THE SARTORIAL ELEGANCE OF SERIE A: S.S.C. NAPOLI, 1988-90 [NR/ENNERRE]

Napoli’s colours are tenuously informed by those of their ancestors: Naples Foot-Ball Club and Unione Sportiva Internazionale Napoli. The former wore sky and navy blue striped shirts with black shorts and socks; the latter, darker blue shirts and socks with white shorts.

US Internazionale Napoli were in fact the result of a schism within Naples FBC itself. In 1911, wishing to engage teams from the north and perhaps feeling that the existing organisation wasn’t ambitious enough, the foreign (mostly English) members of Naples Foot-Ball Club decided to go it alone. The split imposed a financial burden on both parties and so in 1922 they re-amalgamated, taking on the name Foot-Ball Club Internazionale-Naples. As a sort of compromise, they would wear white-trimmed sky blue jerseys and socks paired with white shorts, the same that would become the colours of Associazione Calcio Napoli.

Yet the arrangement seemed to be skewed in the expatriates' favour. The appointed president, Emilio Reale, had also been president of Internazionale, and their chosen ground in Agnano was the one they used to play on. Even the sports’ press appeared to be in on it, habitually referring to the team as 'Internazionale' in their match reports.

The years that followed were relatively uneventful until the signing of the Charter of Viareggio in 1926, which granted the team entry into the newly formed Divisione Nazionale. The charter was essentially a Fascist initiative, and so under duress the company’s shareholders elected to take on the name Associazione Calcio Napoli, which had a more nationalist ring to it (one of the provisions of the charter was a ban on foreign players). It is this incarnation of the club that is officially recognised as being the first.

Napoli struggled and would have been relegated (twice) if the FIGC hadn’t intervened, on the basis that for the National Division to succeed it needed teams in it from the south. Just as well, because 1928-29 would effectively be a qualifying tournament for the leagues that were to proceed it: Series A and B

Again, Napoli got lucky. The original idea was to create two groups of 16 with the best eight in each being rewarded with a place in Serie A, while the remaining 16 teams would be allocated places in Serie B. Napoli finished eighth in their group, tied on points with Società Sportiva Lazio. A play-off ensued, which ended in a draw. A replay was on the cards until the club’s chairman, Giorgio Ascarelli, was able to convince the head of the FICG to expand Serie A to accommodate 18 teams, allowing both Napoli and Lazio to qualify. (Triestina were the beneficiary in the other group.)

Giorgio Ascarelli may have realised that this was a defining moment in the club’s history, for he prepared accordingly. William Garbutt, the English coach who had revolutionised Italian football during his 15 year stint with Genoa, was poached from southern rivals AS Roma. Attacking midfielders Antonio Vojak and Marcello Mihalich were signed from Juventus and Fiumana respectively, providing striker Attila Sallustro with support (although he’d done all right without them, scoring 22 goals the previous season). Finally, work began on a new purpose-built ground: Stadio Partenopeo – also known as Stadio Vesuvio, and soon to become Stadio Giorgio Ascarelli when the man who financed it died suddenly in February 1930, just a couple of weeks after its inauguration. The club finished the season in fifth place.

Napoli breezed through the 1930s but were then relegated in 1942. In 1944 they moved to a stadium in Vomero on a hill on the northwestern edge of the city, before events caught up with them and they were forced to suspend all activities.

In the aftermath of the Second World War Napoli were obliged to take part in the Serie A/B Centro-Sud Championship, a temporary solution designed to overcome the impracticality of travelling long distances in a country ravaged by conflict. Because most Serie A teams were from the north, they constituted one division, while the central and southern Serie A and B teams were put together in another. Given that Napoli were effectively a Serie B outfit they weren’t fancied, but won their group regardless. Not only did this put them through to the final, national round, but it ensured promotion to Serie A for the subsequent year.

Following a brief spell in Serie B from 1948-50 Napoli then managed eleven consecutive seasons in Italy’s top flight, whilst also constructing and moving into the Stadio San Paolo. On being relegated in 1961 they made it back into Serie A at the first attempt, winning the Coppa Italia in the process. The next year, after reaching the quarter finals of the Cup Winner’s Cup, where they lost to OFK Beograd on away goals, Napoli were again relegated. Burdened with debt, local businessman Roberto Fiore bought into the club in 1964, making it a joint-stock company. Now known as Società Sportiva Calcio Napoli, they won promotion the following year wearing for the most part their away strip: all white with a sbarra (sash or 'bar') tracing a diagonal line from the right shoulder of the shirt down to the left. (When running in the opposite direction, it is instead referred to as a banda.)

