Messi – Football Kit Geek

The World Cup is well and truly underway, we have now seen each of the 48 Nations take to the field, so time to have a look at the kits worn so far by each of the teams.

The use of “Home” and “Away” kit labels are do not feel right when it comes to International Tournaments, I will refer to them as “Primary” and “Secondary” choice kits.

Overview of Kits

A few stats….

For the total of 48 kit appearances, we have seen “Primary” Kits (and variations) used 87.5% and “Secondary” kits (and variations) used 12.5% of the time, with only four Nations in their secondary kit!

Primary – 34

Primary variations – 8 (South Africa, USA, Curaco, Netherlands, Uruguay, Senegal, Norway, Argentina)

Secondary – 14

Secondary variations – 4 (Scotland, Ecuador, Egypt, Colombia)

One of the first things to call out are the use of patches by the teams, there are several different patches used by the nations, players and for each game.

Teams will wear patches in black or white on their right arm, it appears nations will these patches on Primary and Secondary Kits with alternative used on each, for example…. a nation will wear the white patch on their Primary Kit and Black Patch on their Secondary Kit.

Past winners will have Gold Patches, these six nations again will rotate, gold and white / gold patches with Primary and Secondary Kits.

The Left Arm will have unique patches for each game in tournament, with messages in different colours for each of the game as we move through the tournament.

There are other patches, which appear to be “stickers” on player shirts.

Players making their debut at the World Cup, will wear this patch.

There are also personal awards being worn as patches, Thibaut Courtois wore a “golden glove” patch on his for winning the award in the 2018 Competition.

Lionel Messi wore two patches on his shirt, a “Legacy” patch to celebrate becoming the first male player to play in 6 different World Cups and a bagde (under his captain’s armband) for this player of tournament wins (2014 / 2022).

Match 1 Fixtures

In the opening game between Mexico and South Africa, the South Africian team wore alternative yellow shorts with their Primary Kit, these are bespoke pair of shorts, as their secondary shorts are white (and Adidas Trefoil branded).

Adidas CEO, Björn Gulden “celebrated” the start of the World Cup by wearing a “half and half” shirt of the two teams in the opening fixture. This is very much considered to be a one off to kick the World Cup off!

The much anticipated return of the Adidas Trefoil to the International Stage is happening in this tournament and the first team to wear their change kit containing the logo was Scotland, in their victory against Haiti in Foxborough, MA. They wore the Kit with alternative “salmon” socks.

Ecuador wore a mash up of the change and 3rd Kits, wearing their Change shirt (navy) with their 3rd shorts and socks (white).

Norway wore their Primary Kit with alternative red shorts and socks, this is the 3rd different colour shorts worn with the kit in it’s short life (white as default look and Navy have been worn).

Argentina ended the 2022 World Cup wearing alternative white shorts and socks with their Primary Kit (wearing it in Quarter-Finals, Semi-Finals and the Final), a look they kicked off this tournament in, which was a surprise as the much leaked kit document had the holders in their default look with Navy Shorts and socks and opponents Algeria in white shorts / socks.

Colombia against Uzbekistan saw both Nations in change kits, with Colombia wearing alternative fluorescent socks with their Change Kit.

That’s it for the first round of fixtures, we will be back next week with the second games in each of the groups. Let me know your thoughts and comments over at my socials.

X – @kit_geek or Bluesky – Kit Geek

Well that’s it, the 2022 World Cup is over, and after 64 Games Argentina have been crowned World Cup Winners for the third time after remarkable final against France, a game that will live forever as one of, if not the greatest World Cup Final ever!

It is time for me to take a look at the Kits worn through-out the tournament and those worn in the knock out stages.

I have separate posts about the group stages…

1st Round of Group games can be found here

2nd Round of Group games can be found here

Overall Group Stage review can be found here

A few stats….

There have been a total of 66 kits used throughout the tournament in the 64 games.

We have seen “Primary” Kits (and variations) used 68% and “Secondary” kits (and variations) used 30% of the time and 3rd kit 2% (just used the once)!

Argentina are the only team to wear 4 kit variations, with 3 different primary kit looks and their secondary kit worn once.

6 Nations wore 3 different kit variations in the tournament with 4 of those teams (Ecuador, Saudi Arabia, Costa Rica, Canada) in 3 different kits in their only appearances. Morocco and Brazil, using their 3rd variation within the knock out stages.

19 Teams have worn two kits and 6 Teams in the same kit for their 2022 World Cup games.

Knock Out Rounds Overview….

Primary – 10

Primary variations – 8

Secondary – 4

Secondary variations – 1

We have seen 7 new kit variations used in the final round of fixtures.

Knock Out Round Fixtures

Last 16

Quarter-Finals

Semi-Finals

3rd / 4th & Final

Looking at the teams journeys in a little more detail by group…

GROUP A – 8 Kits in total

The Netherlands reached the Quarter-Finals and only used their Primary kit, Senegal the other team to reach the knock out stages wore their Secondary Kit for the first time in their defeat to England.

GROUP B – 8 Kits

No new kits on show in the knock out games from teams in Group B, England ended the tournament without using their secondary kit, just the two variations of Primary Kit, this was the case for the second Major Tournament in a row.

GROUP C – 10 Kits

Argentina in 4 kits, used their Primary with white shorts and socks in three of their four games in the knock out phase of the competition, Poland were one of those teams that only used one kit in all their appearances.

GROUP D – 7 Kits

France were another team that did not use their secondary kit (one of the most popular kits before the start of the tournament), using two variations of their Primary kit, the all blue look was used twice including the Final.

GROUP E – 9 Kits

Spain were the only team in the competition that did not wear either their default Primary or Secondary kits, following their use of all red in the group stages with alternative white shorts with their Secondary Kit. Japan also in a second look for the tournament in their knock out game against Croatia, with alternative blue shorts used with their Primary Kit.

GROUP F – 9 Kits

Two teams from the group reached the final four of the competition, with Morocco using a Kit Mash up in their Semi Final against France, pairing their Primary Kit with Secondary white socks. Croatia unlike recent tournaments were mainly seen in the Primary kit with their Secondary only used in their Semi-Final appearance.

GROUP G – 9 Kits

Brazil in their quarter final gave us another alternative kit for the competition, using their secondary socks with Primary Kit to give us a Yellow / Blue / Blue look, one often used by the Brazilians as an alternative look.

GROUP H – 6 Kits

No new kits on show from the teams in Group H, with South Korea only using their Primary Kit in the tournament and an appearance of both Primary and Secondary Kits for Portugal.

Overall kit highlights from the Knock Out Rounds…

The Semi-Final between France and Morocco gave us Kit Match Up with two teams in “Tri-Colour”, each element of the kit being made of different colour, thanks to Morocco using their secondary white socks with their Primary Kit.

Argentina the only team to wear four kit variations, with three different Primary looks worn and their secondary kit worn once.

Would it be a World Cup with Brazil using an alternative kit, this one with secondary socks works well with the green details in all elements of the kit given a clean variation of their Primary Kit.