- Thanks to the AS Roma Ultras site, Pete Doyle of AS Roma Matchworn and Ed Moynihan of Forza27 for their assistance
While AC Milan have a fine set of kits in the mostly still-current season, they still probably don’t take the award for the best of all – in fact, you can make a strong case that it’s not even the best set in Serie A.
Milan’s home took tenth place in Footy.com’s poll to find the best shirt of 2019-20, but top of the pile was Roma’s white away shirt with their blue third in ninth (Internazionale had fifth and sixth spots for their third and away respectively, but their home is questionable). While Roma’s home didn’t win any awards, it is still nevertheless a kit that is pleasing to the eye.
For the first time since 2015-16, the official home shorts were white, but that combination was worn in just four games prior to the pausing of the season, while the away shorts created an all-red look in 19 games, 13 of them at home. Similarly, the all-white variant of the away kit has a 9-3 ‘lead’ on the white-red-white default layout.
Roma had made it through to the last 16 of the Europa League and were due to play Sevilla. The first leg in Spain was scheduled for March 12, but it was postponed due to the Covid-19 outbreak. Had it gone ahead, then we would have seen a very rare Roma kit combination – red shirts and shorts with white socks against the hosts’ white-white-black. Fingers crossed that it will eventually be played.
The blue third kit, featuring the Nike Futura logo, was based on the one-off kit worn against Monaco in 1991-92. It was first worn in the home Europa League game against İstanbul Başakşehir, but the fabric pattern – featuring both the ‘ASR’ motif and the Lupetto or ‘little wolf’ – contravened Uefa rules which stated that only one logo could be used in such instances. That meant that, for their second group game against Wolfsberger, a modified version of the shirt was used, featuring only the Lupetto.
The shirt’s only usage in the league was at home to Juventus – who wore their white third kit – in January but the original style, with the ‘ASR’ included, was worn.
Roma’s goalkeepers have worn five different kits in 2019-20 – black, turquoise and yellow in the standard Nike template, with orange and green/purple versions of the special style intended to be paired with third kits and so carrying the Futura logo. While some clubs, like Chelsea, have used the more modern Nike logo on those shirts when wearing them with home or away strips, Roma have not.
