7 Teams That Reverted Back to Historic Kits

Everybody loves a classic kit, and it's a growing trend to see football clubs reverting back to the old days when they release fresh garm for the season ahead each year.

Plenty have done it in the recent past, so it's time to take a look back at seven occasions where historic kits have re-appeared on the scene at top level football clubs.

Arsenal - 2005/06

Arsenal captain Thierry Henry celebrates / CARL DE SOUZA/Getty Images

Despite being synonymous with the colour red, Arsenal shook things up for the 2005/06 season by releasing a home kit in a colour which has been described as ‘redcurrant’.

Marking the club’s final season at Highbury, Arsenal brought back one of the first shirts they had ever worn at the ground in the early 1900s, adding iconic gold accents which made the kit feel like it meant something special.

It’s hard not to picture Thierry Henry and Robert Pires strutting their stuff in this iconic kit in the 2006 Champions League final, where they came up just short against Barcelona.

Barcelona - 1999/2000

This Barcelona centenary strip is iconic / Clive Brunskill/Getty Images

To celebrate 100 years of existence, Barcelona released a stunning centenary kit for the 1999/2000 season as a tribute to some of the earliest jerseys in the club’s history.

The half-and-half colour scheme was a core part of Barcelona’s early years, and the dates across the chest only added to the outstanding style. It didn’t actually prove to be very lucky for Barça though, who lost their league title and ended up sacking manager Louis van Gaal after all was said and done.

Inter - 2007/08

Zlatan Ibrahimovic was one who donned this Inter away strip / Claudio Villa/Getty Images

Inter’s away shirt for the 2007/08 came as a real surprise to fans, most of whom had never seen anything like this design before.

The white base was fine, but the red cross made it feel perilously close to the colours of cross-town rivals AC Milan. Inter actually wore that strip back in the 1928/29 season, when they went by the name of Società Sportiva Ambrosiana. It was a one-season thing and was only enforced after Inter were forced to temporarily rebrand during Benito Mussolini’s reign.

Brought back to celebrate the club’s 100-year anniversary, it clearly proved lucky as Inter went on to win the Serie A title.

Real Madrid - 2011/12

Ronaldo scored quite a few goals in this throwback Real away kit / David Ramos/Getty Images

After years of keeping their away kits predominantly black, Real Madrid shook it up in 2011 by releasing an all red shirt - something a generation of fans had never experienced as Real’s only other time in red came back in 1970.

The design wasn’t lucky for Real back then, enduring their first season without a trophy in almost 20 years, but things went much better second time around as Los Blancos lifted the La Liga title in record-breaking fashion.

José Mourinho’s side were the first to reach 100 points in a La Liga season and also set the record for most goals scored in one year. They had Cristiano Ronaldo’s 46 strikes to thank for that.

Bayern Munich - 2017/18

Kingsley Coman recently scored in the Champions League final / TF-Images/Getty Images

One of the most popular Bayern Munich kits in recent memory was the 2017/18 home kit, which reintroduced the white stripes which had been worn by the dominant side of the 1970s.

“I was lucky enough to wear the 1977 kit and even at the time I really liked the design,” said chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge. “This kit symbolised the start of a great era.”

Bayern were already in the middle of their own new era when they brought the stripes back, and that reign is still going strong to this day.

Lazio - 2014/15 & 2018/19

Miroslav Klose rocked this beautiful Lazio kit in 2015 / Paolo Bruno/Getty Images

Midway through the 2014/15 season, Lazio unveiled a special 115th anniversary home shirt which was to be worn for the remainder of the campaign, bringing back the iconic eagle which had blessed Italian football during the 1980s.

It helped inspire Lazio to a run of form which saw them cement a spot in the Champions League, and the design was so popular that it was brought back just three years later.

During its second (or third) coming, the eagle brought Coppa Italia glory to Lazio in what was an otherwise disappointing season.

Chelsea - 2019/20

Chelsea's one-off kit was stunning / Robin Jones/Getty Images

Instead of bringing their historic kit back for a whole year, Chelsea opted to bring out a throwback kit for an FA Cup clash with Nottingham Forest in January 2020. It was the double of the shirt worn by the Blues who lifted the FA Cup back in 1970.

With the sponsors blued out against the background, all that stood out was the golden Chelsea lion, and it quickly became one of the club’s most popular releases of the modern era.

It was shelved for the games which followed, but ever since it first came out, fans have been crying for it to return.