10 Retro Home Kits You Need to Own

At this time of year, the world of football fandom is eagerly anticipating the latest releases of home kits from the favourite clubs, or else saving up to buy those already confirmed.

It's not often a fan would go and buy the newest kit of a major divisional rival, but plenty of football lovers enjoy collecting vintage, retro or meaningful kits from years gone by.

Here are 10 of the best that you should seek out, made timeless and epic by their stories, their looks or the trophies won in them. All the kits selected were only considered from before the turn of the century, though in plenty of cases they come from well before then.

AC Milan 1994-95

AC Milan have one of the iconic strips, no matter which year you pick. The red and black stripes are as much a part of the club as the names of Maldini, Baresi or Costacurta.

The '94-95 kit featured bold, wide stripes with a gold star above the club crest, celebrating their trophy successes of previous years.

This kit was worn just after their famous 4-0 European Cup final win over Barcelona, a photo of which adorns the intro slide of this article.

Barcelona 1999-00 Centenary Edition

Barcelona themselves have an iconic kit, displaying deep reds and blues, more often than not in vertical stripes.

Their centenary year kit though was a classic half-and-half outfit, worn by the likes of Jari Litmanen, Rivaldo and Josep Guardiola, as well as a pair of up-and-coming youngsters by the names of Carles Puyol and Xavi Hernandez.

Real Madrid 1997-98

Real Madrid is a thoroughly iconic kit, which the Spanish giants wore in 1997-98 as they won the UEFA Champions League against Juventus. This broke the long run without a European triumph since 1966 for Real.

Real have long worn famous white kits, with royal purple being a key colour included in many of their home strips too.

River Plate 1975

Deeper in time now and into South America.

This River Plate top comes from 1975, when they won the double of Metropolitano and Nacional championships, after 18 years without any kind of domestic trophy. Daniel Passarella, Reinaldo Merlo and Oscar Mas were some of the famous names involved.

River's iconic white kit with diagonal red slash has been in place for close to a century.

Liverpool 1977

One of the most successful teams in all of Europe, Liverpool were at their strongest around the time this kit was being worn, in the late 1970s.

The Reds wore slight variations of this timeless top, a plain red affair with white trim, for back-to-back European Cup triumphs in '77 and '78.

Kenny Dalglish, Emlyn Hughes and Phil Neal were some of the great names who wore this kit in one of Liverpool's most successful spells in their history.

Brazil

There are few kits more iconic than that of the Brazil national team, and this one arguably tops them all.

It certainly ticks the boxes for "retro" too; this is the kit worn by Brazil as they successfully won the 1970 FIFA World Cup, regarded by many as the greatest international team ever.

Golden yellow with green trim and blue shorts, the colours of the Brazilian flag were dazzling in their brilliance and that of the players who donned them, including Pele, Jairzinho and Tostao.

Ajax 1994-95

Back to club football and Ajax of Holland have one of the most instantly recognisable kits anywhere.

For a long time, their vertical sponsor was a feature of the red and white kit, with this one used during the 1994-95 season.

It was perhaps the greatest one in Ajax's illustrious history, with a domestic league and cup double triumph being topped off by an incredible Champions League final win, with Patrick Kluivert scoring the only goal of the game with just five minutes left.

Benfica 1962

Now another red kit worn in one of the greatest European Cup finals ever, and Benfica's bright red shirt with wide white collar, worn in 1962.

With Eusebio as their star young player, Benfica triumphed 5-3 over Real Madrid in the final, who themselves had a magnificent goalscorer by the name of Ferenc Puskas hit a hat-trick in defeat.

Real Madrid had won the previous five European Cups up until 1960, before Benfica won it in '61. The '62 final victory saw them retain their trophy and become the second team, after Real, to win the trophy more than once.

It remains Benfica's last victory in the tournament to date.

Holland 1988

Back to the international scene and a fantastic retro kit from Holland this time.

The jazzy, orange, patterned jersey was worn by the likes of Marco van Basten as the Netherlands won the 1988 European Championships, with the talented team also containing Ruud Gullit, Ronald Koeman and Frank Rijkaard.

This Euro '88 win remains Holland's only international trophy success.

Argentina World Cup 1986

We end with another international jersey from the '80s and Argentina's FIFA World Cup kit from 1986.

Diego Maradona inspired his nation to success in this iconic light blue and white striped kit, winning the player of the tournament award as he helped his country past South Korea, Italy, Bulgaria, Uruguay, England—featuring the "Hand of God" goal and perhaps the greatest ever World Cup goal—and Belgium.

In the final, Argentina beat West Germany 3-2, with Maradona again playing a key role.

While almost always featuring the traditional stripes on their kit, this version is perhaps the most famous of all Argentina's jerseys.

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