THE VITALS:

Team: FC Porto

Brand: Nike

Era: 2009-10 (Used for the 2009 Supertaca Candido de Oliveira, the 2009-10 Primeira Liga season, 2010 Taca da Liga Final and 2010 Taca da Portugal Final)

Name/Number: -

CONDITION: VERY GOOD

This classic shirt remains in very good condition, even after passing the 10 year old milestone! As is quite common with the numerous sponsor decal found on Portuguese club shirts; there is unfortunately some cracking and breaking the sponsor on the back and on the sleeve, however, the shirt material, club crest and Nike swoosh are in great standing!

DIMENSIONS:

Size: Medium

Pit to Pit Measurement: 22 inches

Shirt Length: 28.5 inches

Made by Nike in their ‘NikeFit’ range of shirts which they introduced in 2009; unsurprisingly, the dimensions of this shirt suggest that it could also fit a size large.

DESCRIPTION: 

Nike’s 9^th iteration of FC Porto’s home shirt would double up as the successor to the 2006-07 home shirt as the design reprised the 3 thick blocks of blue-white-blue to comprise the main body, while the all-white sleeves also made a comeback; the standout difference however, would be the inclusion of a thick white collar, meanwhile all of the red accents were also neglected. This shirt would be memorably worn as Porto won a 16^th Supertaca Candido de Oliveira title, as well as retaining the Taca da Portugal, they would also reach the final of the Taca da Liga! This would also be the first Porto home shirt worn by modern club legends – Alvaro Pereira and Radamel Falcao, while it was the last to be worn by Bruno Alves after 9 seasons with the club and also Raul Meireles who had just completed his 7^th season!

THE SEASON:

Another fantastic season for FC Porto in 2008-09 saw them wrap up a 4^th consecutive league title and bring home the Taca de Portugal title, and crucially, make huge strides in Europe as they reached the quarter final of the UEFA Champions League; only to be narrowly edged out by Manchester United.

In the close season, Porto would lose 3 of their biggest assets to Ligue 1 as: Aly Cissokho and Lisandro Lopez moved to Lyon, while Lucho Gonzales moved to Marseille. Porto would naturally have a series of adequate replacements on hand to fill in the vacancies left behind as Maicon was brought in from Nacional, Alvaro Pereira joined the Uruguayan contingent at the club, Silvestre Varela and Beto also arrived as did Radamel Falcao who was brought to Europe from River Plate.

Although Falcao would net in his league debut, the champions would be held to a 1-1 draw in their opening game of the title defence against Pacos de Ferreira. While the 2009 portion of the season would yield 9 wins from 15 games; crucial defeats to both Braga and Benfica saw Porto go into 2010 in 3^rd place, and 4 points adrift of both clubs. They would go unbeaten in their first 6 league outs of the new year, but would come unstuck away against Sporting on February 28^th when they were beaten 3-0 by their fierce rivals. Although Porto wouldn’t lose again for the rest of the league season, their was too much ground to make up as they would be resigned to relinquishing the title to Benfica.

‘The Dragoes’ would leave another huge impression on the domestic cup competitions in 2009-10; beginning with a 16^th capture of the Supertaca Candido de Oliveira when they defeated Pacos de Ferreira 2-0 just a week before their league curtain raiser against one another on the 16^th August. There was an appearance in the 2010 Taca de Liga Final on March 21^st, however, they would  be beaten by Benfica in Faro. That disappointment was quickly overcome when Porto retained the Taca de Portugal; defeating Chaves 2-1 in the May 16^th Final at the Estadio Nacional in Jamor!

In the UEFA Champions League; Porto were nothing short of brilliant in the Group Stage as they finished in 2^nd place behind Chelsea, winning home and away against both Atletico Madrid and APOEL; claiming 12 points! Their journey would disappointingly end at the Round of 16 however against Arsenal, when after leading 2-1 from the 1^st Leg, they would be comprehensively beaten 5-0 in the 2^nd Leg in London.

The notable players that season were:

Radamel Falcao, Hulk, Silvestre Varela, Orlando Sa, Ernesto Farias, Cristian Rodriguez, Mariano Gonzalez, Diego Valeri, Fernando Belluschi, Fredy Guarin, Ruben Micael, Tomas Costa, Raul Meireles, Bruno Alves, Milan Stepanov, Jorge Fucile, Rolando, Alvaro Pereira, Maicon, Nuno Andre Coelho, David Addy, Miguel Lopes, Nuno, Beto, Helton