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Matchworn Saint-Fort Dimokoyen 07.10.21 NGA 🇳🇬 : CAF 🇨🇫 0-1
Manufacturer: Macron
Source: FCF Kitman
THE COUNTRY
Along with South Africa and Northwest-Europia, the Central African Republic makes it relatively easy to be spotted on a map. While the geographical center of Africa is actually located in the Republic of the Congo, the CAR’s location on the African continent is central enough to be worthy of bearing this name.
Other facts about the country, however, cannot be pictured as lighthearted as this introduction:
The country ranks lowest in GDP, second lowest in the Human Development Index, is considered the unhealthiest country as well as “the worst country in which to be young”.
On top of that, the country has faced countless civil wars in the last decades.
Given these issues, the country’s focus obviously wasn’t the development of its football, hence, the CAR’s footballing achievements have been negligible. Yet, the team managed to win the 2009 CEMAC Cup and climbed up to a remarkable 49th place in the FIFA ranking in 2012.
Currently, the squad mainly consist of Europe-based players, such as Atlético Madrid’s Geoffrey Kondogbia, who is also the country’s captain.
THE SHIRT
There used to be a time where jerseys of the Central African Republic were among the hardest shirts to get. As the jerseys weren't officially sold, it was either getting a matchworn shirt from a player or jealously looking at the CAR shirts from other collectors. Recently, however, more and more CAR shirts started appearing in national shirts collections, thanks to an employee from Macron who started selling them - given you had his contact.
But where's the fun in that, when you can just naively send hundred of Euros via Western Union to a guy in Bangui, claiming to be the national team's kitman?
That's what I did, and almost two years and two "supposedly" lost shirts later, I can finally add a matchworn CAR shirt to my collection.
Based on a popular Macron template (now also worn by Tahiti and Georgia), the shirt features a downward facing arrow (?) in the countries national colors to give it some exclusivity. The shirt has a nice rippled pattern all over the fabric as well as some trippy stripes on the sleeves.
It also came with the corresponding shirts and two patches that had fallen off, unfortunately. It was worn by Saint-Fort Dimokoyen during the CAR's unexpected win against Nigeria.
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