THE VITALS:

Team: Lazio

Brand: Puma

Era: 2002-03 (Used for the 2002-03 Serie A season)

Name/Number: -

CONDITION: EXCELLENT

This classic shirt comes to you in nothing short of excellent condition! You will be hard-pressed to find a better iteration of this shirt as the material bares very little sign of wear, and more significantly, the felt Siemens Mobile sponsor is still in perfect nick; a rarity amongst shirts with felt sponsorships!

DIMENSIONS:

Size: Small

Pit to Pit Measurement: 19 inches

Shirt Length: 28 inches 

Made in Puma’s template that they introduced ahead of the 2002-03 season; the dimensions of this shirt suggest that it would also fit someone who normally wears a size medium shirt.

DESCRIPTION:

In what was Puma’s 4^th iteration of manufacturing Lazio’s home shirt; this effort would easily be their most simplest and arguably most classy collaboration to date with the strip relinquishing all of the accents and features that had come to define Lazio’s home shirts made by Puma. Instead, the German kit supplier would utilise their 2002-03 season template to devastating effect; creating a simple, yet rich all-azure blue shirt with minimal white piping! The cherry on the top was the unique collar which became the feature of these Puma shirts! This would be the last Lazio shirt to bare the Siemens Mobile sponsorship and their relationship would end on a high as Roberto Mancini, in his first season as manager, would guide the club to the Coppa Italia and UEFA Cup semi-final and earn a 4^th place finish in Serie A; only falling short of 2^nd place by a mere 5 points!

THE SEASON:

A 2001-02 season that began disastrously, eventually saw Lazio finish 6^th, albeit missing out on 4^th place by just 2 points. That wasn’t enough to keep Alberto Zaccheroni in his post, and the former Milan boss would be replaced by one of the heroes of their 1999-00 Serie A title triumph – Roberto Mancini.

The continuing issues in the boardroom saw the departures of the talismanic duo: Alessandro Nesta and Hernan Crespo, meanwhile Gaizka Mendieta, just 12 months after his blockbuster signing for Lazio, would be sent on loan to Barcelona. There would however be the arrivals of: Massimo Oddo, Enrico Chiesa, Bernardo Corradi and Juan Pablo Sorin to add depth and quality to Mancini’s squad.

After starting the season with a 3-2 defeat at home to Chievo, the team would go on a blistering 16 game unbeaten run which placed them just 3 points behind the league leader’s AC Milan! Their 2003 portion of the season form would be a far-cry from their 2002 form as they collected just 26 points from their second half fixtures, nevertheless, it was enough to secure a 4^th place finish, and had their form been better, they could have finished as high as 2^nd, given that they were just 5 points behind eventual runners-up – Inter Milan.

It wasn’t just a great league season for ‘Le Aquile’, they would reach the semi-final of the Coppa Italia before being beaten by city rivals Roma, and they would also progress to the semi-final of the UEFA Cup where they defied the likes of: Red Star Belgrade, Strum Graz, Wisla Krakow and Besiktas before being beaten by eventual winners of the competition FC Porto!    

The notable players that season were:

Enrico Chiesa, Claudio Lopez, Bernardo Corradi, Simone Inzaghi, Stefano Fiore, Lucas Castroman, Christian Manfredini, Fabio Liverani, Giuliano Giannichedda, Diego Simeone, Dino Baggio, Jaap Stam, Fernando Couto, Massimo Oddo, Giuseppe Favalli, Sinisa Mihajlovic, Juan Pablo Sorin, Angelo Peruzzi, Luca Marchegiani