Click here for all in the Retro Shirt Reviews series, mostly looking at jerseys from our own POTP collection.

• Club: FC Adria, Mannheim, Germany
• Year: circa 1993-94
• Make: Diadora
• Sponsor: “Moda Italiana da Gianni”, Italian fashion shop.
• Number: 9

This amazing, long-sleeved, chequered shirt was gifted to POTP by the fine folks at FootballKitBox.com who also played a vital role in the creation of our own POTP Rave Shirts, so here’s a shout out for them! (Follow on Instagram here). Because we’re equally generous, and because it’s an XL, we also donated it forward to a very deserving friend who it did fit. But before that, we took these photos at the old POTPHQ:

Yes! Amazing! Let’s get that wingspan going:

The club is a German amateur side (as often on here!) called FC Adria from Mannheim, who played in the local Landesliga Rhein-Neckar league in1993-94, and were seemingly named after the town in Northern Italy. This, along with the sponsor of an Italian fashion shop, would suggest a team created by the local Italian ex-pat community:

Just looking at the name “Moda Italiana da Gianni” initially caused an immense craving for pizza as we thought it was the name of a restaurant, but were reliably informed by MuseumofJerseys.com that “moda” is of course Italian for “fasion”. After a quick Google Maps search, it seems that unfortunately the outlet is no more, replaced at Lange Rötterstraße 52 by “Mannheim Voice Service” which provides language courses, translations and interpreters.

As you’ve already seen above, one of the other great features of this jersey the gradient effect on some of the squares, with an extra sublimated triangle pattern in the fabric underneath:

On the back is the reason we know the name of the club, as well as a classic and satisfying boxed number 9:

The fact that the name and number are in red really is the icing on the cake (or toppings on the pizza) and completes the impression of a bizzaro world, inversed Croatia shirt:

Overall this saucy number gets our highest grade: Seven and half thumbs up.

*****