Who is that lunatic that has 600+ football shirts stocked in his flat?

Well, my name is Andy and I am a thirty-ish year old special needs teacher from Cologne,

Germany, who loves to travel, explore new cultures and watch a football match with a cold beer!

And contrary to popular belief, I do have a social life, despite having a huge collection of colorful polyester!

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WHY?

I've been a country nerd ever since elementary school, where I memorized the flags and capitals of all the countries. Right at the same time in 1994, my father took me to my first Bayer 04 Leverkusen match, where I quickly fell in love with the beautiful game.

In the same year, during a Mallorca holiday with my family, I received a jersey of the German national team as a gift. I loved it to death and wore during a public viewing event at our hotel, where I witnessed the embarrassment of Germany's untimely elimination in the quarterfinals against Bulgaria!

 

Growing up, I eventually caught the “travel bug” and as a result I try to visit new countries each year. But since my biggest dream - visiting every country in the world - seems to be a bit out of reach, I concluded that I would at least need a football shirt of every nation! Consequently, I became addicted to collecting football jerseys!

 

Besides the obvious joy it brings to hunt down rare shirts, there is also a social aspect that I enjoy about my hobby: getting to know like-minded people from all over the world and talking to national players from small countries who still feel a great sense of pride to represent their nations on the football pitch.

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WHAT?

In short: national football shirts.

My primary goal is to own an authentic shirt from each of the 211 FIFA countries. In order to count as such, there must be a photo of the national team wearing the particular model in a match. Currently, I’m very close to completing my goal, with only a shirt of American Samoa missing in my collection.

 

Besides the “211”, I’m also interested in jersey from every proper state that is not part of FIFA (e.g. Tuvalu, Palau etc), as well as shirts of sovereign territories (e.g. Greenland) or cultural regions (e.g. Kurdistan).

 

I've always been more interested in the underdogs in football and it reflects in my collection: You will find more shirts from small countries here, like Andorra, San Marino, St Lucia or Equatorial Guinea rather than those from the big teams.

In addition, I’m also increasingly interested in “matchworn” shirts, as they tell an even greater story about the respective countries.

 

So, if you have a shirt that might interest me, don't hesitate to contact me!

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