The recent years of Barcelona superstars make it easy to overlook some of the previous players who were fit to wear the shirt.
We’re so caught up thinking about Luis Suarez, Lionel Messi and Neymar, that we’d forgotten that season when Ronaldo (the OG) played at the Camp Nou. We’re so busy hailing the great achievements of players-turned-managers Johan Cruyff and Pep Guardiola, that we’ve overlooked the two-year stint Diego Maradona did at the club.
Whichever way you look at it, any number of members of football royalty have graced the Blaugrana stripes.
It's harder to age a Barcelona shirt given the absence of a sponsor until the mid-00s, but the overall look is no less iconic.
“There’s no place for politics in sport”, so goes the often-heard assertion - but not where these guys are concerned. Frequently paying homage to the club’s Catalan roots with its kit, the club could hardly be accused of not knowing its own identity.
But these shirts have seen great results on the pitch, too. One of Europe’s great clubs, Barcelona have five Champions League titles under its belt, plus 27 Liga titles and 31 Copa del Rey trophies – a record number.
As John Blair puts it in his book A Culture of Kits: The Definitive Guide to Classic Football Shirt Collecting: “Football shirts are art; a time -capsuled garment evoking memories of euphoria and pain in equal measure. The colours. The smell. The design. The fit. The collar. The sponsor. The print set. The badge. Match- worn. Player- issued. Stadium replica. Classic games. Classic goals. Iconic players. The ability to say, ‘I was there’.”
In their blue and garnet stripes, instantly recognisable across the world, Barcelona teams have inspired joy, sadness, probably some occasional rage, and even sometimes adulation from opposition supporters.
Best Barcelona shirts at a glance
- Best overall: Away 1974/75 - £59.95, UK Soccer Shop
- Best for staying power: Home 1949-80 - £56, UK Soccer Shop
- Best for rock stars: Home 1982-89 - £298, Vintage Football Shirts
- Best for breakthroughs: Away 1991/92 - £29.99, UK Soccer Shop
- Best for dream teams: Home 1992-95 - £34.99, Retro Soccer UK
- Best for silencing the haters: Home 2005/06 - £34.99, Retro Soccer UK
- Best for bragging rights: Home 2008/09 - £175, Vintage Football Shirts
- Best for ruffling feathers: Away 2013/14 - £125, Vintage Football Shirts
- Best for a triumvirate: Home 2014/15 - £75, Vice Football Store
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Barcelona Away 1974/75
Best: overall
A proper old school football shirt pre-dating the era of mass-production has a classic look to it, but it’s not often we’ll advocate for these shirts as real contenders.
They also pre-date sponsors, which are a key component of a vintage shirt, often instantly forming an association with a certain era or player. But since Barca were without a sponsor for so many years, we’re willing to make the case, on this occasion.
The striking yellow is a reference to the Catalonian flag, it’s another Cruyff association and one that the club have tried to recreate many times in the years that followed.
Buy now £59.95, UK Soccer Shop
Barcelona Home 1949-80
Best for: staying power
Before the days of the mass production of football shirts, kits tended to hang around at a club for a while. A bit like Johan Cruyff, who played in this shirt for five years, before later returning as manager for eight.
This shirt is as basic as you like, a pure Blaugrana - or blue and garnet, for the uninitiated - it even predates a proper kit maker. But in it, the club won a mere five Liga titles, nine Copa del Reys, and Cruyff bagged two of his three Ballon d’Ors.
Not bad for 31 years’ work.
Buy now £56.00, Soccer Shop
Barcelona Home 1982-89
Best for: rock stars
Diego Maradona only played for Barcelona for two seasons arriving in 1982, before he found his (almost) forever home at Napoli.
His time at the Camp Nou was ended abruptly by a mass-brawl on-pitch during the Copa del Rey final, in which the Argentine butted the first head. It’s fair to say he was provoked, but it did him no favours that said brawl played out in front of the guest of honour, the actual King of Spain, Juan Carlos.
There were some happy times, too: winning the Copa del Re the year prior in 1983, and the Copa de la Liga, and all in this shirt, the first to be produced by a proper kit maker, Meyba, a local Catalan brand.
