Serie A, 1990-91 – part 3

• See here for part 1 and part 2

Juventus

The late 1980s and early 90s didn’t provide much league success for Juventus – they went without a Scudetto between 1986 and 1995 and finished seventh in 1990-91 – but there was at least the consolation of looking great.

Juve had won the Coppa Italia in 1990 and so they carried la coccarda – a tricolour roundel – on the left breast of their shirts, under the two gold stars for winning more than 20 league titles, an honour afforded only to them. The kits were simple and beautiful, with the away shirt effectively what the home would look like without the white stripes and collar.

Lazio

Lazio, who finished 11th of 18 club, were one of the few clubs to have a change kit that used a different palette to the home.

Though the main colour and design of the home shirt were broadly the same as Manchester City’s at the time, the white collar and socks differentiated it while Banca di Risparmio di Roma wasn’t as obtrusive a sponsor as Brother.

The away shirt had a Leeds-esque feel to it.

Lecce

Lecce were the highest-placed of the four relegated sides and they wore their distinctive colours in a number of different ways, albeit in fairly dated designs.

Broadly speaking, the striped shirt with red shorts was the home kit with all-yellow the away, though the yellow with red shorts and socks appeared at home to Napoli (who wore white) and the stripes with yellow shorts and socks were worn at Pisa.

Then, while the all-yellow solved any clashes that arose against red teams, the logo-less white shirt was used at least three times, against Bologna, Fiorentina and Milan.

Milan

The back-to-back European champions had a badge to mark their status – who needs a Scudetto when you have the cup with the big ears – they they  would go on to win five of six league titles from 1991-92 to 1995-96 inclusive.

Here, they finished second, five points behind maiden champions Sampdoria. Kappa had been replaced as suppliers by adidas, but the kit was pretty much unchanged, with the three stripes nowhere to be seen. In addition, the trefoil logo had an unusual outline to give it a squat look.

White away kits were common in Italy and for Milan they hold a special cachet, being worn in so many European Cup final wins.  They gave up their continental crown at the quarter-final stage in bizarre circumstances – after a 1-1 draw at home to Marseille, they trailed 1-0 at the Stade Vélodrome when the floodlights failed. When power was restored, Milan refused to play and the game was abandoned with Marseille later awarded a 3-0 win. Milan were banned from Europe for 1991-92.

As far as we can see, the black shorts and socks only appeared in that game – both sides had white shorts and socks in the first leg while Milan didn’t change away to the likes of Bari, Juventus or Sampdoria.

Napoli

See this article for a deeper look at the kit situation of the defending champions.

The tl; dr version is that they launched a cup shirt with white swirls that also appeared in the league early in the season before being ditched completely, with the plain blue shirt worn in league and cups.

The club’s European Cup campaign didn’t least long and they would finish eighth in the league while the departures of Diego Maradona, kit maker Ennerre and sponsors Mars in the summer of 1991 signalled the end of a era.