The obscure origin stories behind Mexican soccer teams’ colors

Football, i.e., soccer, tin beryllium a fickle game. Here successful Mexico, a subordinate has done good if helium lasts 3 seasons with a club. Sometimes, it seems that a manager should observe for managing 3 months with a gig. 

One happening that is untouchable, however, is simply a team’s colors.

While Mexican shot teams’ azygous designs surely alteration with the times, mostly the colors utilized enactment the aforesaid for decades. (Club América/Facebook)

The plan mightiness alteration — indeed, it usually does each twelvemonth to “encourage” fans to bargain a caller garment — but the Club Deportivo Guadalajara shot squad volition ever play successful red-and-white stripes, Club América successful shirts that are fundamentally yellow.

The stories down the colors

The colors of the large shot clubs person had galore antithetic inspirations. When Italy’s Juventus was archetypal formed, the squad was truthful mediocre that a visiting English team, Notts County, donated its aged kit. Notts County present play successful League Two of English football, but Juventus inactive wears the aforesaid black-and-white garment plan arsenic it chases its 37th Italian title.

Leeds United wears each achromatic due to the fact that its manager, Don Revie, wanted to animate squad members by wearing the aforesaid kit arsenic mighty Real Madrid. Bristol Rovers opted to don blue-and-white quarters arsenic their manager believed it would marque the players look larger and much intimidating. 

Mexican clubs person akin stories, and 1 of the astir colorful concerns the Atlas shot nine of Guadalajara.

What does this staid boys’ boarding schoolhouse successful the English countryside person to bash with the sanction of a highly palmy Guadalajara nonrecreational footie team? (Robert Walton/Google)

Back successful 1916, oregon truthful the communicative goes, the founding players were successful a barroom successful Guadalajara, wherever they decided to signifier a shot team. Several of the young men had studied at Ampleforth College in North Yorkshire, and they chose the burgundy and achromatic Ampleforth colors to honour the instauration that had taught them the game.

Ampleforth itself had adopted its reddish and achromatic colors to nexus with St. Lawrence — the achromatic representing his blood, and the reddish his martyrdom.

The past of Club América’s name

That aforesaid year, 500 kilometers distant successful Mexico City, the players of Colegio Mascarones and Colegio Marista de la Perpetua were arguing implicit the details of a imaginable amalgamation of their 2 clubs. The sanction “América” was accepted arsenic a neutral capable 1 — and besides due arsenic the young men were gathering connected Columbus Day. This led to the celebrated América badge, with its representation of the Americas and a ‘C’ for ‘Club’ and an ‘A’ for ‘América’.

There was little agreement, however, connected the caller team’s colors, which were decided by accident.

As they couldn’t spend to bargain due kit, Rafael Garza Gutiérrez, some a subordinate and the squad manager, borrowed a brace of his father’s navy-blue trousers and chopped them into shorts. He wore them with an mean yellowish shirt. Yellow and bluish person been the América colors ever since. 

The 1980s saw Mexican shot commencement to go a large business, and selling became ever much important. América led the mode with its iconic 1982 V-shaped designed shirts. It was some eye-catching and symbolic, the chevron V being said to basal for Vittoria. Respected UK shot mag FourFourTwo described those kits arsenic “the astir hipster successful shot history.

Years later, the aforesaid mag named América’s 1994–1996 plan — successful which the straight-lined chevron was updated by a zigzag of diamonds — arsenic the 14th champion shot garment ever designed.

“This was a jersey that could person gone severely awry,” the mag said. “But for us, the primary-colors ambition connected show marque it much superb than bonkers.” 

Not each stories down nine colors are truthful clear. Guadalajara started playing successful each white, and we cognize determination was a European power connected the team’s adopting its celebrated red, achromatic and bluish kit. One communicative suggests this was copied from the founder’s favourite team, Belgium’s Club Brugge. Others assertion the red, achromatic and bluish colors travel from the  French Tricolor. The statement for this is that a halfway of the team, including respective French players, worked astatine the Fábricas de Francia.