Buy now £298.00, Vintage Football Shirts
Barcelona Away 1991/92
Best for: breakthroughs
A far cry from the harassed man we see before us today, a fresh-faced Josep “Pep” Guardiola broke through into Barca’s first team during the ‘91/92 season under the stewardship of – you guessed it – Johan Cruyff, now the manager.
In this season, and in this resplendent orange kit, the last of Meyba’s efforts, Barcelona won their first Champions League trophy, or European Cup as it was then. But it didn’t stop there; they also took home their second consecutive Liga title, and the UEFA Super Cup.
Buy now £29.99, UK Soccer Shop
Barcelona Away 1992-95
Best for: dream teams
The era of Cruyff’s so-called “dream team” was played in mid-90s dream shirts. Anyone of a certain vintage will remember the eye-catching Kappa logo, emblazoning the legs of the secondary school elite, up and down the land. They might also remember the same logo adorning the arms of Cruyff’s men in the first shirt since the end of the Meyba era. They won another two Liga titles in this strip, making it four on the bounce, including one that went to the final day of the season, edging rivals Real Madrid at the 11th hour in 1993.
Buy now £34.99, Retro Soccer
Barcelona Home 2005/06
Best for: silencing the haters
Do we, strictly speaking, love this shirt? Weeeeell…
Maybe we don’t love the shirt, but heck, even Real Madrid love what happened in this shirt. Okay, love is a strong word, and it’s entirely possible that Real fans didn’t love missing out on the Liga title and the Champions League this season. We’re absolutely sure they didn’t love losing the classico 3-0, either, but fair play to them, because they gave Ronaldinho a standing ovation for scoring his second goal at the Bernabeu in that match.
As well as success on the pitch, this shirt is notable as the last year Barca played without a main shirt sponsor on the chest, having gone without since their establishment in 1899.
Buy now £34.99, Retro Soccer
Barcelona Home 2008/09
Best for: bragging rights
Following in Cruyff’s footsteps, another prodigal son returned to the Camp Nou as manager after a successful playing career at Barcelona this season.
The shirt in question wasn’t a fan favourite at the time. Some weren’t keen on the block colours which replaced the famed stripes.
It didn’t make one jot of difference to the team’s success on the pitch that year, as Guardiola oversaw the most successful season in the club’s history during his first season in charge. During the 2008/09 season, Barca took home their first treble – including the Champions League title – and a total of six major trophies.
Buy now £175.00, Vintage Football Shirts
Barcelona Away 2013/14
Best for: ruffling feathers
This shirt wasn’t for everyone, but we’re not afraid to ruffle a few feathers and neither were Barcelona with this 2013/14 away kit. It wasn’t a classic year in terms of results, and the detractors of this kit were keen to point this out at the time, but for local fans this was a winning look.
Yellow and red striped, it was an homage to the Catalan flag and incorporated other details specific to the club’s Catalan heritage. The club’s motto, “Mes Que un Club”, meaning “more than a club” (as in, representative of the city of Barcelona and the state of Catalonia) was also stitched into the back of the neck.
It might not be for everyone, but it was a strong contender for best overall shirt for us.
Buy now £125.00, Vintage Football Shirts
Barcelona Home 2014/15
Best for: a triumvirate
Returning to the classic Blaugrana stripes in this season’s Nike offering, it was a decent shirt that presided over a more than decent set of results.
This season marked the last tie Barca won the Champions League, before a period of Real Madrid dominance set in. They won it all this season, with a trio who became known as MSN guiding them to another treble – Messi, Suarez, and Neymar. It should almost be against the rules to have such a ridiculous attacking force in one team.
Buy now £34.99, Vice Football Store
Verdict: The absence of a shirt sponsor until the mid-90s makes this a tricky pick, but also opens the door to some of the more classic looks of a bygone era. We’re big fans of the 1974/75 away kit – the design is simple but striking, and instantly takes you to the era of club legend, Johan Cruyff, and a change in fortunes for one of Europe’s great clubs.