Former president Achille Lauro was still a 40% stakeholder and so invested in the team, bringing in Omar Sívori from Juventus and José Altafini from Milan. It paid dividends. SSC Napoli finished the championship in third place and were also victorious in the Coppa delle Alpi. They achieved this wearing a darker shade of blue, introduced in 1960. For 1966-67, which was also relatively successful, they would revert to the lighter blue more commonly associated with the club.

It would be another ten years before Napoli won another trophy – the Coppa Italia in 1976 – which is not to say they did badly in between. The club regularly finished in the higher echelons of Serie A and made the semi-finals of the Italian Cup on three occasions, wearing sky blue white-trimmed jerseys. The next significant change, both in the team’s fortunes and its livery, occurred in the mid-1980s.

1988-89

When Diego Armando Maradona signed for Napoli in 1984 their kit supplier was a manufacturer called Linea Time, more commonly associated with cycling. Despite doing a decent job, Ennerre/NR took over in 1985. Their acrylic jersey, sponsored by Buitoni, did away with the white trim and added a collar. [Ennerre also supplied a trimmed polyester version with faint pinstripes, possibly intended for warmer conditions.] The same strip was used for a consecutive season whereupon Napoli won their first Scudetto and third Coppa Italia.

In 1987, as testament to their recent achievements, Napoli’s shirt was adorned with both the scudetto and the coccarda – a shield and a roundel respectively, incorporating the colours of the Italian flag. To make room for the scudetto, the club's badge was moved to the left shoulder. The coccarda, meanwhile, was positioned directly beneath Ennerre's logo, just above the 'B' in Buitoni. It looked a mess. The club did, however, purchase the Brazilian striker Careca.

After winning nothing in 1987-88 the shirt could have potentially reverted to its previous configuration. Instead, the confectioners Mars took over sponsorship from food producer Buitoni. 'Mars' was initially printed in white, but was switched to black about halfway through the season, presumably to enhance its definition. Moreover, NR issued the shirt in two different materials: polyester and Lanetta, which is basically acrylic. New signings included the Brazilian Alemão from Atlético Madrid, Luca Fusi from Sampdoria, and Massimo Crippa from Torino. Napoli finished runners-up to Inter in the championship, lost to Sampdoria in the final of the Coppa Italia, but beat Stuggart over two legs to win the UEFA Cup. This unadorned jersey remained unchanged for following season, as Maradona led Napoli to victory in Serie A. They won more games, scored more goals, amassed more points than during their previous title-winning campaign, but the winning margin was less: two points more than AC Milan, compared to three ahead of Juventus. Maradona was top scorer with 16 league goals, Careca second with 10.

Maradona’s final season with Napoli would also be Ennerre’s (before Umbro stepped into the fold, ruining everything). NR didn’t see fit to change what wasn’t broken, although there were a few twists. Again, two shirts were made, both in polyester: a plain, almost silky iteration as before, and a matt version micro-patterned with the NR insignia. (AS Roma were presented with the same dilemma.) If that wasn’t enough, an alternative ‘Cup Shirt’ was produced. Blue with an undulating white band across the front, it was worn in the 5-1 drubbing of Juventus in the 1990 Supercoppa Italiana, against Cosenza in the Coppa Italia, Spartak Moscow in the second round of the European Cup (whereupon Napoli were beaten on penalties), and in a number of league games early on in the season. The template was also used for a red, third shirt, while the away kit was white with pale blue rhomboids running horizontally across the chest. Napoli ended the season in a disappointing eighth place.

Cup Shirt, 1990-91

Considering how few changes Ennerre actually made, it is amazing to think how many different jerseys they produced during their six year tenure. The 1986-7 edition seems to be the most popular, in which Napoli won their first scudetto. You might equally fancy the first Mars shirt; it might simply come down to whether you like your fonts with or without serifs. Or maybe you prefer the contrast in colour the scudetto and the coccarda bring, even if the overall effect is a bit busy. Whichever version you favour, they’re all representative of a specific moment in time: Maradona in his pomp, and the fairy tale he bestowed upon the city of Naples and its people.

