Sporting Clube de Portugal 2016/17 Home Shirt

By Macron's third year at Alvalade the recipe was settled: no radical innovations, full respect for the club's DNA, and the only visible change was the collar, swapping white for black. NOS on the chest, Super Bock on the back, SCP in its rightful place above the crest. The shirt's restraint contrasted with what happened inside it: 2016/17 was the season Bas Dost, newly arrived from Wolfsburg, scored 34 league goals and finished three behind Messi in the race for the European Golden Shoe, the best tally by a Sporting player since Jardel. It was not enough for more than third place, behind Benfica's fourth straight title and Porto, with Jorge Jesus on the bench for the second year. In the Champions League the draw delivered Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund, and Sporting went down swinging, with two narrow defeats against the Madrid side that would go on to win the whole thing. A classic shirt for a one man season: think of it and you think of the Dutchman poking the ball over the line. Thirty four times.

Here at Hoopster this sober shirt dressed a phenomenon: Bas Dost's 34 goals, three short of Messi for the Golden Boot, the lion's best marksman since Jardel. Sometimes the collar changes colour and the story changes scale.