Goalkeeper Home 2025/26
Manufacturer: Insula Sport
Source: Insula Sport
Jerseys come in all shapes and colors. Some designs are spectacular, some are simple, some are exciting, some are boring.
But when do you ever have the opportunity to design a jersey entirely to your own ideas?
This unique opportunity has now been presented to me!
Sascha Düerkop, former General Secretary of CONIFA, who is still in contact with many small football federations, was suddenly contacted by the football federation of the tiny Pacific island “Niue”, asking for support for the development of football on the island.
The plan:
To reactivate Niue's national football team, which has been inactive since 1983, and play a friendly match between the north and south of the island. The only problem: there is virtually no football equipment available on Niue.
Thus, a group of kit collectors came together with the intention of supporting the country with kits and equipment.
But what could a football kit for the island nation look like? After several members suggested different jersey designs, I was lucky enough that the others ultimately chose my ideas and I was given the honor of designing and producing my own national jersey!
The designs were mainly inspired by local animals and symbols, such as the Uga crab or the endemic “Niue Blue” butterfly, which adorns the country name on the back of the jerseys, as well as Polynesian patterns and tribal symbols.
The jerseys were produced by Giovani, who runs the small sports company “Insula Sportiva” (which outfits the Saint Martin national team, among others) and is also a jersey collector himself.
Now that the national team and the collectors involved have been supplied with jerseys, the shirts will soon be available to other collectors too!
For the goalkeeper shirts I wanted to do something more colorful and wild – just like the good old goalkeeper shirts of the 90's – but with a modern twist.
The idea was to make a "day" and "night" design. At first, the shirts would feature the Talava arches, a landmark of he island 8see pictures below). However, Niue's football federation wasn't quite happy with the idea, so I went for the plam tree design of the player jerseys, which look much better, than my initial idea.
The federation badge is made from a nice rubber material and is 3D - which looks fantastic!
The neckline features the Niuean saying "Atua, Niue Tukulagi" ("God, Niue Eternally") as well the sentence "This shirt was designed and produced by football fans". There is also my WorldShirts logo, which feels weird to see on a football shirt, but makes me really proud!
I really wanted the shirt to feature the "Niue Blue" butterfly, the only endemic animal on Niue, so I put it as the dot on the "i" of "Niue".
The only thing that could make me more proud than I already am, is seeing the Niuean national team wearing my shirts in a proper games, which will hopefully happen later this year!
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