the highest ranked African team at 23 in the World rankings and were very unlucky not to make it through to the knockout stages of the World Cup. They were beaten by Greece courtesy of a 93rd minute penalty to send them crashing out.
Their ‘poor performance’ even led to Ivorian Football Federation president Augustine Sidy apologising to the country. They say they have learnt their lessons but there are rumours Giovanni Trapattoni will take over as their new manager so maybe they haven’t.
On paper they have a very good team with the likes of Cheick Tiote, Yaya Toure, Wilfried Bony and Didier Drogba but as we often see with African nations, they underperformed again on the big stage. Their sole tournament win was the African Cup of Nations back in 1992, hence the star above the crest.
The shirt itself is one of a number of excellent efforts by Puma. They really do great work with the African teams and make sure they stand out from the crowd with unique features. There is a print on the shoulders, on the cuffs and down the side of the shirt which looks great. They’ve got the shirt, now The Elephants just need to do the business on the field.
No FIFA? No Problem! 