World Cup 2010 Jerseys: England

April 30th, 2010 | by: Daryl | View Comments

I think it’s fair to say that the new England home kit from Umbro was released with quite a bit of hype in 2009. Probably too much. OK, definitely too much. Overshadowing the national anthems with the big reveal on matchday vs Slovakia was unnecessary.

But now all that hubbub has hushed up, we can take a look at the shirts the England players will wear at World Cup 2010 in South Africa and judge the design on its merits, rather than through the hype-goggles of last year. I’ve been practicing my Tim Gunn impression, so let’s go take a look.

England Home Shirt

Like it? Find your England World Cup home shirt in our store.

What can I say? It’s white. It’s very very white. Even the usually gold star above the crest is white. You could argue that so much white is dull. Or that no thought has gone into it. But this is a radical departure from the last 20 plus years of kits, which were all white with a splash of something else. This is white with a splash of white. But, for me at least, it works.

The FA crest and the red Umbro logo are just enough to prevent this being boring, and the overall feel is – as with many shirts – retro (especially those pop collars.) But definitely in a good way.

England Away Shirt

Like it? Find your England World Cup away shirt in our store.

The away shirt is retro red instead of retro white, and a definite nod to the red shirts worn in the 1966 World Cup final. But somehow it’s not quite as successful.

I think the problem might be the two different shades of red and the absence of the pop collar, both of which which break the retro feel and make you aware that this isn’t really a jersey from the middle of last century. Maybe that’s a good thing if you don’t want to wear a jersey from the middle of last century, but if asked to choose between these two I’d go home every time.

That’s my take. What do you think of England’s home and away shirts for World Cup 2010?