1990/91 · Home

Umbro dressed Sporting for just two seasons, and this is the shirt of both. Wide hoops with a jacquard diamond pattern, a buttoned polo collar, an embroidered cloth crest and a label reading Made in EEC, from when Europe was still a Community. On the chest, in blue, the insurer Bonança, from the first years in which the Lions accepted advertising on the shirt.

In 1990/91 Marinho Peres opened with eleven straight wins and a 3-0 at the Bessa that had been thirty years coming, gave Peixe his debut and welcomed Balakov in January. The league slipped away, but the UEFA Cup stayed in the memory: Mechelen, a 7-0 over Timișoara at Alvalade, Vitesse, Bologna, then the semi-final against the Inter of Matthäus, Klinsmann and Brehme, 0-0 in Lisbon and 0-2 in Milan. The following year Dinamo București knocked Sporting out at the first hurdle and the coach left midway through a fourth-place finish.

Here at Hoopster, between the Hummel and the adidas that also live in the archive, this Umbro is the chapter in which the Lions went further in Europe than they had in decades.