The pattern that conquered Europe

Euro 88 was the first tournament my brother and I watched from start to finish. I was young. England lost all three of their games, and it didn't matter much in our house, because we were enamoured with the Netherlands, or Holland as everyone called them then, and with Ruud Gullit most of all.

Alongside John Barnes, Gullit is the player who got me into football. I loved Van Basten and the rest of them too, but Gullit was him. The dreads, the swagger, the presence.

There was more to it than that. I'm not black, but the late 80s were a testing time to grow up in, and my brother and I gravitated towards players like Gullit and Barnes. They were visible, and they were the best players on the pitch. The winter before the tournament Gullit had won the Ballon d'Or and dedicated it to Nelson Mandela, who was still in prison.

The shirt they wore that summer was orange, covered from shoulder to hem in a jagged geometric print. Kit people know it as the Ipswich template, which is what adidas called it. It was designed by Ina Franzmann and Jürgen Rank, and it was not made for Holland. Adidas drew up several designs for Euro 88 and then decided which country suited which. The Soviet Union wore the same template that year, West Germany had it on their away shirt, and dozens of clubs and countries followed. But Rank said later that they thought it "perfectly suited" the Dutch.

The players were less sure. John van 't Schip said they looked like goldfish. Gullit, of all people, called it the ugliest shirt he ever played in.

The Dutch team before the Ireland game on 18 June 1988, with Gullit standing second from right. Photo: Rob Bogaerts / Anefo, Nationaal Archief, CC0.

Franzmann had joined adidas in 1984 with, by her own account, very little interest in football. She also designed West Germany's shirt for the same tournament, the one with the flag colours running across the chest. So when the two countries met in the semi-final in Hamburg, she had a hand in both shirts on the pitch.

The Dutch lost their opening game to the Soviet Union. Then Van Basten put three past England, Kieft got a late winner against Ireland, and in Hamburg they beat the hosts 2–1 with a Van Basten goal in the 88th minute, fourteen years after losing the 1974 World Cup final to the same country. Rinus Michels said afterwards that everyone knew the semi-final was the real final. The actual one was four days later in Munich, against the Soviet Union again. Gullit scored the first and Van Basten volleyed in the second. It is still the only major trophy the Netherlands have won.

They wore that pattern five times. After the tournament they went back to the design they had before.

Gullit may have thought it was ugly. Mine has his 10 on it anyway, and there was never any question of the 12.

It's not for sale. I do wear it, though. Very rarely, but I do.