Total 90 Era Inter to Nineties Juventus Simplicity: Destination Calcio’s Favourite Serie A Shirts

When the topic of ‘the best shirts of all-time’ crops up, Italian shirts usually feature prominently.

Take a look at any such discussion on social media and the response from kit aficionados produces some vintage models from calcio down the years.

Whether it’s Fiorentina’s iconic Nintendo-sponsored 1998-99 shirt; Napoli’s splendid 1987-88 home shirt when Diego Armando Maradona was at the peak of his unparalleled powers, or any of the Juventus home shirts from the Kappa/Sony era of the late 1990s, Italian clubs have had more than their fair share of all-time classics.

Yet choosing just one shirt to call your ‘favourite’ can be quite the challenge, but we have put the task up to our Destination Calcio team to do just that. 

What do you think of our choices? Let us know on our social media platforms.

Juventus Home 1994-95

This shirt is dear to the heart as it was my first season following Italian football, and it was also the first time seeing a calcio shirt in person.

The 1994-95 shirt was a somewhat radical departure from Juve’s prior efforts. From 1988 to 1994 the template had been the same, bar a switch of sponsor from UPIM to Danone in 1992.

The Danone sponsor was in the last season of its three-year agreement with Juve in the 1994-95 campaign and this was the first time a colour other than black and white was introduced, with light and dark blue being added into the sponsor, part of Danone’s colour scheme.

The Juve badge is neatly placed inside a V shape just below the collar, almost making it hard to spot on first glance. 

It was also the first time the club’s two gold stars, one for every 10 Scudetti won, was stitched into the fabric of the shirt and not placed within a box on the shape. It just gave a classier look and feel to the shirt.

It was also the first time the word ‘Kappa’ was on the shirt, with previous iterations of Kappa-produced numbers just having their easily identifiable logo on display.

Juve won their first Scudetto in nine years in the shirt, also going on to win the Coppa Italia and reaching the final of the Uefa Cup and was worn by the likes of Alessandro Del Piero, Gianluca Vialli and Roberto Baggio in his final season in Turin.

Honourable mentions: Fiorentina home 1997-98 home; AC Milan home 2003-04; Parma home 1998-99

Emmet Gates

Torino Away 1992-93

As Tony Soprano would have it, “Remember when” is the worst form of conversation.

But with all due respect for New Jersey’s finest waste management extraordinaire, there are times when we simply should embrace nostalgia with every fibre of our beings.

The Torino away kit from the 1992-93 season is a case in point and not merely from an aesthetic standpoint.

A small company based just outside of Parma, ABM were only into its ninth year when they became Torino kit supplier in 1990. Their first away kit was a plain white and maroon collar affair, but the company soon ditched their conservative ways the following season, wheeling out a white number with maroon wrist-cuffs and collar and a diamond-shaped pattern across both shoulders.

It was not a particularly convincing effort, largely due to the various shades of maroon used across the diamond pattern. But it was also a stepping towards arguably the greatest away kit Torino have ever produced.

The granata chevrons on white background and the granata collar with white trims – the V-shape on the original 1991-92 version was replaced by a discreet button the following season, the only detail to change – the ABM logo and the italicised sponsor – Beretta had replaced Indesit in 1990 – make it instantly recognisable.

And that’s before we even mention the badge, a freshened up version of the one Torino had used until 1983 featuring an oval longitudinally split in half, with the city’s coat of arms to the left and the letters T and C (Torino Calcio) overlaid over each other.

This is an all-timer of a shirt, so it’s perhaps no coincidence it was released just before two of Torino’s greatest ever seasons.

If granata had been the dominant colour on the extraordinary run to the UEFA Cup final in 1992, then the away kit rose to the fore on the most spectacular of stages in June of the following year when Torino took a 3-0 lead to Rome’s Stadio Olimpico in the second leg of the Coppa Italia final.

What seemed a formality, soon turned to be an odyssey. Wearing a stunner of a kit themselves, the Giallorossi scored five goals – three of them from the spot – only for Andrea Silenzi’s brace to clinch the trophy for Toro on away goal.

Watch Torino’s second goal now and it’s like being transported into a different world. An old-fashioned centre-forward planting a bullet header past the keeper, a kit not spoilt by names nor a deluge of sponsors, Silenzi who thinks nothing of running under the curva to celebrate with the away fans going absolutely potty.

