Given that the Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club – Wimbledon, in popular shorthand – conclude this weekend, it felt timely to undertake a football/tennis crossover.
While it is an ambition to one day illustrate the adidas polo shirts worn by Stefan Edberg as he won the men’s singles title in 1988 and 1990, such complexity may prove to be beyond us. Thankfully, Rónán Ó Cualáin popped up with something a bit more doable from slightly earlier.
Rónán had his hometown club, Irish side Galway United, in mind, with the geometric design worn by Lendl in winning the 1985 US Open the design chosen.
Galway and 1985 have featured before due to the fabulous tracksuits worn by them and Shamrock Rovers in that year’s FAI Cup final and it was rather handy that their real-life shirts did not carry a crest at the time, making it easier to fit the Lendl design across the chest.
The colouring is a bit of an anachronistic cheat – while gold, sky blue and black have featured on the Galway kit at various times, back then it was just maroon and white – but hopefully you’ll agree that a bit of extra decoration befits the style.
Feedback is welcome, along with future FKF requests – comment below or tweet @museumofjerseys.
Superb idea! And very pleasing to find other Adidas Edberg/Lendl aficionados.