FAROE ISLANDS

Home 1993/97

Matchworn by Øssur Hansen 11.10.1995 SMR 🇸🇲 : FRO 🇫🇴 1-3

Manufacturer: Adidas

Source: Collector

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The Faroe Islands – not to be confused with the “Pharao Islands”, which sound like an Egypt-themed water park – are basically a Lord of the Rings film set, slapped somewhere in the North Atlantic. Besides looking gorgeous, the Faroe Islands are mostly known for their grass-covered roofs, their unpredictable weather, slaughtering wales and the fact that their sheep and puffins outnumber their 52,000 inhabitants.

The Faroese national team, in turn, is notorious for being a stumbling block for much bigger nations. Despite their small population, the team rarely suffers high defeats and managed to climb to an astonishing 74th place in the 2015 FIFA ranking, after demolishing Greece three times in a row. Alongside the Greek, the Austrians are also still recovering from their famous 1-0 loss against the Faroe Islands in 1990, where Faroese coach Guðlaugsson motivated his team to “throw yourself into the tackles against those arrogant Austrians […]”, which they apparently did and thus forced Austria’s coach Josef Hickersberger to resign and further caused a major shitstorm in Austria. To this day, a rerun of the game is shown annually on Faroese TV.

THE SHIRT

This may be the most iconic shirt in the Faroe Island’s footballing history.

Worn between 1993 and 1997, during the country’s first World Cup qualification campaign, the shirt was used in a time when the country established itself as a proper European football nation.

In total, the Faroe Islands won four games wearing the shirt: two matches against Malta and two matches against San Marino – during one of which, the shirt was swapped by Øssur Hansen with Sammarinese midfielder Nicola Bacciocchi, (who also signed a “Letter of Authenticity” to prove this).

I’ve added a short coverage from Faroese TV below this post, in which the circumstances of this game are presented, including the hattrick of Todi Jónsson and a bus full of die-hard Faroe Islands fans.

Reminiscent of Adidas’ 1992 models, worn by Germany, France or Portugal, the shirt is kept in a silvery white and features the prominent three “bars” on the sleeves, which, unlike the ones on the aforementioned shirts, are sewn into the fabric. The famous three stripes are also added in an alternating blue and red pattern are also incorporated into the shirt, while the federation badge is heat pressed.

As an avid supporter of the Faroe Islands and a collector of the team’s shirts, there is no doubt that this is my favorite jersey of theirs in my collection.

The Faroe Islands when they played Scotland in 1995

A fantastic little documentary of the Faroe Island's journey to San Marino in 1995

A letter of authenticity written and signed by former San Marino international Nicola Bacciocchi who received the shirt from Øssur Hansen