My German National Team Football Shirt Collection – Pravit Chatsontirak

German National Football Team’s shirts have long been favourites of many in the football shirt collecting community, including Bangkok based Pravit. He has been collecting shirts worn by Die Mannschaft since he was at school and now has a collection of shirts that any collector would want in their wardrobe!

Why Germany shirts?

Germany’s die-hard reputation and playing style always appealed to me, I properly started supporting them during the 1998 World Cup, which admittedly was a poor tournament for Germany who were knocked out by surprise package Croatia in the quarter finals, but I still really enjoyed watching them play and it sparked a passion for them that I still have. I don’t support a club team and have always enjoyed watching top players from different clubs playing together.

How many shirts do you have in your collection?

Right now I have over 80 matchworn, match issue, rare one-offs and a few training shirts with some autographs. I only collect these types of shirts as every time I look at them they take me back to the games they are from, it’s great to own pieces of footballing history. It doesn’t really matter to me if the shirts are from major tournaments, more the memories attached to the specific players and games they wore involved in.

What was your first shirt and when did you buy it?

When I was at elementary school my dad bought me a Germany 1998 home shirt as a gift after he saw how much I enjoyed watching them during the World Cup in France, that really started my interest in collecting their shirts. I now own a matchworn shirt worn that was used by one of my favourite players at that time, Jens Jeremies at World Cup 1998 too! It’s great to have a shirt from the team and tournament that really started this passion, even if the shirt itself is one that is rarely talked about.

What is your favourite shirt and why is it so special?

It’s hard to choose as I enjoyed picking up each and every one of them, but I’ll try and list my favourite five that I have added to the collection over the last year to make it a little easier to narrow down!

I have a matchworn Karl Heinz Rummenigge worn during the 1986 World Cup, I love this shirt and with it being worn by such a big name it’s an instant favourite.

Thomas Hässler’s shirt against TSV Barsinghausen in 1991 has to be mentioned too! There are several types of this green 1991 model, this one is especially hard to find as it is a short sleeved version with the right numeral font due to it being worn at an unofficial match.

I now have a shirt worn by Philipp Lahm, it’s from a game against Iran in late 2004, the shirt is signed and has a patch advertising the 2006 World Cup on it too!

One of my favourites is a 1975 green away worn by Berti Vogts, it’s really hard to find anything from the era when Germany’s shirts were made by Erima

The final pick is the unused Olympics 1988 shirt, the 1988 away is very rare and when it’s with the badge used at the Olympics and with the small trefoil it’s even harder to find!

What is the shirt you would most like in your collection?

The one shirt that I’m really after would be the one off shirt worn against England in 1985, the shirt was made by Adidas to test the technology created to handle humid weather for the upcoming 1986 World Cup in Mexico. I’ve come close to buying it before but I took too long and ended up missing out!

Do you have any other interesting stories?

My friend recently put me in touch with German legend Thomas Hässler, he was kind enough to sell me a few of his old pieces, including his Euro 1996 player trophy! It’s amazing to think of some of the items I’ve managed to pick up over the years.

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