Lionel Messi will always be linked to FC Barcelona. When he left the club last summer, the whole world was in a big shock. An era had come to an end and Messi joined PSG. One of the last shirts he wore was the FC Barcelona 2020/2021 away shirt, which became sought-after at the end of the season. Especially the Vaporknit version became rare ever since. Read more about this black shirt with golden details in this post.
The design
General
The FC Barcelona 2020/2021 away shirt has an all black base with some golden details on it. The FC Barcelona team crest is monochrome. This means that it doesn’t have the ”club colors” but that has a golden color instead. The team crest has black details in it as well. The Nike logo has a golden color too, which matches the rest of the details on the shirt. Both logos are heat-pressed onto the jersey. This is a feature of Nike Vaporknit shirts, which are worn by the players themselves too. Embroidered logos would cause skin irritation during the match. The Rakuten sponsor on the front of the shirt has a shiny golden color. Because of this, it looks very clean on this classy shirt.
Patches
When it comes to the sleeves, this shirt has some nice sleeve cuffs. Both black and gold are used to make this part of the shirt match the other parts. The left sleeve has the golden Beko sponsor on it. On the other sleeve, we can find the La Liga patch, which is heat pressed onto the jersey. The collar has the same smooth color combination. The fact that this shirt uses monochrome badges makes it look very clean and minimalistic. The other details (sleeves, sponsor and collar) got the same color as the team crest and Nike logo.
Nike Vaporknit characteristics
Some other important details on this shirt are the Vaporknit characteristics. As I mentioned earlier, Nike produces two types of shirts: Nike Dri-Fit shirts (fan’s version) and Nike Vaporknit shirts (player version). The player version shirts are made of smoother and lighter material because it has to be comfortable to wear for the players. As we can see, this shirt has the ‘Nike Vaporknit’ label on it. Also, this shirt has a golden tag instead of a silver/grey one. The shirt has transpiration holes all over it, which is an essential characteristic of the Vaporknit technology. This technology makes air flow easier when sweating a lot during a game.
Since this is the player version shirt, the name set is different too. As you can see, it has small holes all over the number 10. Both of the numbers contain the FC Barcelona team crest in them as well. The numbers got some lines next to the left side of both the ‘1’ and ‘0’ which creates a nice depth-effect. The ‘Messi’ has this same effect too, but doesn’t have the small holes in it like the number 10. The fan’s version of this shirt has a name set without small holes. Nevertheless, this season (2021/2022) both fan’s and player version shirts use the same name set (with holes).
Other than the name set, we got the small flag of Catalonia just below the collar. This is a very common detail/characteristic of FC Barcelona shirts. At the bottom of the shirt, we can find the Unicef sponsor, which doesn’t come as a surprise either.
Messi’s last season at FC Barcelona
As we all know, Lionel Messi spent 17 seasons at FC Barcelona. He made his debut for Barça on 16 November 2003 during a friendly match versus FC Porto. Nobody expected that he would become one of the best players in the history of football. Besides that, I think it’s fair to say that Messi is an absolute Barcelona legend. He won 4 Champions League trophies and 10 La Liga titles during his career at FC Barcelona. In addition to this crazy amount of prizes, he won 4 Ballon D’or prizes. His name will always be linked to FC Barcelona, just like Cristiano Ronaldo will always be linked to Real Madrid.
The 2020/2021 was Messi’s 17th season at FC Barcelona. He wanted to leave the club, because the board of Barcelona didn’t have enough future plans for his career. During his last season at the club, he scored his 643rd goal for FC Barcelona. This was a special record, because it was the same amount of goals Pélé scored for Santos. A few days later, he broke this record by scoring a goal versus Real Valladolid. Also, Lionel broke Xavi’s record of being the player having played the most La Liga games for FC Barcelona. He would be the topscorer of the La Liga that season, and he also won his 7th Copa del Rey trophy. On 5 August 2021, Messi left FC Barcelona in order to join Paris Saint Germain. Lionel Messi played a total of 520 matches for Barça in which he scored a dazzling amount of 424 goals.
Final thoughts and my opinion
The FC Barcelona 2020/2021 away shirt is quite a beauty if you ask me. This jersey is simple, fancy and clean at the same time, because it only uses two colors. The monochrome logos, sponsors and details are a great choice for this all black shirt. Black football kits with golden details always have had something special. In addition to this, the Vaporknit characteristics on this shirt make it better too. The material feels very smooth and of great quality. The same goes for the name set; the golden number looks detailed with all the small holes in it. This gives the number 10 a cool effect.
Lionel Messi is definitely one of the best players I used to watch when growing up. It feels like something is missing now that he left Barcelona since we are all used to seeing him in Blaugrana colors. The fact that the FC Barcelona 2020/2021 away shirt was one of the last shirts he wore, makes it more special. The simple yet beautiful black shirts really makes the number 10 stand out on the back. This jersey became an instant classic in my opinion. My rating: 8.7/10.
Find your Messi shirt
Almost every football fan will agree that Messi is one of the greatest football players ever. If you would like to add a Messi shirt to your collection, I definitely recommend checking out the amazing collection of Classic Football shirts!
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