Collectors Club

A few hours before I’m due to speak to Matias Bueno about the beauty of football shirt collecting, I’m once again watching the “I WENT COUCHSURFING IN IRAQ” video on his YouTube channel. The images beamed back from the troubled country have for decades often been of war, horror and misery; Matias’ 13-minute video is the opposite, it is one of hope, joy and human connection.

My instant reaction when I saw the title was, “Why on earth would you do that?” but, after watching the video and then spending a couple of hours chatting to Matias, I’m left thinking, “Why would you not do that?” His endless curiosity, enthusiasm and passion to “explore football culture in places most would never go” is infectious, and the humble football shirt has often proved the starting point of it all. Smiling as he does throughout the energetic conversation, he says. “My time in Iraq proved you can find football in the most obscure and unlikely corners of the world. Whatever the news channels tell you or whatever you think you know, getting out there on the ground and speaking and interacting with people tells you ‌a different story. Football is always the best way to break down barriers. ”

Born to Brazilian and Portuguese parents in Canada, Matias knew about football as a child, and football shirts were a key part of that learning. “It obviously helped that my parents are from places where football's really popular. If my parents had just been born in Canada, we'd not be having this conversation. My Dad had a Brazil jersey from ‘93, he got it from my Mum ahead of the 1994 World Cup. He also had a ‘98 shirt, then the T90 one for the 2006 tournament. That World Cup proved transformative for Matias, watching his Dad’s nation wearing that yellow Nike shirt worn by Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Kaka and a load of players you remember we can’t list in full here. “There’s nothing like your first World Cup. You watch every game, follow all the news, pour over the stickers; it was all so magical. Suddenly, everything made sense, and from that point on, I was hooked. It helped that it had the best jerseys and players of any tournament since. That Netherlands v Portugal game, one of so many incredible matches. It was such a special tournament.” The next year, Matias got his first Brazil shirt, the first of very many.

Like many desperate to learn, desperate to know everything about the game, Matias played FIFA, but also a game called ‘Jumpers for Goalposts’. The 29-year-old frequently mentions the phrase throughout our conversation. Being nearly twice his age, I assumed, naively, that he was talking about playing in the garden or a park pitch, pretending to be Messi or Ronaldo. It was only after our engrossing two-hour online conversation that I realised it was an actual online game. In a follow-up question I asked him to describe it. “Jumpers for Goalposts" was a football flash game on the British website Mousebreaker. It was essentially a simple career mode game where you start as a player in League Two and try to work your way up through the divisions to the Premier League, winning trophies along the way. Everything in the game was controlled with the mouse, whether it was heading crosses, taking penalties, or shooting free kicks. What made it unique was that it also simulated the life of a footballer. You negotiated contracts, worked with an agent, and progressed through your career season by season. For me, the game was hugely influential because it introduced me to the wider ecosystem of English football”

Unlike many of his age playing football on the computer, Matias’ innate curiosity meant he always picked the lowest-ranked team. “I always thought, how low can I go? This team is in League Two. What is the league below that? What is the National League? What even is the National League. North or the National League South! I just kept going. Amazing. So it was always, how far can I go down before I stop?”

That a lad from Winnipeg knew exactly who Yeovil Town was emphasised his commitment to the cause and also put him in this lad from Somerset’s good books. This thirst for knowledge not only broadened his football understanding but was the first step on a now productive path exploring what he calls regularly “the nooks and crannies of football history and culture”. Eagerly describing it as “Places that people overlook or know nothing about. That's what has really driven me to want to go to places that are more obscure, more niche. I've not been to England, yet. I've been to Gibraltar, but not to England or France or Spain. That’s too easy, anyone can do that.”

At latest count, Matias has been to 42 of the 211 countries currently registered with FIFA. Before Kazakhstan, Guatemala, Lithuania, Turkmenistan, and many others, it was a visit to Fiji in 2023 that sowed the seed for this epic quest.

Given his Brazilian and Portuguese roots, Matias had travelled as a youngster, but in March 2023 he booked a trip to Fiji. No family connections this time, just a chance to accompany a friend with a Fijian background to the other side of the world. Knowing how curious and intrigued he could get and waiting to avoid excess luggage charges on his return, Matias put a limit on what souvenirs he was going to pick up. He decided on a fridge magnet, a flag, and, given his love of football, the national team jersey. The first two were pretty straightforward, but the difficulty of securing the right-sized football top perplexed and ignited a desire in him that remains to this day. In a rugby-loving country, where its people are specialists in that game because of their natural size and physique, a football shirt in size large proved tough to track down. After many false dawns, he was told that a local sportswear retailer, JR White, might be able to help. The excitement in retelling this story, even via a computer screen, is palpable. “We walked into the store. First thing I see when I turn my head, I look to the left, boom, the national team jersey of Fiji from the early 00s. I couldn't believe it. I was so shocked. However, my excitement turned to disappointment when I checked the sizing: XXL, XXXL. I chased a member of staff down, and he explained they had smaller sizes, but at another store. So we had to dash across the city and I finally got hold of a shirt in large. There was another that was XL, so I bought that as well - and they were only $8 dollars each.” Matias had his first experience of the thrill of the chase for sourcing football shirts, and trips to Cape Verde, Guatemala and Central Asia soon followed. Each shirt, whichever corner of the planet it was plucked from, told a different story, allowing him to meet people he never would’ve otherwise met. Nowhere was that better emphasised than when he ventured to Macau in 2025.

