Collectible Soccer Jerseys

We are a part of eBay Affiliate Network, and if you make a purchase through the links on our site we earn affiliate commission.
Football jerseys are one part of a full kit, or uniform, that teams wear when playing soccer. From the sport’s early days, players’ knitted collarless shirts were often called “jerseys,” meaning close-fitting knitted shirts without collars, or...
Continue reading
Football jerseys are one part of a full kit, or uniform, that teams wear when playing soccer. From the sport’s early days, players’ knitted collarless shirts were often called “jerseys,” meaning close-fitting knitted shirts without collars, or sometimes "guernseys," describing a heavier garment or sweater typically associated with fishermen. England’s first association football clubs formed during the 1850s and '60s, though none had specific uniform requirements. Players often wore their white cricket clothes along with a distinctively colored hat or scarf to distinguish opposing teams. The Sheffield Football Club’s 1857 rules provide the earliest known reference to football colors: "Each player must provide himself with a red and dark blue flannel cap, one colour to be worn by each side." When England’s official Football Association (FA) was established in 1863, uniforms were still left up to each team, and most had no requirements for their players. However, with the increased visibility of England’s FA Cup in 1870, soccer clubs realized they needed clearer uniforms so fans could better tell them apart. Most of the first team jerseys drew from the established colors of their upper-class schools or clubs, such as the Blackburn Rovers’ white jersey emblazoned with a blue Maltese cross or Reading’s jersey in its pink, blue, and burgundy colors. Meanwhile, in Scotland, the sport grew popular among the working class, and team uniforms reflected these roots: Poorer Catholic clubs adopted green and white as their colors, while the Presbyterians preferred blue, red, and white. In the late 1880s, after a Boston company introduced a new machine to manufacture fabrics with vertical lines, several teams embraced vertically-striped jerseys. Teams such as Newton Heath wore so-called “quartered” or “halved” jerseys, featuring alternating shirt colors with different panels for the left sleeve, left front, right front, and right sleeve. Eventually, this style...
Continue reading

Best of the Web

The Wheelmen
This elegant tribute to turn-of-the-century bicycling includes memorabilia, photographs, and an...

Club & Associations

Most Watched

Best of the Web

The Wheelmen
This elegant tribute to turn-of-the-century bicycling includes memorabilia, photographs, and an...

Club & Associations