2023-24 Sporting CP CR7 Third Shirt

CR7 Special Edition Brand New Nike

CR7 brand on the chest, replacing the Nike logo
Black torso with gold sleeves, inspired by the iconic 2003 Gold Shirt
Ronaldo's "love to win, hate to lose" signature
Commemorating 20 years of the Estadio José Alvalade

£99.99 Free UK delivery

Shop Now

Classic Football Shirts

Cristiano Ronaldo

Sporting CP

A shirt marking 20 years of the Estadio José Alvalade. The opening match was where Manchester United found Cristiano Ronaldo.

The Story

The shirt worn before he became CR7. And the shirt that carries the CR7 brand. Twenty years between them.

August 2003. Sporting CP had just built a new stadium. The Estadio José Alvalade needed a game worthy of the occasion, so they invited Manchester United. What was meant to be a celebration of a new ground turned into one of football's most consequential 90 minutes.

Sporting started in green and white, but switched to their gold shirts in the second half. Wearing number 28 was an 18-year-old from Madeira: fast, direct, and completely unafraid. By the final whistle, United's players were asking Sir Alex Ferguson to sign him. Not suggesting it. Asking.

"The boy is special. The whole team was pleading with me to sign him." Sir Alex Ferguson

Days later, Cristiano Ronaldo was in a Versace sweater, meeting Ferguson again. A £12.24 million deal was done.

Twenty years later, Nike made a shirt to mark the stadium's anniversary. Black with gold sleeves, echoing the kit from the opening night. And on the chest, where the Swoosh would normally sit: the CR7 brand. His signature, "love to win, hate to lose", runs alongside it. The full-circle of what that night became.

Where the Swoosh should be

Nike had been building the CR7 brand with Ronaldo since 2012. For this shirt, they took the next step: their own logo replaced entirely by his. It is a level of recognition only two footballers have reached on a senior club shirt. The full-circle moment the story demanded.

A Closer Look

In the Vault

Estadio José Alvalade · August 2003 · Sporting CP vs Manchester United · Match Worn · No.28

The actual shirt.
From the actual night.

This shirt existed before any of it happened.

Before five Ballon d'Or awards. Before the Champions League nights with United, Real Madrid, Juventus. Before 900 career goals. Before becoming the highest international scorer in the history of the game. Before CR7 was a brand, a logo, or a word in any language.

In August 2003, Cristiano Ronaldo was an 18-year-old wearing number 28 for Sporting CP at the opening of their new stadium. He had played 25 games for the club. He was talented. Exceptional, even. But no one in that ground knew exactly how the story was going to end.

The game changed that. United's players saw it first-hand. Within days the shirt had been worn for the last time, and Ronaldo was at Old Trafford.

What came next is the most decorated career in the history of the game.

We have that shirt in our Vault. Not a replica. Not a tribute. The actual match-worn original from that night. Considering what he went on to become, it is a genuinely ridiculous piece of football history to own.