THE SARTORIAL ELEGANCE OF SERIE A: A.S. ROMA, 1990-91 [NR/ENNERRE]

On the face of it, A.S. Roma is one of Italy’s younger football clubs. In fact, they were the result of a merger between three pre-existing associations: Foot Ball Club di Roma, formed in 1901, Società Sportiva Alba-Audace, in 1907, and Fortitudo-Pro Roma S.G.S., in 1908. The union came about in 1927 on the orders of the National Fascist Party, who were determined that the capital be suitably represented in a revamped Divisione Nazionale; both Società Sportiva Alba-Audace and Fortitudo-Pro Roma S.G.S. had been relegated from the same division in 1927, while Foot Ball Club di Roma had been plying their trade in the Prima Divisione, the de facto second tier of Italian football. Foot Ball Club di Roma would provide the infrastructure, financial muscle and the new club’s colours, while Alba and Fortitudo-Pro Roma supplied most of the players.

Foot Ball Club di Roma had worn carmine red shirts with yellow trim, matching socks and white shorts. A.S. Roma’s strip was to be the same, except with black socks. Within a year of the club’s formation, red and yellow striped jerseys were introduced. Within another two they were gone, the original configuration having been reinstated in time for Serie A’s inaugural season.

In 1938 the socks were altered to match the shirts, and it was in these colours that Roma won their first scudetto four years later. A period of decline ensued culminating in relegation, which may or may not have prompted the move to black shorts and socks. Roma were promoted the following season as champions, persisted with the black shorts and socks for another couple of years before returning to white shorts and red, yellow-trimmed socks.

The 1960s saw only minor alterations: various shades of red, plain collars, the addition of the coccarda to celebrate Roma’s victory in the 1964 Coppa Italia. Then in 1968-69 something peculiar happened. At the insistence of the coach, Helenio Herrera, Roma inverted their kit for the second half of the season; the away shirt became the home and the home became the away. This reversal remained in place until Herrera left the club in 1973.

The next significant change came about in 1978. Adidas, who had succeeded Lacoste as technical sponsor, produced a strip consisting of orange shirts paired with red shorts and socks. About midway through the season, Pouchain then took over from Adidas and brought in what's become known as the 'ice-lolly' jersey: bright red with white sleeves and yellow and orange stripes across the shoulders. Designed by Piero Gratton, it was all part of a re-branding exercise that included a new, modern looking club crest – the lupetto, or ‘wolf's head’.

The template proved to be divisive, and the relationship was anyway short-lived. In 1980, after winning another Coppa Italia – their third – Roma hooked up with a mysterious company by the name of Playground, who retained Gratton’s badge but otherwise reverted to type: all red, yellow trim edging towards orange. Another Coppa Italia triumph followed, and their league form continued to improve. Having finished sixth in 1980, Roma came second in ‘80-81, third in ‘81-82, before finally securing their second ever Serie A title in 1982-83, in shirts provided by the Belgian sportswear manufacturer Patrick.

Despite failing to defend their scudetto, Roma made a good go of it in 1983-84: they came second in the league, bagged their fifth Coppa Italia, and were runners up against Liverpool in the 1984 European Cup final (Liverpool decked out in red, A.S. Roma in white). By now the team's shirts were supplied by Kappa, an association that would last three years, culminating in yet another Coppa Italia triumph in 1986, beating Sampdoria over two legs. Thereafter, Roma formed an alliance with NR (Ennerre) that would run until 1991.

1979-80

Ennerre joined up with Roma during what was supposed to be Sven-Göran Eriksson’s third season in charge – 1986/87. Made from acrylic (or lanetta), the corresponding jersey bore the coccarda but failed to inspire anything higher than a seventh place finish in the league and a second-round exit in the Coppa Italia (courtesy of Bologna). Eriksson was shown the door in May, Angelo Sormani took temporary charge, before Nils Liedholm – the man who had guided A.S. Roma to their title win in 1983 – re-joined the club, intent on resurrecting past glories.