The celebrated 1994–1996 Club América jersey — a plan catastrophe oregon the champion happening to ever hap to Mexico City nonrecreational football? You beryllium the judge. (Reddit)

Whatever communicative you believe, it is absorbing that the nine that has go the astir Mexican of them each retains its aged European-inspired colors.

The UNAM squad has 1 of the astir iconic shirts successful Mexico — immoderate operation of bluish and golden with a varying magnitude of white, but ever dominated by a elephantine puma head.

The bluish and golden connected their uniforms are said to beryllium a tribute to the University of Notre Dame, whose shot coaches were helping to make an American-style shot squad astatine the assemblage astatine the time.

The Puma nickname was archetypal utilized to animate the squad by manager Roberto ‘Tapatío’ Méndez and became the nickname of the galore sports teams that represented the university. The puma caput — a plan unsocial successful the satellite of shot — recovered its mode onto the shirts astir 1975. 

The Mexican nationalist squad has occasionally tried to determination distant from the greenish shirts, achromatic shorts and reddish socks they are celebrated for. Most recently, it played the 2024 Copa América successful a highly praised azygous garment that 1 media outlet described arsenic having a “maroon basal with grey logos and a unsocial peacock-inspired pattern, referencing Mexican/Mayan mythology.” 

This alteration seems to person been undertaken for nary different crushed than fashion, and erstwhile attempts to determination distant from the modular greenish person ne'er gained immoderate lasting traction. 

The sanction for the UNAM shot team, The Pumas, was really conceived by a UNAM American-football coach, Roberto “Tapatio” Méndez , center, successful 1942, years earlier the National Autonomous University had a shot team. (UNAM)

However, erstwhile Mexico played successful the archetypal World Cup tourney successful 1930, the squad was dressed successful burgundy shirts with acheronian shorts. Why players utilized these colors is unknown. The mentation that they were based connected Spanish colors hardly seems likely, fixed the past betwixt the 2 countries. The crushed is astir apt nary much analyzable than idiosyncratic had a acceptable of burgundy shirts to donate to the team.

Mexico retained burgundy shirts until the 1956 Pan-American Games, erstwhile it took the governmental determination to follow the nation’s emblem colors. Burgundy remained a second-choice color, but was often preferred by the players. It was successful burgundy that Mexican shot had its archetypal World Cup triumph successful 1962. 

Four years later, the authoritative squad garment colour was green, but the Mexican squad opened against France successful the aged burgundy and achromatic shorts design. This whitethorn person been due to the fact that the bluish azygous colour of the French was considered excessively akin to the Mexican green, peculiarly nether floodlights.

But wherefore Mexico retained these shirts for their adjacent crippled against England is uncertain. It is imaginable that the Mexican greenish and the English achromatic shirts were hard to separate connected black-and-white tv sets. It is conscionable arsenic apt that the tight-fitting, long-sleeved burgundy shirts simply felt better.

What stands retired is however good galore of the Mexican shirts person been designed since then. The 2022 pick second-choice azygous utilized during the World Cup successful Qatar has go a favourite with garment collectors, portion the ESPN website listed Mexico’s 2024 Copa América garment arsenic the champion plan of the tournament.

Finally, we cannot permission the communicative of Mexican shot kits without remembering Jorge Campos. 

From 1988 to 1995, Campos kept extremity for UNAM, for whom helium made implicit 200 appearances. He past moved astir assorted clubs successful Mexico and the U.S. for a vocation full of 445 nine games. 

Campos designed his ain agleam kits — said to beryllium inspired by his Acapulco puerility — to marque himself look bigger. I americium not a manner writer and bounds myself to saying, “Well, they were surely agleam and colorful!” 

They besides look to person worked, arsenic Jorge Campos played for Mexico 129 times.