2021/22 · Home

A long sleeved Pendle shirt with green and white hoops, vertical side panels and the club crest printed in gold. No sponsor on the chest: in youth football, a shirt is still just a shirt. On the back, the 18 with Pendle logos hidden inside the numbers themselves, the brand's quiet signature.

It is the 2021/22 kit for the York district youth leagues, worn by kids playing on Saturday mornings at the village Sportsfield, parents on the touchline and the score mattering less than everything else.

Here at Hoopster, it joins the youth shelf next to Sporting's football schools and Thailand's Monthong school: half the world's football is played like this, in hoops and away from the spotlight.