France marked the 100-year anniversary of their football federation with a special Nike commemorative kit and a romping 4-0 win over Iceland yesterday.

With Samuel Umtiti, Olivier Giroud, Kylian Mbappé and Antoine Griezmann getting their names on the scoresheet, ‘Les Bleus’ were provided with a one-off anniversary kit which had a very distinctive regal-feel to it.


The art of designing beautiful, much-loved kits is a difficult one, for sure.

Sometimes, the most full-on, ‘in-your-face’ efforts garner universal praise, like Nigeria’s 2018 World Cup home jersey. Most of the time though, these types of intense designs have too much going on, or are just plain weird; just take a look at this McDonald’s-themed shirt from the Chilean Primera Divisiòn.

In contrast, some of the most incredibly uninspiring kits you’ll ever see are those that are intended as ‘simple’ or ‘clean’ and find that they’ve actually ended up as, well… ‘boring’.

The jersey worn by France against Iceland commemorates 100 years since the formation of the French Football Federation. It’s not complicated, flashy or in any way outrageous. It’s a minimalistic, clean approach which harks back to a time when football jerseys served only as the name suggests.


There’s definitely a regal-vibe there, with the distinctively royal blue shirt incorporating gold elements like the player numbers appearing on the chest opposite the iconic cockerel, now with 2-gold stars representing France’s 1998 and 2018 World Cup successes.

The collar is a nice touch which compliments the ‘modern-retro’ theme, whilst the white shorts and red socks are a pretty common feature in France home kits.

France’s next European qualifier is against Turkey on Saturday June 8.