Notwithstanding the loss of Carlo Ancelotti to AC Milan – from where Leidholm had just came – Roma looked a decent proposition ahead of 1987-88. Club legends Giuseppe Giannini and Bruno Conti were still present and correct, Polish midfielder Zbigniew Boniek had another season left in him, and the new coach was able to lure promising defender Gianluca Signorini from Parma (who would leave after one season for Genoa) and the highly coveted German striker Rudi Völler from Werder Bremen. And so it proved. Völler took time to settle but Giannini rose to the occasion scoring 11 times from his position in midfield, helping Roma to secure third place behind Napoli and AC Milan, thus qualifying for the UEFA Cup.

1988-89’s campaign failed to meet expectations. Roma were knocked out in the third round of the UEFA Cup by East German minnows Dynamo Dresden, only made it as far as the second round of the Coppa Italia, and finished a disappointing seventh in Serie A. Nils Liedholm was sent packing, as were the under-performing Brazilian pairing of Andrade and Renato. On a brighter note, Rudi Völler appeared to be finding his feet, having scored 15 goals in all competitions.

Perhaps conscious that A.S. Roma’s form had begun to stagnate, Ennerre switched the configuration of the club’s crest with their company logo – the badge was transposed to the right, the NR insignia to the left – which seemed to have the desired effect. Roma finished the season in sixth place and made it to the semi-finals of the Coppa Italia, losing narrowly to eventual winners Juventus. The slight improvement in the club’s fortunes may more realistically be attributed to the appointment of Luigi Radice as coach.

At any rate, club president Dino Viola had already decided he wanted Ottavio Bianchi to assume coaching responsibilities, and would have employed him a year earlier if Bianchi’s contract with Napoli had allowed for it. (Radice had not been made aware of this and it left a sour taste in his mouth when it became clear that he’d merely been hired as temporary cover whilst Roma waited for Bianchi to become available.) Ottavio Bianchi, when he finally arrived in the summer of 1990, enlisted the services of his ex-Napoli employee Andrea Carnevale, who was very quickly caught out on a doping violation (along with goalkeeper Angelo Peruzzi) and banned from competing for the next 12 months. Brazilian defender Aldair signed from Benfica, shoring up a defence that already included the German centre-back Thomas Berthold.

Meanwhile, Ennerre decided to ditch the acrylic and embrace polyester. In every other respect the shirt was pretty much the same, save for two strands of yellow piping running diagonally from the neck down to under the arm. Moreover, as at Napoli, Ennerre supplied two versions of the same shirt: one in unembellished polyester and the other micro-patterned with NR’s magnificent logo. They also provided a second away jersey, in the same style as Napoli's so-called 'cup shirt'. White with a red and yellow convoluted stripe reaching from one arm to the other, the top was used sparingly but has since become something a cult classic.

Roma’s subsequent league form was erratic. However, in the UEFA Cup they ran riot and lost only narrowly over a two-legged final to Inter (Rudi Völler was the competition’s leading scorer with 10 goals). Then, less than a month later, Roma sealed an empathetic 4-2 aggregate victory over Serie A winners Sampdoria in the Coppa Italia.

The Curva Sud faithful would have to wait another ten years before their team lifted another trophy – A.S. Roma’s third scudetto – by which time they’d reverted to wearing white shorts and black socks. Actually, Roma’s kit has fared better over the years than many of their rivals’, but it's never quite hit the heights that Ennerre bestowed upon them during the latter half of the 1980s and early '90s.

THE SARTORIAL ELEGANCE OF SERIE A: U.C. SAMPDORIA, 1988-90 [KAPPA]

Unione Calcio Sampdoria’s iconic shirt was not contrived but fortuitously arrived at when Sampierdarenese merged with Andrea Doria in 1946. Sampierdarenese had worn white shirts with a red and black band around the middle, paired with black shorts and socks. Andre Doria’s strip consisted of a blue and white halved jersey, blue shorts and blue socks. A number of configurations were possible but the shirt’s creator opted for blue shirts with a white-red-black-white horizontal set of stripes around the middle and the stemma San Giorgio – ‘cross of St George’ – at its centre. This cross was also present on the shirts of Andre Doria. Whether Sampierdarenese’s fans felt aggrieved by this is not known. The symbol is a homage to the patron saint of Genoa, so maybe not.

