On Romanian Football: FCSB kits 2020–2021
Brand: Nike
Release: Home — July 2019*, Away — August 2020
Versions: Home, Away, Goalkeepers
Era: Liga 1 Romania 2019-2020–2021, Romanian Cup 2019-2020–2021
Price: 125€ (player edition)
Design: personalised
Made in: Thailand
Materials: 100% recycled polyester
Where to buy it: https://www.magazinfcsb.ro/
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*FCSB releases their kits every two years and never both home and away in the same season.
Intro
Note: For international readers, unfamiliar with Romanian football, FCSB is/was the former Steaua Bucharest club. The team who won Champions League in 1986. And was a finalist in 1989.
Press rumors of 2019 were saying that Puma tried to steal the Romanian club from the American giant. But the good relationship between FCSB and Nike was unbreakable. Still the Bucharest based club pays around 20–40% for the Nike products to use them.
2002 was the year when the team, which was back then Steaua Bucharest, switched to Nike. After 20 years with adidas. In 1976 Steaua signed a partnership with Adidas which supplied the kits for 26 consecutive years. The last game of Steaua in adidas kits was on 01.06.2002, Astra 1:1 Steaua. Steaua played only in adidas templates.
First Nike shirts at Steaua:
The same model of Nike shirts was used for 2002–2003 and 2003–2004 season. A difference was that the 2002–2003 were using a different team crest.
Nike x FCSB
For Nike sponsorship, there are at least four different tiers of teams — Elite, Premium, Standard & Third Party.
FCSB and Farul are the Nike premium teams from the Romanian First League. Premium teams are on the second level of Nike’s pyramid. Premium Teams get custom kit designs, streamlined pre-match shirts and some custom lifestyle / training gear.
Nike Elite teams: PSG, Barcelona, Liverpool etc.
Premium teams: FCSB, Sparta Prague, Zenit, Farul
Standard teams: Brighton, FC Sevilla
Third party teams: Birmingham, Hansa Rostock, FC Eindhoven
FCSB are using the DRI-FIT slim fit model rather than Vaporknit technology. Although surprisingly, Farul does use Vaporknit shirts which should put them in the Elite tier. But they get only templates without a customised design. Farul is owned by Mr. Gheorghe Hagi whom has a special agreement with the brand as he is a “Nike athlete” in Romania.
If you are looking for a timeline of Steaua kits you should get in touch with:
Steaua Collection: https://facebook.com/SteauaCollection
Army at home
— Debut of the shirts: 11.07.2019, FCSB 2:0 Milsami Orhei, Europa League
The FCSB 2019–20 home shirt came in full red with a pixelated camouflage pattern, a style that could be interpreted to pay homage to Steaua’s history as the official club of the Romanian Army.
The owner of FCSB also wanted to flex it here. As he is been in numerously legal disputes for years with the Romanian army. Implicitly the army does not acknowledges FCSB as being the club which was formed by the military in 1947. Thus why the split into two entities/clubs had happened in 2017. Now Romanian Football has both FCSB and Steaua Bucharest. Two different brands.
Now you get why the owner wanted to flex on them?
Red shorts and blue socks complete the new Nike Steaua Bucharest 2019–2020 home kit.
Angels for away
— Debut of the shirts: Viitorul 3:0 FCSB, 30.08.2020, Romanian First League
An “ice” pattern (says the club) is used for the away shirts.
The club owner, Mr. Gigi Becali, is a conservative Orthodox Christian. At some point he announced he wants to have only orthodox players at the club and that will be mandatory club transfer policy. So he showed the exit door to the players practicing other religions.
White in orthodoxy is the color of purity and God’s uncreated light. It is associated with resurrection of Jesus most of the times. There was an unofficial rule where I grew up. That you would normally wear white clothes during Easter or at the Church on Sundays.
Now you probably can make you own deductions why FCSB has been transitioning to white away shirts in the past 5 years despite the fact traditionals colors for away should have been blue. And you might have realised there is also a “cross” symbol into the team crest which was recently introduced when the split between FCSB and Steaua Bucharest was made.
American Poet William Carlos Williams quote: “It is not what you say that matters but the manner in which you say it”
Mr. Becali, the owner, embraces this quote. Most of the time saying things that do not have any logic but in the way he says it does leave a lot of room for interpretation.
Like in 2011 saying that “selling FCSB football shirts is costing me money”. And more recently in 2020 saying “FCSB does not need a marketing department, we are losing money as a brand now. So selling shirts will make us lose more money”. Closing down the department partially.
All in all Mr. Becali is also a big philanthropist at heart. But his influence can be seen even to the deeper levels of his club. Like shirts details. Here is FCSB 2020–2021–2022 away:
I do personally see a resemblance between “the high heavens” and FCSB away shirts. I do not see the “ice”. But that is just my opinion. Every season Mr. Becali faith grows stronger and stronger. Like he just announced that he won’t attend any party events anymore because the only music he can listen now days are Byzantine chants.
Details on home shirt
Below home shirt version used for 2019–2020
Season 2020–2021 had different fonts
Details on away shirt 2020–2021–2022
Below away shirt version used for 2020–2021
The only way to identify if a FCSB shirt 2019–2020–2021 is a match worn is by photo matching. Because the club has been selling only player shirts and no fans or replicas. Some buyers might have bought them from the club and selling them as match worn shirts overpriced.
Check game photos and look for:
— team crest: on 2020–21 away shirts star inside was blue, on 2021–2022 star is red for example
— number: on 2020–21 away and home shirts, the team crest appearing at lower back of the number has two versions: filled star and empty star
Personal thoughts:
For the home kit I think blue shorts would have been a better match with the socks. Same as they used in the season before:
The away shirt is the most simple and beautiful one that ever surfaced in Romanian First League in recent years. Pictures do not give enough credit to them. You have to see them with your own eyes. Personal opinion.
Now here are some of my favourite Steaua design shirts below. Where did it went wrong along the way? I mean where did the away blue went? This switch of FCSB to white is sleek but hopefully a more solid blue will come back into the shirts.
Font choices
I can’t remember a FCSB shirt with a proper decent font choice. Nike products for the elite tier teams look good, in my opinion. That is what the brand takes pride in: making products look damn good.
Pretty hard to make one of their shirts “ugly” unless you stick sponsors all over it. FCSB does not sticks sponsors but somebody at FCSB always manage to curb my enthusiasm with their font choices.
They add all kind of strokes and gradients on them.
Consistent
FCSB is a pioneer in unique kits for the Romanian football. This season, 2021–2022, only 3 teams from the Romanian First League have personalised shirt designs while others play in only templates.
As a collector you always want to get your hands on a FCSB shirt every season. Not because of a player or a match but because of the actual shirt. They are special and also the most difficult to find. They ain’t cheap either. Looking forward for 2022–2023 new away shirt.
I regularly post stories about Romania match worn shirts on Instagram.
If you want to get in touch with me you can find me there as onromanianfootball:
https://www.instagram.com/onromanianfootball/
On Romanian Football articles:
2017–2018 Kits
National Team kit 2021–2023
Universitatea Craiova kits 2020–2021
Other subjects:
Telling a Sports Story with Instagram
Interactive Football Installations: concepts and ideas
If you have a recommendation of a book that I have to read or if you have a project in mind about football or sports in general write me at:
hello [at] jeanpopescu.com
