Belgium

Home; 1999/2000

This shirt was the first shirt produced by Nike for Belgium when they took over the contract from Diadora, and I believe they did a great job design-wise. Looking back at it now, it does look excessively baggy but remember this was a time where most shirts were like that. But the construction of the shirt is excellent, and the design is particularly classy. Worn on the field, it looks like a solid shirt and the subtle trim gives a great representation of the Belgian flag colours without distracting from the primacy of the famous red shirts of those other ‘Red Devils’.

Coming as it did in the summer of 1999, it ended up having a shirt shelf-life, with a new kit released in early 2000 ahead of that summer’s European Championships which was jointly hosted by Belgium and the Netherlands. This shirt is based on same basic design features introduced by Nike for teams at the 1998 World Cup, and while the collar style of the shirt was shared with other national teams such as Russia, the Netherlands, South Korea and Portugal, the smaller details are unique. Given the time frame needed for designing and producing a shirt, it can be presumed that Nike knew this was to be a stop-gap kit, so they deserve some credit for not giving the team a plainer shirt. As it was, Belgium never wore this shirt (or its away variant) in a competitive game at senior level because, as hosts, they did not have to qualify for Euro 2000. Instead these shirts were worn in a number of friendlies, most notably in a lively three-week, three-game streak which went: Belgium 3-4 Finland, Netherlands 5-5 Belgium, and lastly Belgium 4-0 Morocco. Definitely entertaining.

This shirt was replaced in March of 2000, having been last worn in a 1-1 draw with Italy in late February of that year. The new shirt was not too radical a departure, but in my opinion, was a poorer effort.