Emiliano Mondonico smiling on the touchline a year after lifting his chair to the Amsterdam skies, Enrico Annoni’s grin, Walter Casagrande sprinting on the pitch at the final whistle to celebrate what remains Toro’s last-ever trophy.

Nostalgia. What a beautiful, intoxicating cocktail it is.

Honourable mentions: Fiorentina home 1989-90, AC Milan home 1991-92, Sampdoria away 1990-91

Dan Cancian

Bari Home 1994-95

The Galletti took to the field with gorgeously crafted kits throughout the ’90s, but the diamond-chequered shoulders of 1994-95 live long in the memory.

By the mid-nineties, Bari had moved on from the David Platt era to uncover a new generation of unlikely heroes. The Pugliese city was blessed with an ambitious squad of unknowns, managed by Giuseppe Materazzi (yes, father of World Cup winner Marco) and spearheaded by cult legend Igor Protti.

In 1994, Bari’s automatic promotion from Serie B was as stylish as their fabulous white home strip with red contrast collar. With Sandro Tovalieri racking up 14 goals and with Lorenzo Amoruso martialling the backline, the centrepiece of the Bari shirt was the Wüber sponsor logo in black. Each shoulder proudly featured a sizeable double diamond design, which could be easily mistaken for the Umbro logo.

As beautiful as the shirts were, promotion to the world’s top league meant perfecting the near-perfect. Behold the upgraded 1994-95 edition.

This Adidas work of art was designed by the Germany-based kit manufacturer but was made in Italy. The German sausage shirt sponsor, Wüber, produced würstel from Lombardia.

But in the pre-Bosman era, with the majority of players being home-grown, there were no Germans in the Bari squad. Materazzi signed Miguel Guerrero in the summer, and the Colombian unleashed hell at the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza against Inter in the opening seconds. He was also quickest to join Tovalieri’s celebratory crawl to the corner flag when Bari made it 2-0 before halftime.

Bari released three kits that season: the standard white, away red, and away blue, all of which equally emphasized two formations of smaller diamonds. The bottom row spanned from deltoid to deltoid via the sternum, while the top row adjoined the meeting point of the buttoned collar and spread from the trachea to each trapezius.

The Bari badge was made of fabric, sewn on, and simply displayed the famous face of the black and red chicken. Finally, the back of the jersey was finished with shadowed numbering on the two main kits, but the blue strip featured a unique hollow numbering, reinforced with a central line up the spine.

Considering the white shorts and socks that comprised the rest of the home kit, the red diamond pattern stood out across the pectorals and the shoulders, symbolising the combative, gladiatorial nature needed to survive in Europe’s premier competition.

Accordingly, Bari finished in 12th position.

David Ferrini

Inter Home 2005-06

There is not a great deal to say about the design of Inter’s home shirt from the 2005-06 campaign. But it is its simplicity that makes it the classic top it is.

Created at the peak of Nike’s Total 90 era, the black and blue stripes were untarnished by fades or trims, with the iconic Nike name and number font allowed to stand out in white at the back. The badge also took centre stage, placed in the middle of the shirt as opposed to over the left-hand side of the chest.

On the front was another nostalgic tug, with the Pirelli sponsor illuminated at large. Inter and the tyre manufacturer went hand in hand for years in Italy’ top flight, their sponsorship deal lasting more than a quarter of a century between 1995 and 2021.

Courtesy of Inter’s 2005 Coppa Italia success, the shirt also carried the Coccarda – the patch used to signify the holders of Italy’s domestic cup. This shirt was actually the last to possess the inverted version – green on the outside with a red bullseye – before it reverted back to its traditional colours the following season.

The shirt was also technically a Scudetto winning jersey, though they would have to wait for the outcome of the Calciopoli scandal to be given the title which Juventus had won at a canter before authorities caught up with them.

More than anything though, the shirt is made by the players that wore it – both world beaters and cult heroes.

A formidable frontline boasting Obafemi Martins, Julio Cruz and Alvaro Recoba were among the firepower at Roberto Mancini’s disposal that season, And that’s before you get to a 23-year-old Adriano in his prime.

Javier Zanetti lifted the Coppa Italia once more in this iconic jersey, alongside the likes of Esteban Cambiasso and Marco Matterazzi. A fitting set of models for a no-nonsense jersey.

Harry Slavin