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.