Syria

Away; 2013/16

I am beyond excited to present this shirt today. While Classic Football Shirts have made Syrian shirts easier to purchase now, until the summer of 2019 getting a Syrian shirt was a real struggle. A few years ago, a small number of replica versions of this shirt (or possibly even shirts intended to have names and numbers added later for team use) were sourced directly from the Syrian FA and a few lucky collectors got their hands on them. Other than that, only the very rare matchworn shirts that players themselves brought away from international games were an option for collectors who wanted a Syria shirt. And that is how this shirt came to be on offer. Striker Sanharib Malki brought it as a gift to the kitman of Kasımpaşa SK, the Turkish club he was playing with at the time. The seller of this shirt had a number of matchworn shirts available that were from players who were at Kasımpaşa around the same period. I cannot say if Malki wore this particular shirt as it looks like he wore #16 in this shirt in most Syria games that I can find pictures of, but he did wear #7 in previous shirts. It may be simply that he picked up any shirt to bring with him back to Turkey. But either way, a matchworn shirt (complete with dirt, and questionable odour) is special. But it gets better, this shirt is even signed Malki (front and back). A shirt signed by a Syrian international truly is one of the great shirts of my collection. The numbering would suggest that it was worn around 2015, but even that is hard to pinpoint. Syria used a few different fonts - one of which was actually an Adidas style - during the 3 or so years they wore this shirt design. To add to the confusion, the inner washtag has ‘2014’ written on it in marker. This may have been added after Malki handed over the shirt by someone also trying to date the shirt.

Malki himself has had a solid career with some highly successful periods. He has played in five different countries, averaging a goal roughly every three games. He holds the honour of scoring Belgian club K.S.V. Roaeselare’s first ever European goal, against Vardar of Macedonia on the 2006/07 UEFA Cup. In 2008, he finished the season as joint top scorer in the Belgian top flight. His form saw him make his debut for Syria, where he was born, in the same year despite having been part of the Belgium u23 squad and being seen as on his way to being capped by the Belgium senior team. His career became unsettled, and he made a few transfers in quick succession before joining Roda in the Dutch Eredivise, where he was the league’s second highest scorer for the 2011/12 season, ahead of players such as Wilfred Bony. He retired from professional football in 2018, but did sign with the amateur club of his youth in Belgium, Jette, in January of 2019. Off the field, Malki, who is of Aramean heritage and also holds Turkish and Belgian passports, is an advocate in Europe for Aramean issues in Syria.