When Mont-halt made the jerseys for Barcelona

One of the most interesting news that has been bouncing around in recent days is the possibility, which may not be very realistic, that Barcelona, after terminating its sponsorship contract with Nike, will not tie itself to new brands but will produce its own game kits. It is clearly a suggestive hypothesis, which immediately brings to mind a different type of football, when clubs did not have the logo of kit suppliers and uniforms were not subject to annual trends and fashions. A historical period when even Barcelona had its jerseys made by a very particular brand, Mont-Halt, which was owned by the president of the blaugrana club, Agustí Montal i Costa. But the story is not as linear as it may seem at first glance.

Mont-halt history

In fact, despite the fact that Mont-Halt is traditionally considered a French adaptation of the surname Montal, named after textile entrepreneur Agustí Montal, who would later be elected president of Barcelona in 1969, the family has since denied this. However, it would seem strange if there was no correlation between the two, considering that the only other possibility is that the name is inspired by the location of Sant Vicenç de Montalt, near Matarò where the factory was located. A strange coincidence that accompanies the difficult history of this factory, which in the early 1960s was responsible for a large part of the football jerseys worn by Spanish teams. In fact, contrary to what one might think, Mont-Halt did not only dress Barcelona, from which it was evidently linked by geographical and ownership issues. In fact, starting from the 1960/61 season, Mont-halt also produced the white jerseys for the fierce rivals of Real Madrid, at the time by far the best team in the world thanks to Alfredo Di Stefano and Ferenc Puskás. But thanks to its modern cotton models and suitable for physical activity, Mont-halt soon began to provide kits for Mallorca, Sport Gijòn and finally Barcelona.

Johann Cruyff's Barcelona

But the Catalan factory became the supplier of the blaugrana even before Agustí Montal was elected president, and this might have been one of the reasons that pushed for his candidacy at the time. Montal was a president who we could define as enlightened. In fact, he was the one who introduced the motto "Mas que un club" which still defines the philosophy of the blaugrana team today, as well as the membership card and the official newsletter. Under his presidency, Barcelona managed to break the dominance of Real Madrid in La Liga, building a team that will go down in blaugrana history. The Mont-halt jerseys, in fact, became the uniform of the team led by the Dutchmen, Rinus Michels on the bench, Johan Neeskens and of course Johan Cruyff, who arrived in Catalonia for the record price of three million Dutch guilders, almost one billion lire at the time. In the 1973-1974 season, Barcelona finally managed to conquer the league title after a drought of 14 years, beating their rivals Madrid 5-0 at the Bernabeu.

A triumphant ride that made the jerseys authentic talismans, with the deep V-neck in mesh that fully represents the style of football in the 1970s. Or the away jersey for the following season, the first in yellow for the Catalan club, with a diagonal band to be worn from right to left, which was later reproduced by Nike for the 2019-20 season. But Mont-halt also produced another historic jersey for Barcelona, a completely white jersey worn by the team in the Champions League quarter-finals against Aston Villa on March 1, 1978. One of the very few occasions when Barcelona used the colors traditionally associated with Real Madrid since the post-war period. Montal left his position in 1977 and the club slowly began to end its supply relationship with his clothing brand, moving on to another Catalan company, Meyba, which would produce Barcelona's jerseys for over a decade. And almost fifty years after the end of that experience, the Catalan club is now thinking of trying again, thanks also to a gigantic market and some of the highest sales numbers in the world.