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Matchworn by Loïc Nestor 08.10.2014 GP 🇬🇵 : VCT 🇻🇨 3-1 (presumably)
Manufacturer: Bobol
Source: Small ads
THE TEAM
Overseas departments and regions, overseas collectivities, sui generis collectivities, overseas countries, overseas territories and Clipperton Island, which apparently wasn’t deemed worthy of being an “overseas-something” – the sheer number of different administrative divisions of France’s former colonies is extremely difficult to comprehend.
Along with the questionable rules which countries/states/territories/whatsoever are approved of being part of the even more questionable governing body that is FIFA, things seem to be more haphazard than anything else…
“New Caledonia? Sure, you can join FIFA! Why not?”
“French Polynesia? Yeah, come right in! But we are going to name you “Tahiti” after your biggest island, even though you are going to represent the whole of French Polynesia…”
“Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana, Saint Martin? You guys are quite good at football. You can join CONCACAF, but not FIFA. The same applies to you, Réunion!”
“Mayotte? Are you even a part of France?”
“Saint Barthélemy, Wallis and Futuna, Saint Pierre and what? Never heard of you! Do you guys even have a football pitch?”
While not a part of FIFA, Guadeloupe is at least a part of the CONCACAF, which means that they aren’t allowed to take part in the World Cup (and its qualification, obviously) but can compete in the CONCACAF Gold Cup and the Caribbean Cup. With a population of less than 400,000, Guadeloupe have achieved some pretty impressive results:
They have managed to qualify for the Gold Cup three times and in 2007 even made it into the semi-finals. In 2019, they also made headlines when they beat Turks & Caicos 10-0 in the CONCACAF Nations League, where they will be competing in group B.
THE SHIRT
I accidentally stumbled across this shirt while browsing French small ads. Even though, I was aware that some fakes of this design are floating around the internet, the pictures and the price tag had me intrigued. After a quick chat with the seller, I was told that the shirt had been a gift from his friend and national team player Loïc Nestor, which I could confirm after some research. I have to thank fellow collector Khalil for forwarding me this shirt, as the actual seller stopped replying to my messages.
The shirt is manufactured by Guadeloupian manufacturer “Bobol” and was rarely worn by the team. In fact, I was only able to find pictures of the shirt being used in a match against St. Vincent & the Grenadines in which Loïc Nestor, coincidentally, scored his only ever goal for the national team.
It features a very basic design with three horizontal stripes and a sublimated FA badge. While the quality of the shirt isn’t particularly mind-blowing, it does have some nice details:
The seams on the cuffs are kept in the national colors and “Gwadaboys”, the team’s nickname, is printed repeatedly on the front. For some reason, Bobol has opted for a greyish/pinkish color for the lettering, that is so difficult to decipher, that I had to use a good amount of imagination and trial-and-error on Google, to figure out its actual meaning, which ultimately made me feel like Nicolas Cage in “National Treasure”.
