THE VITALS:

Team: Real Madrid

Brand: Adidas

Era: 2012-13 (Used for the 2012 Supercopa de Espana matches, the 2012-13 La Liga season and the 2013 Copa del Rey final)

Name/Number: -

CONDITION: VERY GOOD

This shirt comes to you in very good condition despite being less than 2 years away from its 10^th birthday at the time of writing! Only the fading to the sponsor prevents this from being labelled as excellent.

DIMENSIONS:

Size: Small

Pit to Pit Measurement: 18 inches

Shirt Length: 28.5 inches

Made by Adidas in their ‘ClimaCool’ series which they introduced in 2012; this season signalled the change Adidas began making with the fit of their shirts and thus, this shirt provides excellent dimensions for a size small fitting football shirt!

DESCRIPTION:

Adidas would usher in Real Madrid’s 110^th anniversary with a fine home shirt that wonderfully meshed the past and present together in a football shirt! After the sleek white and gold offering that was presented in 2011-12, the 2012-13 season home shirt would utilise navy as the secondary colour which coloured the thick bands on the sleeve and v-neck collar. Faint light blue trims on the accents and faint silver pin-stripes on the body of the shirt added further fine touches to this celebratory shirt! The left sleeves would feature a special 110^th anniversary crest to commemorate the monumental milestone, and this would be the last series of Real Madrid shirts to feature the ‘bwin’ sponsor! In another last, this would be the home shirt worn in what ended up as: Mesut Ozil, Raul Albiol, Gonzalo Higuain, Kaka, Ricardo Carvalho and Jose Mourinho’s final season’s at the club!

THE SEASON:

It took 3 long seasons, however, Jose Mourinho would crack the Barcelona and Pep Guardiola code to unseat them as the champions of Spain in 2011-12! It would be a record setting season as they broke La Liga records for most points accumulated in a season – 100, and for most goals scored in a season – 121! After another Champions League semi-final heartbreak, ‘Los Blancos’ were expected to once again retain their league title and make that extra stride toward ending what would be an 11 year wait to win the Champions League again!

There would only be one major signing in the summer as Luka Modric was signed from Tottenham Hotspur for €30 million, while Alvaro Morata and Nacho were promoted from the youth team and the loan signing of Michael Essien was also completed.

The 2012 portion of the La Liga would effectively see the title lost as they ended the year in 3^rd place, and some 16 points adrift of Barcelona! There would be the consolation of being the only team to take points away from the run-away league leader’s as they claimed a 2-2 draw at Camp Nou on 07/10/12 in a legendary El Clasico! Although a 02/02/2013 defeat away to Granada kept the 16 point gap alive; the 2013 segment of the season represented a significant up-turn in form as they avoided defeat in each of their last 16 league games; winning 13 of those contests, including the games with Barcelona and Atletico Madrid; usurping the former to eventually finish in 2^nd place, and with 48 points taken from their latter 19 games of the campaign, they actually took more points than Barcelona in the second stanza of the season!

It would be a bittersweet season in the domestic cup competitions as the season began with defying Barcelona on away goals, drawing 4-4 over 2 Legs, to win the Supercopa de Espana! They would then eliminate their fierce rivals in the semi-final of the Copa del Rey, however they would be beaten by city rivals – Atletico Madrid in the May 17^th Finale in what would end up in history with the footnote of being Jose Mourinho’s last game in charge of Real Madrid!

Lastly, his tenure could only yield a 3^rd successive UEFA Champions League semi-final berth, with Borussia Dortmund upsetting them 4-3 in the semi-final. The competition would be an intense thrill-ride for viewers of the club as they first overcame a ‘Group of Death’ that also featured – Ajax, Manchester City and Borussia Dortmund. They would then eliminate Manchester United in the Last 16 in what was historic for being Cristiano Ronaldo’s first return to Old Trafford since leaving United to join Real Madrid in 2009. That game would also be the last ever European fixture to be managed by Sir Alex Ferguson. The 2^nd Leg Quarter Final clash with Galatasaray on 09/04/13 was arguably the most thrilling game of the entire competition, before being left in awe by Robert Lewandowski’s 4 goal haul in the semi-final!

In addition to Jose Mourinho departing the club at the end of the campaign, the quintet of: Mesut Ozil, Raul Albiol, Gonzalo Higuain, Kaka and Ricardo Carvalho would also leave ahead of the 2013-14 season!  

The notable players that season were:

Karim Benzema, Gonzalo Higuain, Cristiano Ronaldo, Alvaro Morata, Jose Callejon, Jese, Mesut Ozil, Angel di Maria, Kaka, Luka Modric, Michael Essien, Xabi Alonso, Lassana Diarra, Casemiro, Fabinho, Sami Khedira, Fabio Coentrao, Marcelo, Raul Albiol, Sergio Ramos, Pepe, Ricardo Carvalho, Raphael Varane, Nacho, Iker Casillas, Diego Lopez