World Cup Winning Shirts #1
Chile at France 1998: La Roja and Reebok
I t seems hard to believe today, but in the nineteen nineties and early millennium Reebok rivaled only Nike as the most desirable name in sports, holding an especially strong foothold within basketball and American Football. Chile’s 1998 home jersey combined the manufacturer’s brazen confidence with a wider consumer adoration of big logos (that is seeing a comeback today). The shirt, in traditional red, was emblazoned with huge numbers and even larger Reebok vector that engulfed the top of the torso from should-to-shoulder.
The Chile team was spearheaded by relative veteran Ivan Zamorano — who was both captain and the only squad-member playing in Europe (at Italy’s Internazionale) — alongside River Plate’s bright young star, Marcelo Salas.
Pitted in a strong group that included Italy, Cameroon, and Austria, Chile managed to draw all three games to finish second in the table and thus progress. Sadly they were beaten in the next round by eventual finalists, Brazil. Salas scored four goals at the tournament and the image of ‘The Matador’ wheeling-away to celebrate in this shirt catapulted him to worldwide fame and to Italian side, Lazio, that summer.
Reebok would eventually be surpassed by and acquired by adidas, who, like arch-rivals Nike, have delivered a distinctly ’90’s flavour to 2018’s crop of international shirts: yet they are barely a patch on this original classic.
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Other editions:
West Germany 1974
France 2014
Peru 1970
Argentina 1978
