The Ajax 2021/2022 third shirt has created one big hype since it came out last season. Many football shirt collectors from all over the world have been looking for one. This was a bit harder for collectors that lived outside of Europe. The Dutch Ajax fans were really hyped about the shirt too, and it was sold out in a few days. Why did this shirt create such a hype in the world of football shirts? We will find it out in this blog post.
Design
General
It’s probably fair to say that the Ajax 2021/2022 third shirt is heavily inspired by Bob Marley. The so-called Rastafari colors are very eye-catching on this all black shirt. This Ajax third shirt uses typical Adidas template (three stripes) on the shoulders and sleeve cuffs. The three stripes on both shoulders are green, yellow and red. The sleeve cuffs use the exact same color combination in order to match the design used on the shoulders. The Rastafari colors stand out because the base of this shirt is black. Adidas kept this shirt rather minimalistic, which seems to work out quite well in this case.
The Adidas logo on the shirt is red, just like the Ajax team crest. Both logos are embroidered. A fun fact is that Ajax hasn’t released any player version shirts since the 2018/2019 season. This means that even the pros like Dusan Tadic and Antony wear a fan’s version shirt. The Ziggo sponsor on this shirt has the same red color as the team crest and the Adidas logo.
Patches
The Ajax 2021/2022 third shirt was used in both domestic Eredivisie and international Champions League games. The version we are talking about in this post has the Champions League badges on it. The 2021/2022 season was the first campaign in which these new Champions League patches were used. Before, the Champions League ball and Badge of honour were two different patches. Nowadays, these two patches have been combined in one patch: the Champions League ball with the amount of trophies on it. The navy blue Respect patch has been replaced for the white UEFA Foundation patch.
On the left sleeve, we can find the yellow CuraƧao sleeve sponsor. Ajax Amsterdam agreed on a sponsorship with CuraƧao in January 2020. This means that this sponsor has been on the left sleeve since the second half of the 2019/2020 season. The Godenzonen played with this sponsor in both domestic and international games.
Name set
On the back of this shirt, we got the official name and number for Serbian midfielder Dusan Tadic. The name set makes this shirt look complete, because it matches the Bob Marley design. The number 10 has a bold and eye-catching design, and is predominantly yellow. There is a subtle red and green line around the yellow number 10 as well. The same goes for the number. It’s mainly yellow, and the letters got a red and green line around them. Both the number ”1” and ”0” got a small Ajax logo at the bottom as well.
Dusan Tadic joined Ajax in 2018, and he quickly became a leader in their young squad. He was given the number 10, and Hakim Ziyech switched to number 22. He’s been providing the team from Amsterdam with a lot of assists, penalty goals and skills. Tadic has played 224 games so far, in which he scored 95 goals and gave 101 assists. Furthermore, he has won 3 league titles in the 4 seasons he has been playing for Ajax. This is an outstanding performance.
The three little birds
This shirt has a very special detail for many football shirt fans: the three little birds. Ajax has had a connection with Bob Marley since 2008. Their fans sang the famous song ”3 Little Birds’‘ after a friendly match versus Cardiff. They have never stopped singing this Bob Marley song after that game in 2008. That’s basically the link between Ajax and Bob Marley.
Now that we know the importance of the song ”3 Little Birds”, it’s easy to explain why there are 3 birds on this shirt. They are located on the back of the shirt, just below the collar. Usually, we can find three crosses at this place. The Ajax 2021/2021 third shirt features a red, yellow and green bird sitting on a small cross. These three colors match the general rastafari design of this shirt. Although the birds are fairly small, it’s a very important detail for many of us. Some people even call this shirt ”The 3 Little Birds” shirt.
My opinion
At first, I didn’t really get the hype around the shirt. It was a nice shirt, but nothing more than that. When I saw it with name set and patches, I kind of understood the hype: it just looks really clean. The colors of the name set perfectly match the general black and rastafari design of this shirt. The fact that this shirt is mainly black make the rastafari colors (yellow, green and red) stand out in a positive way. On the other hand, many people just wanted to get this jersey without name or number. This point of view is understandable if you are someone who likes to wear shirts casually. I’ve seen others with names like ”Bob’ or ”Marley” on it, and number 10, which makes sense too because of the three little birds.
The Ajax 2021/2022 third shirt has been one of the most hyped shirts and bestsellers at the same time. It was sold out after a small amount of time already. Many football shirt collectors are still looking for this shirt. Other people just might want to get their hands on this shirt because it’s drippy.
Another reason for the popularity and hype around this shirt if a reason I explained in this post before. Bob Marley is definitely one of the most famous artists. The fact that one of his songs is very popular amongst Ajax fans adds to its popularity. This shirt is a way of uniting the reggae culture with football. My rating: 8.5/10.
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