Spoiler alert - England had the best shirts in the 1990s!
England has a new short every 2 years for as long as I remember and the recent efforts from Nike are rather drab compared to the early Umbro shirts. Nike really sticks to the plain designs for England whereas I'd prefer to see some bold away and third shirts.
I've gone over all the kits to bring you the 5 best England shirts! I've done them in a top 5 order, which took some deliberating. Let me know what you think on the socials (Search casual football shirts and you'll find me everywhere!)
Best England Shirts
No 5 - 1998 Home Shirt
I'm kicking it off with the only home shirt on the list, on its own. I think with white home shirts there is only so much you can do and the red and blue away and third colours have more freedom.
This shirt was done for the 1998 World cup and has red and blue panels at the side. There is a dark blue burrow collar that offsets it all well. The 1998 away shirt was also a contender for the top 5 with its England flag style pattern begin good look.
Every time I see this shirt it screams for BECKHAM 7 or OWEN 10 on the back. Maybe Gerrard 4 for certain fans.
No 4 - 1994 Away Shirt
This would have come in at number 2 if it wasn't for the slightly longer pointed collar which is a strange look.
The red with the England badge in a repeated pattern is a design I'd love to see done again (Unlikely with Nike). This is a shirt that lives long in my memory for me and there are not that many of them around. I'm still personally looking for one in a medium that is in great condition, hopefully, I can get one soon!
The only other downside to this is that England failed to qualify for the 1994 World Cup so it missed out on that major tournament. I expect this is one of the reasons why these shirts are harder to find, the major tournaments usually help to sell more shirts.
No 3 - 1996 Away Shirt
We are sticking with the 1990s for the 3rd in the list with arguably the best shirt of Euro 1996 (I'm English and biased). This was a blue/ grey striped number that is instantly recognisable.
The 1996 and 1998 shirts all saw a centralised badge which really suits international shirts. If there is no sponsor to worry about then a centralised badge and manufacture lend itself to some designs. Again this is something I'd like to see again but it's unlikely with the current Nike bore-fest of shirts.
No 2 - 1990 - Home, Away, Third
I could not split these 3 shirts from the 1990 World Cup. For me, each one of these is a classic look for an England shirt. There are loads of reproductions of these but you cannot beat the originals if you want to own a true classic England shirt. It wasn't much later that England stopped producing a third shirt and just had a home and away under FIFA colour guidelines on light and dark shirts.
The World Cup versions of the shirt all have embroidery under the badge of "FIFA WORLD CUP ITALIA 1990". These are slightly rarer than the standard version of the shirt. I'm aiming, at some point to own all 3 in my size. So far I have the home in standard and with the world cup embroidery. These shirts are becoming more collectable and valuable the rarer they get. This is especially true with the third shirt commanding the highest prices.
No 1 - 1992 Third Shirt
If you've read any of my other blogs then you'll know I have a thing for bold designs. This England shirt is the boldest use of the 3 lions on any shirt. I am not sure how well-received it was at the time and it is a very rare shirt to find. I do not currently own one personally or to sell and I am yet to. Hopefully, I'll get my hands on one soon!
If there was ever one that had "3 lions on a short" this has to be the ultimate one!