Joan Monfort recalls when he photographed Lionel Messi holding Lamine Yamal as a baby. (1:31)
Barcelona have rolled out their new home kit for the 2024-25 season, and they haven’t done things by halves. Oh, wait — they have, actually.
Rather than their familiar blaugrana stripes, the Catalan club have decided to go with a legacy design based on the very first jerseys the team wore 125 years ago.
Barça are celebrating that special anniversary and will be doing so while wearing a kit inspired by the original half-and-half jerseys worn from when the club was founded in 1899 until 1910.
While several different explanations exist, Barcelona historians believe the most likely origin of the club’s colours is Merchant Taylor’s School in Merseyside, England. That was the school attended by Arthur Witty, who was one of the founder members of FC Barcelona and become club president in 1903.
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The main competing theory is that the colours were chosen by Witty’s fellow club founder Joan Gamper, who borrowed the colours from his beloved FC Basel.
The 125th anniversary revamp sees a return of half-and-half shirts for the first time since 2008-09, when a budding young coach by the name of Pep Guardiola guided a star-studded squad to the first LaLiga, Copa del Rey and Champions League treble in Spanish football history.
Several of those icons appear in the impressive launch video for the 2024-25 home kit, with cameos from Andrés Iniesta and Carles Puyol, although neither play as prominent a role as fan favourite Ronaldinho.
There was also a version worn for the club’s centenary season in 1999-2000, when Louis van Gaal coached a star-studded team featuring Guardiola, Luis Enrique and Rivaldo.
There are also appearances from a clutch of contemporary stars such as Aitana Bonmati, Robert Lewandowski, Pedri and man (boy?) of the moment Lamine Yamal.
The kit is an undoubted triumph, a classy nod to the club’s history that will stand up well against the jersey of any other team they come up against next season.