Hoops Without Name 2007 Home Shirt

Long sleeves for the sports hall, green hoops on cream white, the Dutch royal coat of arms in gold, and the signature of whoever made it all happen: 2M Serigrafica on the chest, in all likelihood the screen printing shop that printed these very shirts and charged in advertising. The 3 on the back belongs to a futsal defender, the one who guards the keeper's sweaty back and takes the long free kicks. The brand is Legea of Pompeii, a giant of Neapolitan teamwear whose catalogue travels the entire amateur world, and it is what gives this piece its delicious paradox: a shirt designed at the foot of Vesuvius, worn in a Dutch sports hall, by a team with a pizzaiolo's name and a king's coat of arms. No piece in the collection better sums up the pattern's democracy: the same hoops serve Benetton's scudetto and the Wednesday night league of Ciro's friends. Serious football is measured in trophies; this one is measured in third halves paid for at the bar.