THE VITALS:

Team: FC Basel

Brand: Nike

Era: 2004-06 (Used for the 2004-05 & 2005-06 Swiss Super League season’s)

Name/Number: -

CONDITION: VERY GOOD

This shirt comes in very good condition! Both the material and the felt crest are in immaculate condition. Owing to the sponsorship wearing off; the shirt falls just short of being described as being excellent.

DIMENSIONS:

Size: Extra Small (XS)

Pit to Pit Measurement: 17 inches

Shirt Length: 26.25 inches 

Made in Nike’s ‘Total 90’ mould that they introduced in 2004; this shirt is certainly made for someone who wears an extra small, so please bear the dimensions in mind if you are ordinarily a size small as this shirt is going to be very fitted.

DESCRIPTION:

After the previous cycles home shirt which was a strict half and half cut with no additional colours; Nike decided to utilise their original’ Total 90’ template for FC Basel between 2004 to 2006 and with it, include the addition of yellow accents. Unlike some versions of this show which do not bear a sponsor, this edition did have the Novartis sponsor emblazoned across the front until it wore down. Furthermore, although there is a label at the front that says ‘Dri Fit’, I do believe this is a factory error as this is most certainly a Total 90 era shirt!

THE SEASON(S):

Christian Gross would guide FC Basel to win the newly formatted Swiss Super League in 2003-04, cruising to the title with a 13-point margin! Cesar Carignano, Mile Sterjovski, Thomas Mandl, Kleber and Djamel Mesbah were all recruited in the summer of 2004 as Basel sought to defend their right to be called champions of Switzerland!

They would kick off on July 17^th at home to Aarau where they won 6-0 at St Jakob Park! And with 2 wins and a draw; the champions sat at the top of the table at the end of July. A busy August featured 6 games, including a UEFA Champions League Play-Off tie with Inter Milan. After a 1-1 draw in Switzerland on August 11^th gave Basel hope of upsetting the Italian giants; they would be beaten 4-1 in the 2^nd Leg at San Siro; thus, eliminating them into the UEFA Cup. On the league front however, it was business as usual as they extended their unbeaten start to the league season to 7 games!

September 2004 began with an epic 8-1 destruction of Grasshoppers and passage to the 2^nd Round of the Swiss Cup after they defeated FC Oberdorf 4-0 on September 18^th. Passage to the Group Stage of the UEFA Cup would also be sealed with a 3-1 aggregate victory over Terek Grozny. In the league, however, would back to back defeats as Thun and Aarau as Thun took the initiative in the league.

Their league form would recover in October as Neuchatel Xamax and Servette were beaten, and then later that month, they would see off Meyrin to reach the 4rd Round of the Swiss Cup. A late Mattias Delgado goal earnt a 1-1 draw away against Schalke in the UEFA Cup, and although the month would end with a goalless draw against Zurich; Basel were back at the summit of the division with a 4 point cushion over Thun.

November was a disappointing month as they were beaten 2-1 at home to Hearts in the UEFA Cup, and they were also eliminated from the Swiss Cup after falling on penalties to Thun on November 20^th. Still a pair if wins either side of a defeat to Schaffhausen allowed Basel to continue their lead at the top of the table as the final month of 2004 ushered in.

They would see out the end of the first half of the season by defeating Grasshoppers, and then battling to a 3-3 draw with Thun! In Europe, wins against Ferencvarosi and Feyenoord allowed Basel passage into the UEFA Cup Round of 32, where they had a tie against Lille to look forward too in 2005. Their fine work in the league saw them go into 2005 with a 7 point lead over 2^nd place Thun.

Basel would start 2005 competitively by welcoming Lille to St Jakob Park on February 17^th, where a goalless draw unfolded ahead of the 2^nd Leg in France 7 days later. Just 3 days on from that result, Basel would be beaten 3-1 by St Gallen in the opening round of the 2^nd half of the Swiss Super League season. Sadly, the European campaign would cliamax in France as Lille felled them 2-0 at Stadium Nord Lille Metropole to reach the UEFA Cup Last 16. Servette’s collapse meant that there would only be 9 teams left participating in the league, and for Basel, this meant no more football until March!

Back in action, they would beat Grasshoppers 4-1 at home, however, Thun would inflict a 3-0 beating of their own to Basel and allow them to reduce the arrears at the top of the table to just a point. With the threat of being pipped; Basel went into another gear as they put together an 11 match unbeaten run comprised of 9 wins and 2 draws, which also featured a 4-1 win over Thun on May 7^th! The run would be enough to see Basel crowned as Swiss Champions and they would end the campaign with a 10 point advantage over 2^nd place Thun!

It would be yet another busy summer for the club following their successful title defence in 2004-05 as new arrivals: Papa Malick Ba, Eduardo, Baykal Kulaksızoğlu, Ivan Rakitic, Zdravko Kuzmanović, Louis Crayton and Caicedo all joined the club. Just like in the previous season; the Swiss Super League was open for business in July, and in addition, there would be a Champions League Play-Off to look forward too, this time against Werder Bremen.