In any case, in 1980 Sampdoria decided to introduce a proper club crest and came up with one of the most weird and wonderful emblems of its kind. For the uninitiated, the Baciccia, as it is known, depicts the silhouetted profile of a bearded sailor smoking a pipe, with blue, red and black stripes bending sinister behind him. So not only do Sampdoria possess one of the finest looking shirts in football but it might also be said they have the best badge.

For much of the 1980s sportswear manufacturer Ennerre was Italian football’s prevalent brand, supplying strips for Roma, Napoli, Fiorentina, Atalanta, Bologna, Sampdoria, among others. As the decade neared its end so too did Ennerre’s dominance. In 1988 Fiorentina turned to ABM for their gear, Bologna to Uhlsport, and Sampdoria to Kappa. (Napoli, Roma and Atalanta would remain affiliated with Ennerre until 1991.)

1987-88 had been a good year for Vujadin Boškov’s team, finishing fourth in the league and defeating Torino in the final of the Coppa Italia. Kappa’s first outing as Sampdoria’s kit supplier would therefore feature the coccarda – with red outer ring and green centre – sewn upon the left breast. Ordinarily this would have necessitated relocating the club’s badge to the shirt’s sleeve, except it was already there – had been since Ennerre moved it in 1981 for reasons unbeknown to anyone but them. Other distinguishing features included: the Kappa logo embroidered in white upon the right side of the chest; the slanted, uppercase font of new sponsor ERG sublimated above the jersey’s distinctive hoops; the shirt's number in black set against a white square; a thinly trimmed neckline and flared collar. (Unlike the shirts they were now providing for Juventus and A.C. Milan, Kappa saw no need to incorporate micropatterned textures.)

The partnership got off to a good start. Sampdoria retained the Coppa Italia, beating Maradona’s Napoli 4-1 over two legs, and made it to the final of the 1989 European Cup Winners’ Cup, losing to Barcelona in Bern. They finished Serie A in fifth place, one place down on the previous season, although 18 teams had competed for the title as opposed to the mere 16 the year before. Gianluca Vialli netted 14 goals, his highest return of his career thus far, Roberto Mancini scored 9, while Gianluca Pagliuca established himself as the club’s first-choice goalkeeper.

For 1989-90, the shirt remained the same in every respect bar two: numbers were now white instead of the black, rendering the white backdrop obsolete, and the coccarda's colours were inverted - i.e. green outer ring, red centre. The campaign would pan out very much like the last, with another fifth placed finish and a consecutive appearance in the final of the European Cup Winners’ Cup. This time around Sampdoria were victorious, beating Anderlecht in Gothenburg courtesy of two extra-time goals from Gianluca Vialli, who was also the competition’s top goal scorer. Conversely, Sampdoria’s Coppa Italia challenge ended prematurely when Juventus knocked them out in the group stage.

Who could have predicted what was to happen next to the Genovese side? A quick word regarding personnel. In 1989 Vujadin Boškov had made two significant signings: the Italian winger Attilio Lombardo from Cremonese, and the Yugoslav defender Srečko Katanec from VfB Stuttgart. In 1990 the Ukrainian Oleksiy Mykhaylychenko replaced Victor Munoz in a midfield that also featured the play-making talents of Toninho Cerezo and Giuseppe Dossena. Pietro Vierchowod and Luca Pellegrini were solid in defence; Gianluca Vialli and striking partner Roberto Mancini were indomitable up front.

Meanwhile, Japanese sportswear manufacturer ASICS replaced Kappa as Sampdoria’s kit supplier. Or did they? Aside from the now absent coccarda, the shirt was ostensibly the same. I suspect that it was the same jersey and that Kappa had been subcontracted by ASICS to make shirts under their brand. Whatever sort of arrangement may or may not have been in place, ASICS was the main beneficiary for Sampdoria were about to win their first (and so far only) Coppa Campioni d'Italia, finishing ahead of both A.C. Milan and Inter by a comfortable five points. (Gianluca Vialli scored 19 goals – his highest tally in any one season – and Mancini added another 12.)

