Three Lions on a Shirt: The Official History of the England Football Jersey

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It started with Henry I, fourth son of Norman William the Conqueror, whose coat of arms featured a lion rampant on a red background.

There can’t be many football kit afficiandos who are not familiar with Vision Sports’ series of match worn shirt books, driven by kit expert Simon ‘Shakey’ Shakeshaft. Competitively, the shirt was worn just once in Izmir in May 1991 as England beat Turkey 1-0 thanks to a Dennis Wise goal. pages of football memories 1927 to 1996, assisted by two sections of b/w photographs, includes INDEX. The attention to detail is breathtaking and is nothing less than what we’ve come to expect from Shakey, a man known and feared for his tenacious approach to accuracy. Perhaps the greatest European footballer of all time - George Best might put up a pretty persuasive counter-argument - Cruyff has always been an individual who wanted to be in the thick of everything.He was the son of King Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine and his powerhouse of a mother also had a lion on her own family coat of arms. Seven weeks later in a game against Czechoslovakia seven England stars played without the Three Lions badge on their shirt. The desultory answer to the football part is that the three lions are also the emblem of the Football Association, the sport's governing body in England.

Arguably the most famous kit in English football history was made by Umbro after they signed a deal with The FA to replace Bukta.By the time the World Cup in 1990 came around Umbro had gone for a shirt that was complemented by a simple yet striking pattern of zig-zags and diamonds within the fabric and navy collar. When he married for a second time, he adopted a lion from the family crest of his new bride, Adeliza of Louvain. England played Scotland in May 1975 and none of the team’s lightweight shirts featured an Admiral logo, but in a further bizarre twist in a friendly against Switzerland, striker David Johnson wore this shirt which did not include a Three Lions crest. When we got knocked out [5-6 to Germany on penalties in the semi-finals] I was at Wembley, and I totally shut down emotionally. For the World Cup in Qatar, England have gone with a home shirt that has a passing reference to the trim colours found on the classic Euro 96 jersey.