26. Adidas Golpe (2007-10)
Chris Oakley | 5 February 2026
Once again, it's time to welcome back regular contributor Jay, who finally gets the chance to talk about a piece of shirt design he's held in high esteem for many years...
Kitbliss' 100 Greatest Football Shirt Templates ended 2025 with a bit of a bombshell. The adidas 'Ensign' * - think West Germany at Euro 1988 and, more notably, Italia '90 - got placed well before most expected, in the high 20s.
Had another favourite of mine died at 27? Peaking too early and tragically expiring in the limelight?
From left: Ajax Amsterdam (2007 away), Argentina Women (2007 home), Benfica (2007-08 away), Eritrea (2007 away).
I needn't have worried. There was no enrolment in the stupid club, no burning out and no fading away - number 26, fittingly, reboots the countdown with a bang in 2026, with another from adidas and the structure behind my favourite football shirt of all time.
While the Golpe-underpinned Olympique de Marseille 2007-08 Third shirt fell short in 2015's 50 Greatest Football Shirts Ever - for me, foreshadowing democracy's ball-dropping the following year - it features here with its cousins and in a very respectable position.
From left: Germany Women (2007 away), Houston Dynamo (2007-08 home), Liverpool (2007-08 third), Lokomotiv Moscow (2007 third).
A mutation of the ubiquitous Teamgeist look from 2006 - both Golpe and the similar Onore actually carried their forerunner-cum-umbrella's branding - this panel-heavy design provoked a wealth of different approaches. These variations ranged from the alternate-sleeved retina burner Lokomotiv Moscow had at their disposal to the understated first-choice shirt worn by Benfica, with the use of contrast there kept to a timelessness-leaning minimum.
The latter barely exposed Golpe's not-so-secret weapon: its asymmetry. Along with the elevated Performance logo, the distinctly stitched flashes snaked around the trunk - front and back - with various configurations and different palettes administered off-leash, meaning execution was all-important and one single template provided an array of very different final looks. Venezuela even had gold piping! Get them!
From left: Macclesfield Town (2008-09 home), Mauritania (2008 home), Metalist Kharkiv (2007 home), Newcastle United (2007 away).
Golpe had a contemporaneous equivalent at Umbro, but while the design sported by England that would eventually act as the Yin to "Tailored by"'s Yang had the asymmetry in its contrast elements, it was largely poorly received. While adidas' excess would also eventually be reined in by the trends - albeit the German company got the memo late - Golpe was successful as one of their last hurrahs in exuberance, like a final play of that game on a Nokia before taking the plunge with a more sophisticated iPhone.
Generally collarless, or with a futuristic take on a Nehru/mandarin collar if you will, Golpe did good business in the teamwear scene - you see Bayer Leverkusen and Real Zaragoza, I see Iker Casillas lifting the Henri Delaunay Trophy at Euro 2008 - and occasionally even monopolised matches' outfitting, like in Liverpool's traditional-colours-eschewing demolition of l'OM at the Stade Vélodrome. The women's game certainly picked it up in a big way too - check out looks sported at the 2007 World Cup by Argentina, Canada, China, Denmark, Germany and Nigeria.
From left: Olympique de Marseille (2007-08 away), Rwanda (2009 home), Saint-Étienne (2007-08 home), Venezuela (2007-08 home).
It got in there just in time, as paring back became the way before long, but I for one am particularly glad its snakes had their day basking in the sun.
* Kitbliss' placeholder name.
My very grateful thanks go to Jay for writing this article, and also to Adam’s Shirt Quest and FSWorld for their help in researching this template.
To see the full set of Adidas Golpe kits, visit the Adidas Golpe template gallery page.
See also:
* Unofficial template name