The five best carnival football shirts

There is a football jersey for every occasion. This season alone in Serie A we have seen a jersey for Christmas, one for Chinese New Year and even two jerseys for Valentine's Day. What was still missing in the Italian league was a jersey dedicated to Carnival. But this is too greedy and special an occasion to neglect, and indeed in recent years we have seen several European clubs most connected to local traditions offer their fans jerseys to mark the celebration. In some cases, the carnival has been a kind of green light for funny, not to say tasteless, jerseys. On other occasions, technical sponsors have managed to design jerseys that nevertheless reflect the goliathic spirit of the occasion, but without betraying the principles of style, because after all, a jersey has to be beautiful and please the fans in order to be sold. That's why we have put together the four best jerseys for carnival, made by four different brands.

Cadiz - 2022/23

The last team to design a special jersey is Cadiz, home of the main Spanish carnival. The jersey, made by Macron in pastel orange, is completely infused with an ultramarine blue graphic inspired by the festival, with turquoise details added. The collar is rounded off in navy blue, the same colour used for the cuffs, where two fine light blue and orange trims have been inserted to echo the graphic.

Basel - 2022/23

The Bologna-based company was particularly keen on the festive spirit and also produced a shirt for another of its top teams in Europe, Basel. For the Swiss club, Macron used colours like confetti and broke with the classic symmetrical blue and red scheme that usually characterises the club. For the happiest celebration of the year, the jersey turns into a kaleidoscope at the sleeves and edges, while the base remains sky blue.

RKC Waalwijk - 2021/22

Stanno is a Dutch sports brand and, among other things, technical sponsor of Waalwijk, the Eredivise team that has been rising up the hierarchy of jersey lovers for a few years now thanks to their special jerseys for the carnival. The best in terms of aesthetics is the jersey designed by Stanno for last season: a diamond pattern with an undulating movement towards the centre to create a psychedelic effect, alternating cyan blue, lemon yellow and Ferrari red. A polo collar with two-button closure completes the shirt.

Cologne - 2020

Cologne was probably the first team to design a shirt for Carnival, as the celebrations for the occasion last more than three months in the German city. Uhlsport created a geometrically patterned shirt in 2020 with an arrangement of red and white offset squares in which the symbols of the celebration are inserted, in negative writing in the white squares and in white writing in the red squares.

Portobello FC - 2022/23

Portobello FC is a non-professional London based team who plays in Middlesex County Football League, Division 2. Their shirts, created by American sportswear Icarus Football, are completely inspired by the Carnival that takes place in August at Notting Hill. They have three jerseys for this season and the best one is the Away Jersey. It’s a shirt with close resemblances to Serie B side Venezia for the color choice as all over the jersey it develops a zig-zag pattern of alternating orange, black, green and white.