“Look, one of Raúl!”exclaims a young man strolling down Deansgate, by the Barton Arcade. “I prefer the Ramos”he replies on pal (colleague, in casual English). They both point to the ‘Classic Football Shirts’ window display. Shop for lovers of classic football shirts that started rolling in the 80’s and now, a kind of temple for the freaks of football vintage. Mandatory stop for this newspaper when Manchester City-Real Madrid was just around the corner (this report was made before the first leg). Also for those two boys, who soon entered attracted by the decoration.
“Normally we don’t have that many outside”, explained Ted, one of the workers, while pointing to additional rails full of elastics, mostly white. Also some black, yellow or pink, since the second and third kits also have a place. “When teams like Madrid come, we take it all out,” he laughs. Do you notice much the difference between some teams and others? “When Atlético de Madrid came, many fans (and AS) also came, but with Madrid we have decorated the store a little more. There will be about 4,000 madridistas in the city, we hope it goes well for us”.
“Yesterday we saw a factory near the Etihad with your logo, but it seemed abandoned”we told Ted. “Yes, it’s our old store, now we have a new, bigger one in Hyde”, answer back. But how many shirts do you estimate you have? “More than a million”. Normal that between walls and several hangers appeared, without having to search too much, the Madrid shirts of the Seventh, the Eighth, the Ninth… and so on up to 13. Illgner’s goalkeeper clothing, Casillas’s, all truffled with those of City and many other teams: River Plate, an albiceleste with the 10 Maradona on his back, Villarreal, Tottenham or Héctor Bellerín, recent cup champion with Betis but who was one of the cornerstones of Arsenal not so long ago. An gunner He was looking at her with the clear intention of buying her.
From the main window, the one that caught the attention of the two boys from the beginning (the mark left by Raúl is curious, since the young man who was surprised to see his 7 was not of legal age), to the stone mural at the end of the second floor, past a counter flanked by Zidane caps, with a large ‘5’ on top. How do you get the t-shirts? “We have people all over the world and, in addition, we work with buying and selling. Hobbyists come with some jewel that we buy, we prepare it well and we sell it,” Ted tells us.
“I don’t care a bit, I’m from Leicester,” he replies when asked about his wish for Tuesday. Ranieri? “Ufff, unforgettable what he did”. “Me? From Arsenal”, his partner answered us, attentive to the conversation. “We are having a good season, Arteta is doing well,” he adds. “Yes, you can play in the Champions League after so many years,” Ted prods him. “Good luck for the game, if you want to come back, here we are”, they say goodbye. To go out, fans had to haggle, since it is clear that Madrid raises passions. And that those 4,000 (it was 2,000 finally) that Ted was talking about hadn’t set foot in Manchester yet…