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Matchprepared
Manufacturer: NIke
Source: eBay
THE TEAM
Tahiti actually represents the whole French overseas territory of “French Polynesia”, with players of all the associated islands. And they are quite successful with it! In 2012 they managed to win the OFC Nations Cup as the first country other than Australia (not an OFC member anymore) and New Zealand. Consequently, they were invited to the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup in Brazil, where their football fairytale didn’t have a happy ending. Three games and a goal difference of 1-24 with a 0-10 loss against Spain - the record for the biggest margin of victory in a FIFA senior men's tournament. It’s the taking part that counts, I guess…
THE SHIRT
It’s red.
While the design might not win any awards, its origin is quite interesting:
I bought the shirt from a seller on eBay who got a few matchprepared Tahiti jerseys from their kitman. Since the design was used quite frequently and there were at least three different fonts used for the numbers, it’s difficult to pinpoint exactly when this shirt was intended to be used. As the seller also sold a number 18 with two different fonts used for the 1 and the 8, it might be possible that these shirts were used by the kitman to experiment with different fonts. The “Tama Ura” lettering on the back is actually not a player’s name, but the nickname of Tahiti’s Under-17 team.
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