Spain beat Argentina 1-0 at MetLife Stadium on 19 July 2026 to win their second World Cup, sixteen years after their first. Forty-eight nations, three host countries, and by the end of it a second star above the crest on a red shirt.
Every tournament adds to the pile, and only a handful of shirts survive it. We spend our days with kits from the seventies through to the two thousands, and the same names come up every time the argument starts. Here are the ones that lasted, and why.
The shortlist
- Brazil 1970, the yellow that became the colour of football
- Netherlands 1974, Total Football, and Cruyff's two stripes
- Argentina 1986, Maradona in Mexico
- West Germany 1990, the chevron everyone copied
- Italy 1990 and France 1998, two home tournaments
- Spain 2010, and the second star in 2026
Brazil 1970: the yellow that became the colour of football
You cannot start anywhere else. Brazil won in Mexico playing some of the most beautiful football ever filmed, and because 1970 was one of the first tournaments broadcast widely in colour, that golden yellow with green trim and blue shorts reached the whole world at once.
Pele, Jairzinho, Carlos Alberto, and that fourth goal in the final against Italy. The kit did not need a pattern or a sponsor. It is the reason that when someone draws a footballer from memory, they still reach for yellow. Our Brazil vintage football shirts show how the canary yellow changed across the decades that followed.
Netherlands 1974: Total Football in orange
The Dutch did not win in 1974, and their shirt is remembered more fondly than most winners. Total Football under Rinus Michels, Johan Cruyff at the centre of it, and an orange adidas kit that has never really gone away.
There is a collector detail here that most articles skip. Cruyff had a personal contract with Puma and would not wear adidas's three stripes, so the Dutch federation had adidas make him a version with two. Look at any team photo from that summer and one player is slightly out of step with the other ten. If you want the shirt that came after it, our piece on the Netherlands 1988 shirt covers the one that finally won something, and the Netherlands vintage football shirts collection covers the rest.
Argentina 1986: Maradona's masterpiece
Argentina's light blue and white stripes work in any year, but 1986 in Mexico is the one. This is the shirt Diego Maradona wore against England when he scored the Hand of God and the Goal of the Century inside four minutes.
The detail collectors love: the shirt worn that afternoon was a lighter version sourced in a hurry by the kit staff in Mexico because the heavier one was unwearable in the heat. One of those match shirts later became one of the most expensive football shirts ever sold at auction. Our Argentina vintage football shirts and the wider South American nations collection are where that era lives.
West Germany 1990: the chevron everyone copied
Black, red and gold sweeping diagonally across a white shirt, drawn by adidas and backed up by a team that beat Argentina in the final in Rome. Few designs have been reissued, referenced and imitated as often.
If you grew up in the nineties this is probably the first kit you drew in the margin of a schoolbook. See what we have in Germany vintage football shirts.
Italy and France: two home stories
Italy have given us some of the cleanest blues in football, from Paolo Rossi dragging the team to the title in Spain in 1982 to the whole mood of Italia 90 on home soil. France wrote their own version in 1998, when Zinedine Zidane scored twice with his head in the final against Brazil and a tidy adidas shirt with a simple collar became part of a national celebration.
Two countries, two home tournaments, two shirts that stopped being kit. Browse our Italy and France vintage football shirts.
Spain 2010, and the second star
Spain won their first World Cup in 2010, beating the Netherlands in Johannesburg and finally converting a decade of possession football into a trophy. Sixteen years later they did it again in New Jersey, which puts a second star on a shirt that already carried plenty of weight.
Portugal belong in the same paragraph for different reasons: no trophy, but a golden generation and some of the most stylish kits of the two thousands. Both are in our Spain and Portugal vintage football shirts collections.
What actually makes a World Cup shirt last
Looking at the list, the pattern is not design quality on its own. Every shirt here is tied to a single afternoon that people can still describe. The design has to be good enough not to get in the way, and then the football does the rest. That is why a plain yellow shirt from 1970 outlives dozens of cleverer kits from the decades since.
It is also why originals from these tournaments are so scarce. They were bought to be worn, not kept. If you want to own one rather than read about it, our guide on how to buy an authentic World Cup shirt covers what to check before you spend anything, and the full national team football shirts collection is where ours are listed.
Frequently asked questions
What is the most iconic World Cup shirt?
Brazil's 1970 home shirt is the usual answer, and for good reason. It was one of the first kits seen worldwide in colour, worn by the team most people still name as the best ever.
Why did Cruyff wear two stripes in 1974?
He had a personal contract with Puma and would not wear adidas's three stripes, so a two-stripe version was made for him alone. It is visible in every team photograph from that tournament.
Who won the 2026 World Cup?
Spain, beating Argentina 1-0 in the final at MetLife Stadium on 19 July 2026. It was their second World Cup after 2010.
Are original World Cup shirts still available?
Yes, but they are genuinely scarce and almost always show wear, because these shirts were bought to be worn. Reissues are widely available and are a different thing at a different price.
Written by Tijs, co-founder of Nostalgic Football Shirts.