World Football Quest

One of the tiny baltic nations, Latvia has been in my early childhood a curious name issue. In Spanish, Latvia's name is Letonia, and "Leto" is a name that sounds fairly similar to "leche", what means "milk", so I always related Latvia's name with what can be translated to "milkland". So awkward I know. Letting go this nostalgic moments (ok, no) Latvia is one of the regions that was part of the ancient USSR, and they gained their independence in 1991, so it can be considered as a recently formed country. Historically, the land that in the present is Latvia, has been occupied by many different tribes, empires and northern-european cultures, like Germany, Sweden, Poland and Russia. Those occupations have gave Latvia a diverse demographic and cultural situation, unfortunately, this is a focus of problems with the different origins of the Latvian people and citizens.

About sport, Latvia is not an enormous footballer country, considering that Ice Hockey and Basketball are above Football in popularity. The national team, known as the Sarkanbaltsarkanie (it's absolutely impossible that I read this properly) played its first international game in 1922, when Latvia was an independent nation of the old Russian Empire (at that moment, the Soviet Russia pre-USSR). The team played under the Latvian flag until 1942, when the country was invaded and annexed to the USSR, and their players played for the USSR National team. This situation ended in 1990, when the Latvian team was reborn and was followed by the independent movements that happened in the following years. The actual team has not a great record of wins, since they are what can be considered as a "medium-under ranking team" in the UEFA rankings. Even with that, they managed to classify for the 2004 European Championship in Portugal, unfortunately, their race for the title ended early in the group stage.

My shirt comes from a german store that I've found by accident the past weekend. They had some offers and auctions opened on ebay, and I managed to get this brand new shirt for only 15€ with shipping, so it was a good bargain and a nice chance to fill a tiny but, as important as the others, hole in the world map to complete my collection. Unfortunately for me is an XL shirt, so it will remain unworn for now. I have to say I absolutely love the colour, since I find that this "wine red" colour is quite stylish and elegant, and with the white details it's a great combination for a football shirt.

One of the (unfortunately) oldest examples of nationalist problems in the "first world", Northern Ireland has been a focus of political instability for centuries, since there's people who wants to be part of Ireland (and be just one country in the island) and the rest who wants to stay as a member of the United Kingdom. At the moment, this last situation is the one that is "official" right now, but we have to keep an eye on it, considering what is happening in Scotland. Apart of its political situation, Northern Ireland is not very different of what you can find in the UK or Ireland, at least as far as I know and if I'm wrong in anything, sorry!

Sports in Northern Ireland are quite similar to other parts of Ireland or the UK, being Football and Rugby the most popular sports. One curious thing is that Northern Ireland has its own FA, while the Irish Rugby Football Union represents both Ireland and Northern Ireland at the same time, this happens too with Cricket and possibly with other sports. The Northern Ireland football team is one of the oldest in the world, if we consider it as the same team that represented the whole Ireland island from 1882 to 1920. The national team exists officially since 1954, when the FIFA decided to end the issues with both Irish federations. Maybe the most recognized player of Northern Ireland football is, without doubt, George Best, who won many individual and collective trophies in many clubs, especially at Manchester United.

The shirt I've just added to my collection is the home shirt from 2010, when they failed to get a place in that year's World Cup in South Africa. Even though it's a very simple and a bit plain design, I really like it, since green is one of my favourite colours and the badge is quite beautiful I think. It came directly from Poland, where I found it on ebay for less than 9€, so it was a great bargain considering it's almost new.