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Chris Wright, Toe Poke Author
In addition to the full range of standard jerseys (home jersey, away jersey, third substitute jersey for field players and a very special set for goalkeepers), the clubs also equip their players and staff with a wide range of playing clothing.
While most playing jerseys gradually become more abstract and experimental, most remain rather conservative with variations on the traditional club colors.
However, when it comes to the jerseys players wear during warm-ups, anything is possible. Designers have the freedom to express themselves, bring their wildest creative visions to life and make a statement that makes the world sit up and take notice.
Of course, that doesn’t mean that they’re all artistic triumphs. When you let things run wild, there’s always the risk that things will get out of hand – and that’s what we’re here for.
Here’s a selection of the pre-match shirts worn by star players in leagues across Europe this season – including the Premier League, LaLiga, Bundesliga, Serie A and Ligue 1 – that range from the sublime to the ridiculous. And if you disagree with the verdicts, that’s fine. It’s art, after all.
THE GOOD
Milan have done everything right with their kits this season and the pre-match shirt is no exception. The base colour is a cream tone (putty-coloured, almost ecru) overlaid with a richly textured gold pattern that, if you can imagine, is reminiscent of a freshly raked golf bunker.
Ajax (Adidas)
Ajax’s warm-up top features an intricate pattern of hundreds of small squiggles, all of which feature the three Xs of Amsterdam’s official flag. To save you a potentially dangerous internet search, we can tell you that the symbols actually represent the crosses of Saint Andrew, and are said to protect the Dutch capital from fire, floods and plague. Unfortunately, they couldn’t save Ajax from the club’s worst Eredivisie finish this century last season.
Arsenal have taken the African heritage theme that was so well executed on the 2024-25 away kit and then jumped in at the deep end. The Gunners have had a great track record in recent years of preparing for matches with really over-the-top designs that somehow hit the mark and this one is no exception. Expect this kit to achieve cult status.
Barça presents us with a pleasant dark and dark blue tone, highlighted by gold trim and a club crest printed on the fabric. Perhaps the strange “envelope” neckline is our only cause for concern, especially because it looks like something they usually put on babies.
It’s not to everyone’s taste, but we’re slowly getting used to the oddity that is Chelsea’s ‘Molten Metal’ kit concept this season. Much like the Blues’ home kit for the 2024-25 season, the pre-match shirt is covered in a shotgun graphic that will surely create a mesmerizing effect when you see all 43 players currently in the club’s first-team squad warming up together.
A vibrant reinterpretation of the Turkish club’s familiar yellow and blue colours, this pre-match jersey features a striking stripe pattern made up of diagonal, comb-like diamonds.
For reasons not yet entirely clear, Juventus have used a celestial motif on all of their kits this season, and the pre-match campaign follows suit. What looks like a polka dot pattern from a distance is actually a cool “lunar eclipse” pattern, with lots of moons silhouetted against the neon pink and yellow glow of space.
A minimalistic shirt that could easily pass as a home shirt. The red fabric is printed with a crest graphic, while Liverpool’s traditional colours always work well with bright yellow trim. Using the same pattern as Barça, this shirt has the same confusing babygrow neckline, but overall it’s a nice shirt.
Lyon (Adidas)
The Gones have put a graphic over their warm-up shirt that is reminiscent of traditional Japanese woodblock art. The wave-shaped print exudes a stirring maritime mood, speckled here and there with red foam flakes. It remains just tasteful and avoids slipping into overload.
After relying heavily on nostalgia for their kits this season, Newcastle have gone in a more modern direction with their pre-match kit. Taking direct inspiration from their nickname, the Magpies have covered the kit in feathers to create a unique black and white wallpaper effect that really stands out.
Nobody can wear plain white with as much panache as Real Madrid, whose pre-match kit is essentially a stripped-down take on the standard home colours, albeit with a snazzy star-shaped graphic emblazoned all over it.
It looks like it could easily pass as a mid-2000s away kit and has a slight retro touch. A pristine white field, adorned with just a light trim in matching red on the shoulders and flanks. Hello.
The Spanish side has used a rich purple base that at first glance looks like rose petals are scattered across the torso, like in the movie “American Beauty.” In fact, it is a geometric pattern of triangular tiles arranged in a mosaic-like manner.
THE BAD
Concrete grey is the new black for Atlético this season, as the club has followed up its cobblestone-inspired away kit with a matching warm-up shirt.
Dortmund have used their famous home colours to design a matching warm-up shirt, covered in a cracked, fractal diamond pattern on the front and back. The effect is bursting with kinetic energy, to the point of being migraine-inducing.
Although it’s one of the least inspiring motifs ever conceived for a football shirt, City have taken the Manchester telephone code concept from their home kit even further for their pre-match shirt. The digits of the ‘0161’ area code appear in a jumbled pattern woven into the fabric. Sorry if we don’t take this call.
A rare miss for United this season, who have delivered a lot of incredibly smart, retro-looking playing kit for the 2024/25 season. The pre-match shirt features the same ‘M’ pattern as their new away kit, but the execution is much chunkier. Vote ‘M’ for ‘maybe not’.
Using the same “Dazzle Camouflage” design as their new outfield jerseys, the Saints have created a headache-inducing barrage of criss-crossing lines, angles and checks to confuse their opponents even before kickoff.
Sporting has essentially developed a black base speckled with a flood of grainy, bright green pixels. It looks like what you see on the screen when a game crashes on an Atari 800 console (ask your parents).
THE UGLY
An absolute failure from every angle and every point of view. Bayern’s jersey designs for the 2024/25 season have clearly been good and bad, and this jagged mess clearly belongs in the latter category.
Benfica have proven beyond doubt that sometimes less is more. The Portuguese club’s pre-match shirt contains so many high-contrast graphics that it’s almost immediately sickening. The shapes are meant to represent the talon marks of an eagle, the club’s emblematic bird of prey, but to us it looks more like a pile of old, discarded hubcaps.
Nike is taking a relaxed approach to Inter’s traditional club colours this year, and the poor Nerazzurri are really put to the test. It’s grim, blotchy and gruesome, three words you’d never expect to see on Inter shirts.
PSG’s pre-match shirt is in the club’s traditional colours and has a paint-splattered pattern that looks like it was worn by a painter and decorator during a particularly haphazard home renovation. It’s very chaotic and there’s just too much going on at once.
Spurs have been forced to wear a suspiciously similar ‘Identikit’ design to Inter’s. The speckled, slightly abstract pattern, which appears to be made up of various random stencils, doodles and squiggles, is reminiscent of something you’d find on train seat cushions. Dreary stuff.
Here’s a pretty awful design from the Hammers, who went for some sort of bleach dye effect but ended up with a shirt that looks like it was created after a horrific night in the emergency room.
