THE VITALS:

Team: England

Brand: Nike

Era: 2014-15 (Used for the 2014 FIFA World Cup and for the 2015 UEFA European Championship Qualifying Campaign)

Name/Number: -

CONDITION: EXCELLENT

This shirt is still in excellent condition bearing very little wear or signs of use! The shiny crystal white material still slso retains its pristine colour showing very little sign of greying as of yet.

DIMENSIONS:

Size: Large

Pit to Pit Measurement: 21 inches

Shirt Length: 29 inches 

Made using Nike’s ‘Dri-Fit’ range that they introduced in 2014; this shirt provides great dimensions for a relaxed size large fitting shirt and will also fit a size extra-large as well.

DESCRIPTION:

In Nike’s second iteration as England's kit supplier; this home shirt was a far cry from their debut home shirt that celebrated the FA’s 150^th anniversary. To the contrary, this shirt utilsed a modern-contemporary collar and a glistened white; almost crystal in its appearance and this was accentuated further by the silver trim on the epaulettes! Nike would use blue as a secondary colour in what was a shirt which was 90% white after the previous addition was a more a classic design with black accents and a duller white. This would be last England home shirt to be worn by ‘Golden Generation’ stalwarts: Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard as they retired from International Football following the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.  

THE SEASON(S):

After 2013 ended with a pair of defeats, Roy Hodgson and England reunited in March 2014 for a friendly against Denmark as they sought to quickly put those set-backs in the rear view mirror in with their World Cup opener against Italy set to take place in just over 3 months! An in-form Daniel Sturridge would score the only goal in a 1-0 win at Wembley!

The national side next got together in for their final game on home soil before leaving for Brazil on May 30^th, when Peru visited Wembley Stadium. Sturridge was on target again in a 3-0 win for ‘The 3 Lions’. En route to Brazil, England would play two friendlies in Miami, taking on Ecuador and Honduras respectively. Both games ended in draws as they battled to a 2-2 draw with Ecuador and then a goalless stalemate with Honduras on June 7^th.

Drawn in Group D alongside: Costa Rica, Uruguay and Italy; qualification for the Last 16 would be no easy feat, and thus, it was important to get off the ground running against Italy in the June 14^th opener in Manaus. The evening kick-off was given the added spice of Costa Rica upsetting Uruguay earlier. It wasn’t to be for England, as they were beaten once again by Italy at a major competition – losing 2-1 in a back and forth encounter.

It was do or die on June 19^th in Sao Paulo, as they took on Uruguay. It would be the clash of Liverpool hero’s Luis Suarez, the Premier League Player of the Year and Golden Boot winner for the 2013-14 season against his team-mates: Glen Johnson, Steven Gerrard, Jordan Henderson, Raheem Sterling and Daniel Sturridge. Suarez would draw first blood as he put Uruguay ahead before the break! Wayne Rooney would equalise; scoring his first ever goal at a World Cup tournament, however, the England adventure in Brazil would be confirmed as finished at the Group Stage, when Suarez capitalised on Steven Gerrard’s ill-fated deflection and scored the winning goal late on.

England would bow out of the competition by holding the streaking Costa Rica to a goalless draw in Belo Horizonte, and the game would also be a footnote in the career’s of Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard as this was the last time they played for the national side; both announcing their retirement from England set-up at the conclusion of the tournament.

England would have to wait until September to regroup and put the World Cup disappointment behind them, and in Wayne Rooney’s debut as the newly anointed England captain; he scored the winning goal from the penalty spot to set them up for their opening Euro 2016 qualifier against Switzerland. His now former Manchester United team-mate: Danny Welbeck would score a brilliant brace in Basel to get England up and running in qualification.

Rooney would be on target in the trio of wins against: San Marino, Estonia and Slovenia as England ended the 2014 portion of the qualifying campaign with 4 wins from 4! Rooney would score yet again; helping himself to a brace in the 3-1 win over Scotland in their November 18^th friendly in Glasgow to end a fine second half of 2014 for his country.

England would regather in 2015 on March 27^th for their qualifier at Wembley against Lithuania where England punished the Balkan nation 4-0 in front of over 83,000 supporters! They would be served a huge test in their next outing – a friendly in Turin against Italy, A 1-1 draw would play out at the Juventus Stadium with Andros Townsend scoring a 2^nd half equaliser.

Up next was a historical friendly with the Republic of Ireland as it was the first time the two nations had met in a contest since the infamous game in 1995 at Lansdowne Road where the game was abandoned due to crowd trouble. That blemish on both country’s fine history thankfully did not rear itself again as a goalless draw unfolded at the Aviva Stadium.

7 Days later, they would return to Euro 2016 qualification, where they defeated Slovenia in a thrilling 3-2 contest Ljubljana! They would complete the clean sweep of 10 victories out of 10, as: San Marino, Switzerland, Estonia and Lithuania were beaten by 13-0 aggregate in what was a fantastic qualifying campaign!

Sadly, England’s 15 match unbeaten run would meet its end when they were beaten 2-0 by Spain in their November 13^th friendly, and then on sombre note, this cycle of shirts would be used for the last time when England defeated France 2-0 at Wembley Stadium on November 17^th. The result took a backseat as the game took place just 4 days after the tragic terrorist attack that took place in Paris.

The notable players that season(s) were:

Rickie Lambert, Harry Kane, Danny Welbeck, Theo Walcott, Wayne Rooney, Daniel Sturridge, Ross Barkley, Adam Lallana, Andros Townsend, Dele Alli, Raheem Sterling, James Milner, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Jordan Henderson, Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard, Jack Wilshere, Glen Johnson, Leighton Baines, Gary Cahill, Phil Jagielka, Chris Smalling, Phil Jones, Luke Shaw, Joe Hart