An Archive of the Beautiful Game: Football (Soccer) Jerseys and the Stories They Tell

A conversation with Jamal Thomas (Classic Football Shirts)

Football / fútbol / soccer is the most popular sport on earth. Its cultural, political, and social impact is undeniable, but as a game it remains ephemeral. Bard Graduate Center welcomes Jamal Thomas from Classic Football Shirts, a rapidly growing international collector and seller of vintage football jerseys and kits. He will exhibit a series of important football jerseys from the sport’s history and then, in conversation with manager of public research and education and BGC alumna Mary Adeogun, reveal the stories imprinted in these material objects.


Editors Updates:
8:01 – As of 2024, AC Milan had 19 scudetto, so still only 1 star.
27:46 – Michael Jordan retired in spring 2003, and Beckham began playing for Madrid in summer 2003.
Classic Football Shirts was started in 2006 by two football-obsessed friends, Doug Bierton and Matthew Dale, searching for a 1990 West Germany jersey. Their difficulty finding an authentic one led them to establish Classic Football Shirts, where they collect, authenticate, and resell vintage football jerseys, kits, and memorabilia. Their collection ranges from the super rare—a Sporting Lisbon jersey worn by a young Cristiano Ronaldo—to the niche—a staggeringly large collection of memorabilia from the 1990s World Cup in Italy—to the current—jerseys that have been released even within the past five years. Classic Football Shirts also uses their collection to explore and expand on the histories of these jerseys and the sport more generally—launching a 2017 exhibition of 500 jerseys in partnership with the National Football Museum in Manchester, and collaborating on BT Sport series “What I Wore,” where footballers past and present tell the stories behind their favorite kits.