[50GFSE] #44 - Corinthians Centenary Home Shirt 2010 by Nike

Corinthians (full name Sport Club Corinthians Paulista) are one of Brazil's biggest clubs with a history stretching back to 1910, when it was founded by five railway workers. Their shirts are usually white with black trim and occasionally white with black stripes. The club crest consists of two crossed oars and an anchor.

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As you can see from the image here, this shirt looks nothing like that.  That's because the centenary shirt was based on the shirt they first wore back in 1910. The shirts back then were actually cream coloured, but faded after washing. This left the club with a problem... as the shirts faded, they had to buy new shirts. To solve this, they took the pragmatic decision to just adopt the white colour as their own. The current look was adopted in the 1950's.

This is one of my all time favourite shirts for several reasons. While the colour is faithful to the original shade of cream, it's given a modern twist by turning it into a subtle striped design. Look closer and you'll notice this design has been taken further by each stripe having a fade effect on it, alternately fading from dark to light and light to dark.

Taking yet another closer look, you can see that each stripe is bordered by a very light pinstripe. On top of this, running throughout the shirt is a very subtle shadow print. By rights this should mean a shirt that looks way too busy, but the subtle ways it's all put together just makes for a very classy number.

The black trim is kept to a minimum, with the sleeves being capped in in a very thin line, while the V-neck is topped off with a neat collar.

Finally, the crest is a version of that was used on the original shirts, consisting of an intertwined C & P, outlined with a gold circle, intersected top and bottom with 1910 & 2010. Underneath that is a gold, half laurel wreath with 100 in the middle. Again, it's all done very low-key and it's that which I love most about the shirt.

I suppose we must talk about the sponsors, however. I'll say up front, I'm a big fan of multiple sponsors on shirts. It's one of those things that defines 'foreign' jerseys... makes the world seem that little bit larger and more mysterious. So anyway, while some would baulk at the idea of a centenary shirt with all its tradition being covered in the likes of Neo Quimica Genericos and Bozzano, I love it... and they have at least done them all in black.

The Corinthians Centenary shirt is the perfect mix of traditional and modern.



Written by Rich Johnson (The Football Attic).

This shirt is part of The 50 Greatest Football Shirts Ever. The full list can be viewed here.