Rating this year’s Christmas sweaters from top soccer teams،
It's starting to feel a lot like Christmas and football clubs have once again stocked the shelves of their online stores with a wide selection of festive knitwear.
In the past, many clubs have taken a cheap and cheerful approach to their seasonal clothing, but the bar has been raised for Christmas 2023 with some legitimately stylish efforts available.
In some designs, clubs pay homage to their home stadiums, statues and cities, while others are based on classic kits. Inevitably, some fall firmly into the ugly sweater category, with varying results.
After exploring the vast assortment of Christmas jumpers released by some of football's biggest clubs this year, we've selected the standouts and given each one a rating out of 10 to separate those with the most seasonal style from those that should be sent. return to the North Pole.
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Hailing from the fashion capital of the world, Milan walks a fine line between style and kitsch, but the result – a pattern depicting tinsel and toy soldiers from Tchaikovsky's classic Christmas ballet “The Nutcracker” – is rather refined by compared to certain others. the most garish designs here.
Rating: 7/10
This year's Ajax sweater, modeled by Jorrel Hato, elevates the conventional Fair Isle motif by adding buildings to the raised silhouette of the Amsterdam skyline: the Royal Palace, the De Gooyer Windmill and the Johan Cruyff Club arena. Christmas and educational in equal measure.
Rating: 7/10
Christmas jumpers inspired by popular kits of the past are somewhat of a theme this year. The Gunners' nostalgic offering, worn by Laura Wienroither, is reminiscent of the jersey worn by the Invincibles from 2003-04, with the logo of former sponsor O2 reworked into a festive crown. The details are impressive, right down to the Premier League 'patches' on the sleeves which replace the rampant lion with a frolicking reindeer. This overshadows the club's other effort, led by Gabriel Jesus.
Rating: 8/10
Barcelona's Best Christmas Sweater Features a Wacky Reindeer with blaugrana woods rendered in an 8-bit style. The little guy who also wears Barça knee high socks is just the icing on the Christmas cake. Ingrid Engen certainly seems satisfied with it.
Rating: 8/10
Bayern hit their stride with a brilliantly exaggerated patchwork design that features the club crest, motto, Munich Town Hall, their training ground, stars, snowflakes and even the Bavarian Alps. Harry Kane may be all smiles with Raphaël Guerreiro at the top of the page, but deep down you can tell he's deeply envious of his teammate for modeling the flagship when he was entrusted with the alternative relatively simple navy blue.
Rating: 10/10
Never one to hold back when it comes to sumptuous Christmas wear, Dortmund hung their 2023 design with just about every seasonal garland imaginable – from gingerbread to holly branches; Since tannenbaums candy canes; and all in their trademark black and yellow.
Rating: 7/10
Despite wearing '90s-inspired kits this season, Chelsea didn't extend that theme to her Christmas catalog. Instead, the Blues have released a fairly common knitted pattern, which features elements of the club crest as well as Christmas staples such as reindeer, trees and snowflakes.
Rating: 6/10
With no appointments of any kind until March next year, England fans can get away with putting on this clever Christmas jumper. The design is actually quite nice, with samples from past kits mixed together and used to create a patchwork effect. Given the usual wintry weather, England fans may well be able to wear it when Brazil turn up at Wembley for a friendly in four months' time.
Rating: 7/10
It will be a cold Christmas at Everton after the Premier League took 10 points from them, but at least the club have provided their fans with a Christmas jumper to help warm their cockles. The fabulous quarter-zip fleece features detailed reindeer, club crest and a Nordic ski scene complete with aerial cable cars.
Rating: 8/10
FIFA
As the least Christmas-unfriendly entity on the planet, it's not entirely clear why FIFA felt the need to produce its own official Christmas jumper or who exactly they think will buy it. The design is pretty clever – to the point where you could probably, in one fell swoop, wear it outside the house (while trying to make sure no one sees the big FIFA logo on the sleeve ). The only downside is that you won't be able to look your loved ones in the eye while wearing it.