While Schaffhausen would be beaten 1-0 to start the new season, their pesky rivals: Thun would claim yet another 3-0 win over the champions on July 22^nd! Just as the defeat in March inspired a fine run from Basel, so would this defeat, as Christian Gross’ side put together back to back wins against Zurich and Yverdon-Sport as the visit of Werder Bremen loomed 4 days later on August 10^th.

Basel would use their home advantage to secure a 2-1 win over their German opponents, however, back in the league; St Gallen earnt a 3-3 draw with the champions. In the next round of games, Basel would 7 past Aarau! The joy would be short-lived however, as Werder Bremen defeated Basle 3-0 to send the Swiss side back into the UEFA Cup for another season. The month of August would end with a 3-0 win over Neuchatel Xamax, and 5 teams with 13 points each chasing them at the summit of the division.

The cup competitions paid off big Basel in September as Siroki Brijeg of Bosnia and Herzegovina were beaten 6-0 on aggregate to reach the Group Stage of the UEFA Cup and Solothurn were also beaten 4-1 to seal passage to the 2^nd Round of the Swiss Cup. In the league, the games with Grasshoppers and Young Boys ended in draws, before finally getting back on track with a win over Schaffhausen.

That win would be the first in an incredible 7 match spree of victories lasting until December! On the European frontier; Basel were drawn alongside: Tromso, Red Star Belgrade, Strasbourg and the mighty AS Roma! Their fine October would be blemished only by a 2-0 defeat at home to Strasbourg on October 20^th. 2 days later, Basel would see off Old Boys 4-1 in the Basel Derby in the Swiss Cup to reach the 3^rd Round. In the league, Thun would be brutalised 5-1 at St Jakob Park on October 2^nd, and then follow up wins over Zurich and Yverdon Sport saw lead the way by 6 points at the end of the month.

November saw the European challenge get back on track as Red Star were beaten 2-1 in Belgrade, and then a trio of clean sheet wins in the league over: St Gallen, Aarau and Grasshoppers kept their 6 point advantage at the top well in-tact ahead of a busy December…

The final month of 2005 began with a thrilling 4-3 win over Tromso to keep their qualification hopes alive ahead of the visit to the Stadio Olimpico on December 14^th. All of the league action was completed by December 11^th, and while their fine unbeaten run ended at 14 matches when they were beaten by Neuchatel Xamax on December 7^th; they would conclude the first half of season leading 2^nd place Zurich by 8 points! 3 days later, their trip to Rome would end in a 3-1 defeat, but it mattered not as they finished in 3^rd place and had a meeting with AS Monaco to look forward to in the Last 32! Regrettably, the year would on a low as Zurich eliminated them from the Swiss Cup in a 4-3 classic at St Jakob Park on December 18^th.

Zurich and Basel would renew acquaintances in the opening round of the 2^nd half of the season, as the two sides fought to a 1-1 draw in the capital on February 12^th. Basel would next welcome Monaco to St Jakob Park and David Degen would score the only goal in a 1-0 win for the home side! They would earn a 1-1 in the 2^nd Leg in Monte Carlo on February 23^rd to reach the Last 16 of the UEFA Cup where their old foe’s: Strasbourg awaited once again!

March 9^th would be the date of their rematch in Switzerland, and Basel would atone for their defeat earlier in the season with a 2-0 win of their own to take back to France in 6 days. A 2-2 draw was music to the ears of the visitors as they placed amongst the last 8 teams in the competition!

Back in the league it wasn’t so rosey; Following the restart in February, Basel would win just twice and frustratingly draw 5 times in their opening 7 games. Fortunately, the form of their challengers was not enough to depose the league leaders as Zurich could only close the gap to 4 points.

Basel’s excellent home form in Europe saw them defeat Middlesbrough 2-0 at home on March 30^th, however, in the  2^nd Leg in England; Basle would surrender a 1-0 lead (and 3-0 aggregate advantage) to somehow lose 4-1 on the night and crash out of the UEFA Cup!

With just the league left to fight for, Basel would again show their might in the final quarter of the campaign as they won 8 of their next 9 league outs after the 1-1 Aarau on March 22^nd! Still, FC Zurich were not perturbed in their pursuit of the champions and after Basel were crucially beaten by Young Boys on the penultimate game of the season, just 3 points separated Basel and Zurich ahead of their final day of the season showdown on May 13^th!

The clash at St Jakob park had both sides at 1-1 with stoppage time called upon! Iulian Filipescu would break the hearts of the home fans as his 92^nd minute goal would earn FC Zurich the 2005-06 Swiss Super League title by virtue of a better goal difference!

The notable players that season(s) were:

Julio Hernán Rossi, Papa Malick Ba, Christian Eduardo Giménez, César Carignano, Mladen Petrić, Zdravko Kuzmanović, David Degen, Djamel Mesbah, Ivan Rakitić, Mario Cantaluppi, Scott Chipperfield, Benjamin Huggel, Mile Sterjovski, Sébastien Barberis, Timothée Atouba, Murat Yakin, Patrick Müller, Kléber, Michel Morganella, Daniel Majstorović, Marco Zwyssig, Damir Džombić, Kōji Nakata, Alexandre Quennoz, Pascal Zuberbühler, Thomas Mandl