Olympia Thyrus San Valentino 2000 Home Shirt

This shirt never left Terni until it landed in this collection. The club is from Terni; the Thyrus dragon on the crest is from Terni; and the shirt was knitted in Terni, at the Via Maestri del Lavoro workshop that Vittorio Urbani, a former professional cyclist of the city, founded in 1977. Long sleeves for the Umbrian winter, ribbed fabric with an end of century sheen, an old football crew collar and a huge 5 on the back, with Urbani's discreet signature beneath it, the humblest place a brand can sign. On the chest, in a panel taking up half the shirt, Obiettivo Lavoro, a temporary work agency, an industry that in 2000 had existed legally in Italy for all of three years, an advertisement for modern precarity on a shirt of eternal football. It is a match worn shirt of a centre half from deepest Umbria, and also the most zero mile piece in the archive: club, legend, saint, brand and sweat, all from the same city. The only thing missing was the collector being local too.