Apart for the scudetto that now adorned Sampdoria’s shirts, their kit remained little altered for the following season. Unfortunately, the club’s form did not. Sampdoria finished a disappointing sixth in the league and were knocked out of the Coppa Italia in the semi-final by eventual winners Parma. However, in what would be Boškov’s final year as manager, Sampdoria did make it to the final of the European Cup only to lose to Barcelona (again) after Ronald Koeman drilled home a free kick in extra-time from some 25 yards out. Interestingly, Sampdoria used this opportunity – or had the opportunity pressed upon them – to wear next seasons’ shirt. Gone was the slim-line V-neck and in it’s place was a snap-fastened collar. Hardly a radical change, but the damage was done.

 1988-89

From 1988 through to 1992 Sampdoria’s shirts were much the same. If the club hadn’t been winning trophies that brought with them symbolic, physical motifs – the coccarda and the scudetto – then anyone would be hard pressed to tell them apart. Fortunate, then, that this tenure coincided with what can be seen retrospectively as the high watermark in football apparel.

And yet Kappa/ASICS never showed quite the respect Sampdoria’s colours deserved. We can be grateful that the shirt was never micropatterned, which would have distracted from its extraordinary design. But at the very least they could have sewn the bloody badge on, as pretty much every other sportswear manufacture was doing at the time. Instead the Baciccia was subjected to dye-sublimation, which looked cheap.

THE SARTORIAL ELEGANCE OF SERIE A: A.C. MILAN, 1987-90 [KAPPA]

What makes for a good football strip? A number of things, but distilled to its essence there are four primary concerns: colour, array, trim, fit. Colour can be problematic as it can't really be tinkered with (unless your team’s majority shareholder has other ideas). The array – or pattern, if you prefer – tends to be more mutable, although radical alterations may invoke the ire of any football club’s loyal fan base. Embellishments, such as those to the collar and neckline, will vary from season to season, normally without so much as a raised eyebrow. Finally, the way a kit is cut will only ever come under close scrutiny if it’s noticeably out of keeping with prevailing trends – for example, the shirt Kappa presented to the Italian national team for the 2000 UEFA European Championship, which had the players so spooked they insisted on sizing up.

But wait, there’s something else to consider, something that football purists would rather wasn’t there, but is so we must: the football team’s sponsor writ large across the chest. It might seem odd that something as ostensibly functional as text should amount to anything more than a mere distraction, until one remembers that such monograms were in the first instance designed to hold the eye. This is one of the reasons why the football shirts A.C. Milan wore from 1987 through to 1992 are superior to those that came immediately before and after.

The A.C. Milan of the early 1980s was in bad shape. Saddled with debt, they’d not won a major trophy since their Serie A triumph of 1978-79 and had been relegated to Serie B twice (once as punishment for their involvement in the Totonero match-fixing scandal of 1980) which for a club of Milan’s standing represented failure, not to say ignominy. That being said, the thinly striped jerseys they played in during this period looked pretty good, especially the Oscar Mondadori sponsored edition that the English paring of Ray Wilkins and Mark Hateley had the pleasure of wearing in 1984-85. Whether this acrylic sark was particularly comfortable is another matter.

Then in 1986 the media tycoon, politician, and former crooner, Silvio Berlusconi decided to buy the club, paid off its debts and set about the business of reviving its fortunes. Within a year he’d offloaded Wilkins and Hateley and added the Dutch internationals Ruud Gullit and Marco Van Basten to a squad that already contained the likes of Franco Baresi, Roberto Donadoni, Pietro Virdis, Mauro Tassotti and a youthful Paulo Maldini. Only then did Silvio Berlusconi consider who he wanted as coach, sacking the incumbent Nils Liedholm in April and appointing Primavera manager Fabio Capello as caretaker while he made up his mind. More than likely, Berlusconi had Arrigo Sacchi’s card marked from the moment his team dumped Milan out of the Coppa Italia in the second round. By summer the former Parma manager was in charge and proceeded to bring in Carlo Ancelotti from Roma and Angelo Colombo from Udinese.

