In the summer of 2009 Barcelona released an away shirt the colour of salmon. Not red, not a deep orange, not anything a Spanish club had put its crest on before. It arrived a few weeks after the team had won the treble and a few months before they won three more trophies in the same calendar year, so nobody was in the mood to complain, and a shirt that should have been ridiculous became one of the most collected Nike kits of the decade.
That is the pattern with Barcelona. The home shirt is close to untouchable, so everything experimental happens on the change kit. Turquoise, navy with a sash, orange, salmon, teal. If you want to date a Barcelona shirt at a glance, the away kit tells you far more than the blaugrana ever will.
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The short version
- Kit makers: Meyba until 1992, Kappa from 1992 to 1998, Nike from 1998 onwards.
- Sponsors: no front-of-shirt sponsor at all until 2006, then UNICEF from 2006 to 2011, Qatar Foundation from 2011, Qatar Airways from 2013, Rakuten from 2017 and Spotify from 2022.
- The oddity: the UNICEF logo was not a sponsorship in the normal sense. Barcelona paid UNICEF, not the other way round. Qatar Foundation in 2011 was the club's first paid shirt sponsor.
Kappa, and the turquoise years
Kappa had the contract from 1992 to 1998 and used it to make some of the strangest kits in the club's history. The 1995-97 away is the one people remember: a turquoise base with abstract patterning and the Kappa silhouette repeated down the sleeves. It is a shirt that could only have been made in the mid nineties, and it was on the pitch during Ronaldo's single season at the club.
Look at the chest: nothing. For most of the club's history that empty space was the point, and an original 1995-97 Barcelona away shirt is one of the last kits where you can see it before the space started filling up.
Nike arrives, and the sash
Nike took over in 1998 and spent the early years being relatively restrained. The exception is the 2002-03 away: a deep navy shirt cut across by a diagonal sash in the club's red and blue, with a fold-over collar and a pale gold swoosh. It came in a season the team would rather forget, sixth in La Liga, which is often when the best change kits appear.
The 2002-03 away shirt is one of the few Barcelona kits that reads as a proper design rather than a colourway.
2006: orange, and the first thing on the chest
The 2006-08 away shirt matters for a reason that has nothing to do with its colour. It is the first Barcelona shirt to carry a logo on the front, and the logo was UNICEF, which the club was paying rather than being paid by. More than a century of refusing sponsorship ended with Barcelona buying the right to advertise a children's charity.
It was worn by the Rijkaard side of Ronaldinho, Messi, Xavi and Iniesta, which gives an orange 2006-08 away shirt a weight beyond the design. A 2005-06 away shirt with Ronaldinho 10 covers the season immediately before, when the chest was still empty.
2009-10: the salmon shirt
Then Nike went pink. The 2009-10 away is salmon with navy on the collar and cuffs and unicef in navy across the chest, and it is the single most searched Barcelona away shirt we stock.
Timing made it. Barcelona had won the league, the cup and the Champions League in 2008-09, then added three more trophies in the second half of 2009. The salmon shirt belongs to that run, which is why a colour that would normally kill a kit instead sold it. An original 2009-10 Barcelona away shirt is the one people describe by colour rather than by season.
2010-11: teal, and the last of the UNICEF era
The following season Nike went to bright teal with a navy collar and a subtle vertical stripe through the body. It is the last away shirt before Qatar Foundation replaced UNICEF on the front, which makes it the end of the period when that space was not for sale.
A 2010-11 away shirt and a 2008-10 away shirt with Messi 10 together cover the peak of that team in change colours.
What this means if you are buying
- The chest dates the shirt faster than anything else. Empty means pre-2006. UNICEF alone means 2006 to 2011. UNICEF pushed up with a sponsor below it means 2011 onwards.
- Away shirts were made in smaller numbers than home shirts, and Barcelona sold home shirts by the container load. That gap is wider here than at almost any other club.
- Odd colours were unpopular when new. Salmon and teal sat on the shelves in 2009 and 2010. They are the ones people want now, which is the usual pattern with change kits.
- Check the crest and the swoosh finish. Embroidered on originals from these seasons, printed on most reproductions.
The full Barcelona collection runs from the Kappa years to the present, and if the change kit is what interests you, the wider set of away shirts is where the strange colours live. Our piece on the most iconic football shirts you can own takes the same approach across other clubs.
Frequently asked questions
What colour was the Barcelona 2009-10 away shirt?
Salmon, with navy on the collar and cuffs and the unicef logo in navy across the chest. It was worn during the year Barcelona won six trophies.
Why did Barcelona have no shirt sponsor for so long?
The club treated the front of the shirt as part of its identity and refused to sell it. That ended in 2006, and even then the first logo was UNICEF, which Barcelona paid rather than being paid by. Qatar Foundation in 2011 was the club's first paying shirt sponsor.
Who makes Barcelona's kits?
Nike since 1998. Kappa made them from 1992 to 1998 and Meyba before that.
Which Barcelona away shirt is the most collected?
The 2009-10 salmon shirt gets asked for by colour more than any other. The Kappa turquoise of 1995-97 is the harder one to find in good condition.
How can I tell a real Barcelona away shirt from a reproduction?
Start with the crest and the swoosh, which are embroidered on originals from these seasons and usually printed on copies. Then check the wash tag against the season, since the Nike product code is the detail reproductions rarely get right.