Rating: 6/10
Last season's Champions League finalists often incorporate a blue snake (symbol of the city of Milan) into their kits and clothing, and now they are adding it to what would otherwise be a fairly standard element of their kit. Nerazzuri knitwear.
Rating: 6/10
Initially, we were tempted to drop the marks of this horror (it's been six years since they “updated” it and we're still salty). But the Bianconeri are actually getting a point for simply printing a black jacquard star pattern on a basic white crew-neck sweatshirt.
Rating: 5/10
Simple, understated and red-evoking, this design is a simple Fair Isle pattern that incorporates the Liverpool club crest and looks the part without falling into full-blown 'ugly sweater' territory.
Rating: 6/10
This City Christmas sweater is another pattern based on a classic kit. The 1989-90 shirt was likely selected because it already had an icicle-like herringbone pattern built into the fabric. A few decorative fir trees are added to the mix while, on the belly, Santa replaces the name of the previous sponsor, Brother.
Rating: 7/10
United has a range of festive outfits to choose from this year, but the most Christmassy of their sweater selection has to be this one, proving that sometimes less is more. The fir trees and Santa's sleigh running across the chest and large snowflakes on the sleeves are more than the sum of their parts and stand out nicely above the block green torso. In fact, if you didn't notice the thin line bearing the club name, you wouldn't even realize it was a club product.
Rating: 7/10
Still delighted with their historic Serie A victory last season, Napoli are eager to remind us that they remain Italian champions as we approach the midway point of what has proven to be a tricky title defense. With Christmas knitwear designed by Emporio Armani, you'd think they'd have a little more pizazz, but that doesn't really hit the mark.
Rating: 6/10
Let's be real, Forest fans need a bit of festive cheer. Given the team's form, it seems a trip down memory lane will have to do. The club has a few designs inspired by retro kits, but the one that stands out is the Yuletide version of their nausea-inducing cult classic 1995-97 away kit. It's probably best not to wear a knitted version of a kit nicknamed the “vomit yellow” shirt around the dinner table, mind you.
Rating: 3/10
Teasing a new signing for the winter window, PSG have added the name and number of a mysterious new player (Noëlinho) and new sponsor (Xmas Airways) to their kit-inspired jumper. Although we haven't spotted the new signature yet, we can assume it works well as the focal point of a Christmas tree formation.
Rating: 7/10
In a rare departure from their club's classic colors, Real have opted for a bright green, red and gold design. Modeled by Dani Carvajal, the sweater has the The Whites crest front and center in the middle of a woven pattern animated with gifts, balls and candies.
Rating: 6/10
Roma have several designs to choose from, but the best is the red and yellow knit jumper which adds the club's wolf's head crest to a Christmas motif including reindeer and snowflakes.
Rating: 6/10
The sleeves of Tottenham's jersey adopted a high line, just the way coach Ange Postecoglou likes his defense. We don't remember ever seeing a club offer a knitted vest option in their Christmas range before, but it really works here.
Rating: 8/10
What better way to celebrate the joyous holiday season than by paying a festive tribute to the official governing body of American football? The faux-patchwork monstrosity is deliberately ugly (hence the name) but that doesn't mean it's any less of a disaster. If it had been rendered in knit it might have worked, but printed on a polyester crewneck sweater it's just terrible.
Rating: 4/10
West Ham have adapted their club anthem to produce a cute Christmas jumper based on a play on words. Additionally, goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski seems happy to play the role of model.
Rating: 7/10
Images courtesy of acmilan.com, ajax.nl, arsenal.com, fcbarcelona.com, fcbayern.com, bvbonlineshop.com, chelseamegastore.com, englandstore.com, evertonfc.com, fifa.com, inter.it , juventus.com, liverpoolfc.com, mancity.com, manutd.com, sscnapoli.it, nottinghamforest.co.uk, psg.fr, realmadrid.com, asroma.com, tottenhamhotspur.com, ussoccer.com, whufc.com