A.C. Milan won the league in 1987-88 by a three point margin over reigning champions Napoli. They did this wearing a jersey provided by Kappa that was quite different to the one the firm was supplying to Juventus over in Turin. Made from polyester, rather than cotton, the Milan version had a shorter collar and a shallower neckline. Moreover, whereas the sponsor’s name on Juve’s kit was flocked, on Milan’s it was printed by way of a process known as dye-sublimation. (It should be noted that Italian sportswear manufacturers were behind the curve in this respect, and I wonder whether Berlusconi might have recognised this and persuaded Kappa to utilise more up-to-date methods.) Then there was the sponsor itself – financial servicing firm Mediolanum – with its name written in a sans-serif, uppercase font and the company logo hovering above, all in white. This simple text, resting neatly beneath the Kappa logo sewn to the right, and a gold star (denoting 10 titles won) on the left, is almost as recognisable as the colourway of the strip itself; one cannot conceive of the shirt without it.

In 1988 the Italian football authorities allowed for an extra foreign player, and Frank Rijkaard was invited to join his fellow Dutchmen in Milan. All three of them had been instrumental in The Netherlands' victory in the 1988 UEFA European Championship in Germany that summer. With the scudetto now adorning their chests they must have felt like a million dollars.

The 1988-89 season didn’t go entirely to plan. City rivals Inter won the title, and comfortably so, while A.C. finished third behind Napoli. But Serie A was no longer Berlusconi’s priority, the European Cup was, and in that regard the season was a huge success. Despite wobbling against Red Star Belgrade in the second round, the rossoneri went on to beat Steaua București 4-0 in the final. Perhaps even more revealing was the 5-0 demolition job they did on Real Madrid in the second leg of the semi-final.

Ostensibly, Milan’s strip remained the same for the following year’s campaign, but there were a few subtle changes. As with Juventus, Kappa still didn’t feel the need to append anything like a club crest (although they afforded Sampdoria the privilege) but they did see fit to attach an embroidered, celebratory image of the European Cup in place of the previous season’s scudetto. Then there was the material itself, which now incorporated a micropatterned matrix made up of hollow, inverted squares. (Juventus’s shirt received the same treatment, but not Sampdoria’s.) AC Milan finished 1989-90 second in the league, again behind Napoli, and retained the European Cup, beating Benfica 1-0 in Vienna.

In 1990 Milan ended their association with Kappa and signed a contract with Adidas. Under normal circumstances I’d finish this article here, but the shirt Adidas came up with was so similar to Kappa’s that I feel I must to go on. Adidas didn’t have much of a presence in Italy at the time so maybe they wanted to avoid making a statement. They didn’t even bother adding their name beneath their – admittedly, instantly identifiable – trefoil logo. The micropatterning was removed and the neckline trimmed, but in every other respect the jersey was very much the same: same colour, same collar, same width of stripe, same patron, same embroidered European Cup motif.

The move to Adidas did not immediately pay dividends. A.C. Milan were Serie A runners-up for a consecutive season – this time trailing Sampdoria – and were knocked out of the European Cup by Marseille in the quarter-finals. (Arrigo Sacchi subsequently accepted an offer to manage the Italian national team, and Fabio Capello was appointed in his place.) This meant that for 1991-92 Milan’s shirt would for the first time in three years be reduced to displaying a solitary star.

Or it would have had they not decided to fill the void with a depiction of the Intercontinental Cup that they’d won the year prior, positioned beside the star rather than under. When Red Star Belgrade beat Chilean side Colo-Colo in December to claim the same trophy, A.C. were obliged to get rid of it. Instead, they saw out the season with club crest attached to the jersey. By May, the rossoneri had been crowned champions again, unbeaten and eight points clear of second placed Juventus.

1990-91

Italian confectioner Motta succeeded Mediolanum as club sponsor, and the year after Italian sportswear manufacturer Lotto wrestled control from a reticent Adidas. ‘Motta’ lacked the graphic subtlety of ‘Mediolanum’, whereas Lotto relied too heavily on dye-sublimation, refusing to sew key details into the fabric the way their predecessors did – be it the Kappa or Adidas logos, the scudetto, the European Cup, that solitary star – which made their shirts look cheap.

But five years in pretty much the same shirt was good going, even back then. If you had to narrow it down then the Kappa version probably edges it over Adidas’s effort – the 1988-89 iteration in particular, with the scudetto contrasting nicely against the red and black stripes of A.C. Milan. In any case, Arrigo Sacchi’s team more than lived up to the standard this iconic top conferred upon them.