Ahead of his trip to the autonomous city across from Hong Kong, Matias connected with Nicholas Torrao. At that point Niki as he was known, was Macau’s most capped player, despite originally hailing from Portugal. The city was a Portuguese territory until 1999, so their squad has featured several players with roots in Portugal. Upon his arrival, Matias met Niki outside the Olympic stadium, and his new friend had a gift. A 2024 home jersey that had long since sold out and couldn’t be found in any sports shops despite the usual diligent and dedicated efforts from Matias. It wasn’t just one the Portuguese football had lying around; he had rung the federation President for the first time in two years demanding one to hand over. The kindness of strangers is something Matias has experienced throughout his travels, and it’s one he reciprocates. On the same trip, when he discovered one of the Macau goalkeepers didn’t have a shirt despite being on the team, he managed to find the exact version he wears to pass on. Returning the favour is good karma, something that comes in handy when you embark on numerous trips around the globe.

“A guy hit me up saying, ‘Hey, if you come to Cambodia, they just released the latest Vietnam jersey. So I thought, why not? This guy picked me up from the airport on less than a day's notice. We went and got the jersey, had some food and then went to watch an ‌AFC Challenge League between Svay Rieng and SP Falcons from Mongolia. This then led to another random and brilliant encounter, which Matias describes with a mix of enthusiasm and disbelief. So I posted about getting the Cambodia jersey and the store owner of First Football shop in Ho Chi Minh City says, ‘Hey, if you're coming out to Vietnam, let us know.’ I had plans to go to Ho Chi Minh City on ‌Thursday, anyway. I go to the store, get the home and the away. They gave me a concept jersey of the 1995 Southeast Asia Games jersey and a tote bag of the women's team making the World Cup for the first time in history. They then took me to a game at Ninh Binh who played the Ho Chi Minh City Police team. They were amazing and really looked after me , taking me out for food, and on the last day they said “do you still have room in your luggage for one more jersey?” I laughed and said “I’m sure I can squeeze one more in!” And they gave me the goalie away jersey from 2023 made by Grand Sport. I’m never not surprised by the kindness of strangers and the connections made through collecting football shirts.”

Matias is very much a collector, but his collection is not to be stored away; he continues to wear his shirts long after his trips and in so doing reveals the importance of a football shirt as a conversation starter. “I was at a Central Asian restaurant in Dallas the other day, and was chatting to the waitress who asked about my 2024-25 Cambodia away shirt. We got talking, and she said she was from Turkmenistan. I pulled up a picture of me in a Turkmenistan 2024 home jersey, draped in the Turkmenistan flag in front of the Darvaza Gas Crater. She couldn’t believe it, she was so shocked I’d actually been to one of the most iconic places in her country. Football shirts just have a way of connecting people, and wearing them is my way of showing respect to the country and the people I interacted with when I’m there and even after my trip. It can sometimes lead to confusion; the border officer at Turkmenistan or the school kids in Tajikistan assumed he was an actual footballer and couldn’t believe he was just a tourist. The power of the football shirt in the nooks and crannies throughout the whole of the world.

Returning to the aforementioned trip to Iraq I asked Matias how it all came about. “I was in Jordan and was looking at a map trying to work out what could be next. I looked at Syria, the West Bank, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, all for different reasons, logistically difficult, but Iraq was not as problematic, and a few days later I was in Baghdad.”

Matias' matter-of-fact manner is contagious; it’s easy to see how he makes so many friends on his travels. Once in Iraq, he tells of how his passion and knowledge of Iraq’s incredible Asian Cup victory in 2007, opened many doors whilst in the country. On one occasion in a gym in the Iraqi capital, he was given a flag, a shirt, and showered with hospitality and kindness. The same people took him to a “Souq al-Bala”, one of the second-hand markets that run throughout the city. He describes the moment in the video I vividly remember: a trader just pouring out reams and reams of football shirts from carrier bags. In the homogenised and connected world, it’s hard to be surprised ; something has usually been seen before somewhere but as Matias says…

“So companies from all over the world donate and send these clothes to Iraq in huge bales. Inevitably, there are some football shirts in there, and they only sell them for £5 or £10. I found 2012 Brazil, 2008 Germany, 2018 England. 2012 Netherlands. 2021 Liverpool, home and away! It was incredible, and they were so cheap.

The bustling marketplace in a place some would consider one of the most dangerous capitals in the world showed that football culture penetrates even the most unexpected places. It would’ve been so easy to load up and buy as many shirts as he could possibly carry and take back home. However, Matias is a collector, not a businessman. The quest for profit is not on his radar. If anything, the cheaper the better; he still bristles at having to spend over £100 for a Qatar national team jersey on his trip there.

Relatives who had heard of him going to Iraq, wondered if Matias had a “death wish”, but like he says “I felt safer in Baghdad than I did in Brazil, and I’m half-Brazilian, so that should tell you everything about misconceptions. Normal people are not politicians; they just want to connect, and there are few things that strangers can connect with each other than football.

I know Matias will connect with many more people and many more countries in the world. He’s currently only a quarter of the way through his journey of getting a shirt from every FIFA-registered nation, so there’s plenty still to tick off. “I have 169 countries to go, so there’s still many trips to plan and make. It’s important wherever I go I treat it with the respect it deserves, not quick border runs or anything like that. I need to make sure I do it properly so I can tell the right story.” He then spends the next five minutes describing his upcoming trip to Pakistan in a few weeks for their match against Myanmar. I want to get on the plane with him, and unearth something special and absorb the culture as Matias has done and will continue to do. I think he’ll be alright on his own and whatever comes next it will be done with a deep passion, knowledge and respect that we could all learn from. Go well Matias…