38. Adidas Glasgow (1989-93)

Chris Oakley | 25 January 2025
The mere mention of a famous footballer’s name can create an evocative image in your mind through direct association. Johan Cruyff? The famous turn that eluded Jan Olsson of Sweden during the 1974 World Cup. Marco Tardelli? That emotionally-charged screaming run of celebration after scoring Italy’s second goal in the 1982 World Cup final. David Platt? Well, let me explain...
You’ll probably think I’m strange, but I instantly think of him being paraded in front of waiting press photographers when he’d just joined Bari. Not for me the magnificent volley scored for England in extra time against Belgium in 1990. No.... Uppermost in my mind is Platt in his white and red Bari shirt that was based on the Adidas Glasgow template. No offence, David, but I don’t immediately think of your achievements on the pitch whenever I hear your name.

From left: Argentinos Juniors (1993 away), Bari (1990-92 home and away), Bulgaria (1992 home).
Back in 1991, that Bari shirt seemed so distinctive to me. I’d seen precious little Italian club football up to that point, and Channel 4’s Football Italia was still one year away. Who even were Bari anyway? I barely cared. All that mattered was that they wore white shirts with red details on them, and that was different to any English club side I knew.
Distinctive it may have been, but it wouldn’t have been unfamiliar to me at the time. An almost identical version had been worn by the United Arab Emirates during the 1990 World Cup, and together they were two of a great many versions of Adidas Glasgow that were made in red and white, or vice versa. It's a little unfortunate that this particular color palette was as dominant as it was, but it’s difficult to argue against the number of decent clubs and countries that wore it, from South America to Scandinavia and the Middle East.
As an aesthetic, it screams ‘1990s’ in the best possible way, and always with dignity and elan. Rather cleverly, Adidas created a sleeve that, when outstretched, was divided into different primary- or secondary-coloured curved sections, but when the player’s arms were at their sides, appeared to be almost completely of the latter kind. The sleeves seemed to connect with the shoulder panels, cut diagonally across to the collar, and straddled across those were a series of three skewed rectangles in outline form. It was because they crossed from the primary to the secondary colour that Adidas chose to bisect the rectangles, inverting the hue either side of the diagonal cut. Quite literally a masterstroke.

From left: Ghana (1992 home), Huracán (1991 home), Iceland (1991 home and away).
Stopping short of being a jumbled mess, the design was highly inventive but interesting and coordinated. The shoulder panels kept a healthy distance away from the three-stripe trim, allowing both to be appreciably visible at all times, and even the placement of the Adidas trefoil logo on the right shoulder added further discrete styling. There was even the option to switch from the default winged collar to a thin wrapover v-neck, and although very few teams bothered to do so, it always looked just as good.
There were one or two issues with badge placement, it’s fair to say, but even that didn’t seem to majorly detract from the overall look. Presumably to create some sort of symmetry with the Adidas logo on the right shoulder, many teams put their own logo on the other one. As the Icelandic national team discovered, that tended to make the top of the shirt look a little cluttered. Other teams opted to place their badge centrally (which was the optimum choice), but Bari seemed unable to decide whether to put theirs in the middle or on the shoulder panel, so they ended up doing both.
Aside from such visual complications, the Adidas Glasgow template retains an enigmatic quality based on who wore it, when, and how often. One of the first times I can remember seeing it was when Manchester United played Montpellier in the European Cup Winners’ Cup quarter finals in 1991. Fresh out of the ban that saw English clubs prohibited from European competition after the Heysel Stadium disaster, United faced the French club in their white, blue and orange home kit. The colour combination was unlike anything I knew in British football at the time, and that made it all the more unfortunate when Alex Ferguson’s side knocked out Montpellier on their way to winning the trophy a couple of months later.

From left: Inter Bratislava (1990 home), Maccabi Haifa (1990-91 home), Montpellier (1990-91 home), Poland (1990-91 home).
For some teams, the Adidas Glasgow template seemed a means to an end. Bulgaria wore their version only once against Switzerland in 1992, while Romania only donned their quirky blue away shirt twice in 1990. Czechoslovakia wore home and away versions sporadically between 1990 and 1991, yet when the national team transitioned into the Representation of Czechs and Slovaks, the template made an unlikely return for one match only in 1993 against the Faroe Islands. As for Ghana, they wore their vivid yellow kit in the final of the 1992 African Cup of Nations competition which they ultimately won.
And then, of course, there was France - seemingly the first team to wear the design back in 1989. Their version differed from virtually any other in that it incorporated a third colour and used solid skewed rectangles, not outlines. It’s possible that some might baulk at the inclusion of these two French shirts purely because of those solid rectangles, but in every other respect the design is essentially the same. For what it’s worth, I prefer the subtlety of the outlines, but not to the extent that it would stop me mentioning those shirts worn by Eric Cantona, Didier Deschamps and many others.
This, then, was a template worn by many teams, and I came very close to confirming the viability of others on my long list, including Grasshoppers Zurich, China, Club Atlético Tigre and Dnipro. As ever, I expect to hear from any of you about these or countless other teams whose names will ultimately find their way onto the Adidas Glasgow gallery page. Either way, I’d be fairly certain that this shirt design will have put a smile on many of your faces, as a link to a particular time and place in the early 90s, or purely as an example of great artistic creativity. Long may its image linger for football fans of a certain age everywhere.

From left: Representation of Czechs and Slovaks (1993 home), Romania (1990 third), Senegal (1991 home), St Gallen (1991 home).
My very grateful thanks go to Adam’s Shirt Quest and FSWorld for their help in researching this template.
Update:
Following the publication of this article, I heard from Δurine® who informed me that Argentinian club Mandiyú wore the Adidas Glasgow template around 1993. Thanks for the info, Δurine® - I've now added Mandiyú's home kit to their team page and the template gallery page.
To see the full set of Adidas Glasgow kits, visit the Adidas Glasgow template gallery page.