On Romanian Football: National Team kit 2015–2017
Brand: Joma
Release: June 2015
Versions: Home, Away, Goalkeepers
Era: European Championship 2016 qualifiers & final tournament
Price: 55€ (player edition) / 30€ (fan)
Design: template (Joma Palermo)
Made in: China
Materials: 94% Nylon, 6% Spandex
Where to buy it: deadstock
The first home Romanian kit from Joma era came in the traditional yellow without any particular design motif on it. It was a Joma template to which the three Romanian colors were distributed. The away shirt was red and never used by the senior team in any official game. Goalkeepers have used three color variations.
The full kit was completed with color matching shorts and socks. Numbers and name fonts were blue on the home version and yellow on the away version.
After 45 years with adidas Romania made the switch to Joma. The last "adidas game" was Romania 1:0 Faroe Islands on 29.03.2015 that counted for European Championship 2016 qualifiers. The initial agreement between the Romanian Football Federation and the spanish brand was signed for 2015–2018 and later on extended to 2022.
According to the press releases the switch was made because Joma was offering a good lump of money, besides the equipment, while adidas did not do that.
The back-backstory
Pre 2015-agreement, Joma was sponsoring the Romanian national team of minifootball. Minifootball is the five-a-side football but played with a set of rules and competitive. There is a European Championship for it and a European Federation called EMF of which Romania was a member.
There was a change of leadership in Romanian football in 2014: the head of the European Minifootball Federation (EMF), which was of Romanian nationality, took the reins on the Romanian Football Federation (FRF).
Naturally this change of leadership brought organisational changes such as this new agreement.
But then it was also adidas fault, personal opinion, which kind of backed down from the Eastern European market in the 2010s. Their border influence was spread around Central Europe and the far eastern european country was Hungary and Russia. Thus Romania was lingering there in the shadow of our Hungarian neighbours without so much love from the german brand. That is why for example the last official games were played in adidas “climacool” shirts rather than using “formotion” shirt technology as it was custom.
As years passed adidas never regained their influence in these parts of the world and left the Balkans out of their scope to this date. Besides that their products were becoming way more expensive for the average income of an Eastern European fan. These days most of the Eastern European clubs have an agreement with an adidas distributor rather than the brand itself.
Highlights
First official game in Joma era
Northern Ireland 0:0 Romania, 13.06.2015
This game was played in a fan version Joma shirt due to a logistic issue at the headquarters of Romanian Football Federation. The match shirts did not arrive on time. For collectors this shirts it will be hard to find as only one set was made for the players. After this game a semi-fitted template model arrived. These shirts would be used until the release of the second Joma generation kits in 2017: On Romanian Football: National Team kit 2018–2020
Template life
After that game against Northern Ireland, the Joma Palermo became the national team shirt. With a different collar style from a different Joma shirt. Probably you are or not familiar with how sports brands work with clubs and teams. Every year the brand releases a catalog of products. They pitch their products and the federation/club itself are whom decide what to pick from their catalog. Furthermore the only thing that can be changed on these standard catalog products are the colors.
There are premium teams and sign special agreements which might include a personalized design or out of ordinary. But the material of the shirt and the fitting is based on one of the standard templates from their catalogs. The requests to change could cost more or can be declined by the brand. So if you are on a budget club you would always stay away from personalized shirt designs.
For the first Joma kit Romania Football Federation decided to work with only a standard template from Joma catalog without any other extra detail added to it. That template was called Joma Palermo in their 2015 catalog. The collar of the shirt was different and followed the Joma Premier template.
Special editions
This is the only Romanian shirt to this date that had two special editions. Previously the National Team played only in adidas templates.
For the friendly against Italy, 17.11.2015, the numbers on the shirts were black, made up from the names of those who lost their life in the Colectiv nightclub incident earlier that month.
For the friendly against Spain, 27.03.2016, the numbers on the pre-game shirts were substituted with math problems, the solutions to these math problem revealed the official player numbers.
The pregame shirts had math-problem on them as seen below. These shirts were later donated to charity. During the game those math equations have been displayed very small under the match details on the game shirts.
Romania had one of the highest dropout rates, nearly 20 percent, in the European Union back in 2016. The training shirts were part of a program that aims to use football to make math more appealing to Romanian youngsters.
Red was never used
The red away kit was never used in any official game by the men’s National Team. Women’s National Team and the youth teams used them several times.
Details home shirt
Details away shirt
Embroidered:
- Joma logo type on the chest
- Joma “j” trademark on the shoulders is within the material
- The Joma tag at the bottom “Official Product” is sewn
- “Romania” at the back of the neck is sewn
Heat press:
- Match details under Romania crest
- Player number and name on the back
- Crest is heat applied and the material is feels like felt
Personal thoughts
Yellow
The yellow was wrong. I don’t know if it is me. Or the material itself. I am used with the more of an amber (golden) yellow used in the 90s shirts. While the shade used for this shirt was more of a desaturated yellow.
Wrinkled fabric
Very characteristic to Joma material not the particular shirt itself. Their shirts can get wrinkles very easy and fast. Thus you might see a lot of Joma shirt presentations where the players have a wrinkled shirt on them.
Color scheme
The European Championship patches really tie up the shirt nicely. The color distribution on the shirt works very well with the patch colors. Making it look stunning with all match details.
I am keeping a timeline of Joma era in the Romanian Football. If you would like to explore more here are some helpful links:
Joma Kits timeline
National Team kit 2015–2017 — this article
National Team kit 2018–2020
National Team Away kit 2018–2020
National Team kit 2021–2023
National Team Away kit 2021–2023
Fun fact: Undefeated. In 2015 the Men’s National Team finished the year undefeated. Out of 7 games, 6 were played in Joma kits.
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:
National Team kit 2021–2023
National Team Away kit 2021–2023
2021–2022 brands in Romanian First League
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
